Creating
forms in Acrobat can be a taxing process. The recognition software may
create fields on one line but not the next. You may get a radio button
where you wanted a checkbox. Seemingly simple tasks that should take
minutes can take hours to correct and fine tune. In this tutorial, you
will learn how to design a clean, working form to minimize your workflow
headaches.
The first rule of
thumb is to keep your design uncluttered. The OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) software that Acrobat uses to convert your design into a
working form can only see clear, legible type and high-contrasting
elements. The best way to ensure that your design is readable is to
stick to a white background with black type for any info that needs to
be converted. Avoid fancy graphical elements in the background. Also
make sure elements are separated and there is no overlapping text, which
can cause form fields to fuse together and do other funky things that
can add hours to your work.
We’ll go through creating a simple
form, but by no means does your design have to look exactly like this to
get a form that works. Just follow the instructions on spacing and how
to place form fields and otherwise do your own thing with it.
Final Image Preview
Tutorial Details
- Program: Adobe InDesign & Acrobat CS5
- Difficulty:Intermediate
- Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour
Step 1
First
create a new document in InDesign. Set up a file that is 4.25 in x 8.5
in. The form I am creating doubles as a printed mailer, so I am adding a
standard bleed of 0.125 in.
Step 2
Now
to typeset the form. Acrobat recognizes clear, legible text, so try to
use a clean, legible typeface (such as Helvetica or another easy-to-read
font) for the text that will precede the fields. The reason for this is
so Acrobat can name the form elements accurately without getting
confused. If your document has a headline or title, you can use a
fancier font there, though.
Step 3
You
want to be able to see where every tab and space is in the document so
make sure you can see all hidden characters. To do this in InDesign,
select Type > Show Hidden Characters.
Step 4
To
add an easily editable underline to your form fields, select the space
directly after the name of the field and insert a tab (Tab). Open the
Tabs palette by selecting Type > Tabs. Select a Right-Justified Tab
(the arrow pointing to the right and down) and click on the ruler in the
Tabs palette to insert the tab. Now drag the tab all the way to the
right margin and it should snap in place.
Highlight the Tab and
open the Underline Options, which is accessed by clicking the icon in
the upper right corner of the Character palette. Click the "Underline
On" checkbox and set the underline weight to 0.5 pt. If the stroke is
too thin, Acrobat won’t recognize it as a text field.
Step 5
Add
tabs to each field requiring underlines, then use the Eyedropper Tool
(I) to apply it to the other fields by highlighting them.
Step 6
Not
all fields need to take up the entire line, such as the phone number or
zip/mailing code fields, and you’ll want to fit two fields on a single
line. Do this by deleting the paragraph return on the first line and
opening the Tabs palette again (Type > Tabs). Insert an additional
tab by clicking the ruler and dragging it to the desired location.
Step 7
Now
those fields are too cramped together! This will be problematic on the
printed form when someone tries to fill it out by hand. I typically give
it about 1⁄8 inch of headroom just to be sure. Place the cursor in the
line you’re adjusting. You’ll then change the Space Before setting in
the Paragraph palette to 0.125 in. Make sure all text fields have the
same Space Before setting. I set the paragraphs without text fields to
0.625 in.
Step 8
Next,
set up a basic table by selecting the Type Tool (T), insert the cursor
where the table will be placed, and then select Table > Insert Table.
Choose the number of rows and columns you’ll need. For this form, I
used six columns and seven rows, with one header row.
Step 9
Now
to format the table. I want the header row to be a similar orange color
to maintain consistency with my color scheme. Highlight the header row
by hovering over the left edge of the row with the Type Tool (T) until a
black arrow appears, then click it. Change the Fill Color in the
Swatches palette.
Step 10
The
best way to get fillable text boxes to be recognized by the OCR is to
leave a blank white box surrounded by a black line. Highlight the body
rows of the table and change the stroke weight to 0.5pt to match the
weight of the text field underlines.
Step 11
To
make the table look less boxy, remove the stroke on the exterior of the
table by highlighting the left column, then selecting only the left
exterior stroke in the Property Inspector (pictured below) and setting
Stroke Width to zero. Do the same to the right column to remove the
opposite side. I also removed the black stroke around the header and
changed the interior strokes to white.
Step 12
Merge the body cells in the left column by highlighting them and selecting Table > Merge Cells.
Step 13
Insert your text into the table. Drag the edges of the cells so that they fit the text.
Step 14
Now
to add checkboxes. The OCR will generally recognize any small, empty
square with a black stroke around it as a checkbox. Conversely, any
circle with a black stroke will be recognized as a radio button. (The
difference is that you can select multiple checkboxes but only one radio
button.) The symbol font Wingdings has a black square and a black
circle glyph that will work pretty well, but you will probably have to
bump them up a few point sizes to match the height of the typeface
you’re working with. Access the glyph you’re looking for under Type >
Glyphs and select Wingdings.
Step 15
After
adding few more graphical elements such as credit card logos and an
orange accent at the bottom of the page, we are finished with the
design! Time to turn this thing into a working form.
Select File > Export and choose to export as PDF (Print).
Step 16
Open the exported PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
Now Select Forms > Start Form Wizard and choose "Use the current
document or browse to a PDF file," then "Use the current document."
Acrobat will instantly fill in the blank underlines and table cells with
text fields and the checkboxes will become checkable.
Step 17
We’re
not done yet! Acrobat has some difficulty parsing every field, so let’s
check over them to make sure they’re correct. A quick method to ensure
uniform formatting is to select all of the form fields at once and
change them at the same time. Click-drag the mouse over all of the form
fields (not the checkboxes or signature) and select stragglers with
Command-click. Next, right click on one of the highlighted fields and
select Properties.
In the Appearance menu, set the font to
Helvetica and the font size to 8. If the font size is left on the
default setting of Auto, the text will resize according to the size of
the text field and can look pretty ugly.
Step 18
Switch
to the Options menu. In some rare cases, Acrobat will set a character
limit on a field. Uncheck the boxes next to "Limit of _ characters" and
"Comb of _ characters" to avoid broken fields. Also turn off "Scroll
long text" which limits the length of the text entered to the text
field’s length, so the user can’t type a novel into your form.
Step 19
Acrobat
tends to position the fields a little high above the baseline, causing
further ugliness when entering text. To correct this, reselect the
fields you want to lower and nudge them down with the arrow keys. The
best way to test where the entered text will sit is by selecting Preview
in the upper left hand corner of the window and typing some sample
text.
Step 20
If
you notice, the OCR didn’t fill in every blank in the table. This is
common, and luckily it’s an easy fix. Click Add New Field in the upper
left hand corner of the window and choose Text Box.
Now place and
resize the field using the bounding box around the field. If you need a
little help aligning the box with the other fields, turn on Rulers
(Command + R) and drag a guide out from the ruler. Remove unwanted
fields by selecting the field offender and hitting delete.
Step 21
You
can also set up a digital signature on the form if necessary. In this
case, the OCR read the word signature and set it up automatically. If
you need to set up additional signature fields, Select Add New Field
> Signature.
Step 22
The
Notes field will be an issue. Notice that it is split into two separate
fields, but we want it to wrap to the next line. Acrobat is not a word
processor, so there is absolutely no way to adjust leading (line
spacing,) so the underlines can’t be lined up with the text, so we will
remove the lines to make way for a multiline text field.
To remove
the lines without going back into InDesign, click on Close Form Editing
in the upper right corner of the window and go to Tools > Advanced
Editing > TouchUp Object Tool. Now select each unwanted underline and
hit Delete.
Back in Form Editing mode, delete the old text fields
and create a new one big enough to accommodate two lines of text. Open
the Properties of the text field and go to Appearance and check
"Multiline". This allows the text to wrap to the next line.
Step 23
Once
your form is clean and ready to send out, Click Close Form Editing,
save your work, then select Advanced > Extend Privileges in Adobe
Reader. If you skip this step, the user won’t be able to save entered
text and it becomes a read-only file.
Tip:
Make sure you are finished editing the form: once you extend
privileges, the file is locked and you won’t be able to alter the design
of the form. Make a backup with a different name, like
"form_editable.pdf" or something like that.
Conclusion
Forms
can be a hassle, but with practice, you can produce clean,
easy-to-navigate PDFs with a few simple tweaks. Even if you have already
worked with fillable forms, hopefully this tutorial has given you some
suggestions to make the process a little easier. If you have any tips we
didn’t go over today, let us hear them in the comments.
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