On our intranet in our organization, our internal users are provided with form-fillable pdf's that they can open in Adobe Reader X (v 10.0.1) and fill out on their office computers. Some, but not all, of our users are experiencing this issue with this internally developed forms: After a while, you cannot "tab" from one input data field in the pdf to the next any more. If they want to advance to the next field on the pdf form, they have to move the mouse pointer to the next field on the screen and click on it, instead of hitting the tab key. What makes this problem even more curious is that it is 'user profile' specific. If you log onto the computer as a different user, the same form will allow that user to use the tab key to advance from one input field on the form to the next.
Right now, the only fix is to generate a new user profile on the local machine for the user that is having this problem. Of course, this is very cumbersome as a lot of reconfiguration for other applications and preferences has to happen when we do this. So, my question is: What would be causing the tab function to work in some user profiles on a computer and not others.
We are mostly a Windows XP Professional (SP 3) shop. Any hints at all would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Tab order in pdf's stops working for some users
2011-04-07 06:32:53
My Product Information:
Reader 10.0.1, Windows
Reader 10.0.1, Windows
2011-04-07 11:51:46
#2
Thanks for the response! I went to the author of the forms and was advised that her staff used the Adobe Acrobat X Standard software to create the forms, which are all static.
As for 'packaging', do you mean using an installation package as opposed to having the users download the Reader X individually from the website? We do use installation package provided by Adobe to distribute the Reader X to those users that require it, so we use the same process for all of our pdf forms users, which is almost all of them.
Our users are placed in the local PC's 'Administrator' group so that they can install software as needed.
As for 'packaging', do you mean using an installation package as opposed to having the users download the Reader X individually from the website? We do use installation package provided by Adobe to distribute the Reader X to those users that require it, so we use the same process for all of our pdf forms users, which is almost all of them.
Our users are placed in the local PC's 'Administrator' group so that they can install software as needed.
2011-04-07 12:12:05
#3
Do you ever experience the problem again after creating a new user profile? If not, have you reviewed the steps for Customizing the Reader X install to see if the problem might have been introduced there?
2011-04-08 06:06:52
#4
So far, the users have not experienced the problem again after we create a new profile for them, but this was just reported to us last week for the first time since we rolled out the Reader X to our users back in January. So at this point I would say its too early to tell. However, we have at least one more user that just noticed that he cannot tab through a form. Are you suggesting then that instead of the installation package from Adobe, we uninstall the Reader X and then download/install the Reader directly from the Adobe website?
2011-04-08 06:41:54
#5
If I understand you correctly, you use the Customization Wizard to package your Reader X installation. If so, I would take a look at that installation process to see if some step in there is causing potential Windows profile issues.
2011-04-12 07:27:18
#6
Actually I do not know exactly what was used to package the Reader X installation in our organization. That was done by another group in the I.T. staff here. I may or may not be able to find out exactly what was done or how the installer was configured. But just for grins, I tried uninstalling the Reader X from a affected user's PC and reinstalled it directly from the website without any customization at all, and unfortunately the problem reappeared for that user. So it appears that I will be left with recreating the user's profile on his/her local machine whenever this happens. Anyway, I see this is not a common problem with the Reader 10.0.1 and/or there is something wrong with the way that the tab order is set up in our pdf forms. I cannot find this issue mentioned in any other thread.
2011-04-13 11:52:31
#7
I just came across the following technical document and I thought you would find it useful for your issue. It details how to Troubleshoot unexpected behavior | User account-specific.
2011-04-13 12:50:14
#8
Thanks! Actually, I tried several of the tasks listed in the document, including deleting the registry key for Adobe and the Adobe folders in the local user's Local Settings and Applications folders. I did not try the disk cleanup, however.
2011-08-10 17:22:13
#9
This tutorial may provide a solution to the Tab order problem.
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/533/cpsid_53343.html
This link will take you to an open sourced demo that you can copy and paste the JavaScripts for the tabs.
http://www.box.net/shared/gcd0irh7ad81dfby9skg
This link is good for 90 days from 8/10/2011
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/533/cpsid_53343.html
This link will take you to an open sourced demo that you can copy and paste the JavaScripts for the tabs.
http://www.box.net/shared/gcd0irh7ad81dfby9skg
This link is good for 90 days from 8/10/2011
Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.