How to test a fillable PDF form with Acrobat X or Acrobat XI

How to test a fillable PDF form with Acrobat X or Acrobat XI

Donna Baker – March 26, 2012

There are lots of items to check in your form before it’s ready to send.Type text in your fields to see how it looks. The first thing to fix is the oversized text in these fields. Click Tools to open the Tools pane, then click Edit in the Forms tools to activate the Form Edit mode.

To fix the text in both fields at once, click the first field, press SHIFT and click to select the second field, right click over either field, and click Properties from the shortcut menu. Make changes on the Appearance tab in the Text Field Properties dialog box and click Close.

Now click Preview, and you see the text matches the other fields.

Check out custom text features next. The dates use a specific format. Click the Order Date field to see the actual text typed into the field. Click to check the other date field, and you'll see the original text.

Now let’s start checking out the Tab order. The upper fields tab top to bottom in each column. Press TAB to move through the fields. The lower table tabs left to right, top to bottom. Press TAB to move through the fields.

Next, check the calculations in the form. Each row has one calculation: Order Quantity - Ship Quantity = Backorder Quantity. The first two are correct, but 14 - 8 is not equal to 14! Click Edit to track down the problem.

Double-click the BackorderC field to open the Properties dialog box, and click the Calculate tab. Here’s the problem! The notation uses the wrong field. Click Edit to correct the text in the JavaScript Editor, then click OK. Now the calculation will work. Click Close. Click Preview to check it out: 14 - 3 = 11—the calculation is correct.

Finally, let’s test the buttons. To delete the entries in the top fields, click Clear Customer Info. The fields are blank. To delete the entries in the table, click Clear Order Info. The form is cleared, and ready to go. Click Save.