Lori DeFurio

December 10, 2005

Controlling formatting in a text field

Question: I want to be able to have multiple fonts in a single field. Is this possible?
Answer: Yes, of course. When you create a text field you indicate it can contain Rich Text.

Fields created with Acrobat: Create a Text Field. In the Text Field Properties dialog box, select "Allow Rich Text Formatting" from the Options tab.

Fields created with LiveCycle Designer: Create a Text Field Object. In the Object palette, uncheck "Allow Plain Text Only" in the Field Tab, and select Data Format - XHTML in the Binding Tab.

Once you've enabled this, your form field can contain a variety of formatting options, which are controlled by the Properties Bar in Acrobat/Reader.

Adding parameters while linking to a PDF

As Mike Potter mentioned in his blog of November 24, parameters are available that you can add to a weblink to a PDF to pass Acrobat/Reader additional instructions. For example, if you have a multi-page PDF and you would like to have your user go directly to page 34 when the PDF is launched the URL could be http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf#page=34. Another example allows you to add search words to the URL:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pub/p15.pdf#search="bracket" will launch the search window in Acrobat/Reader and highlight all instances of the word bracket in the document.

For a description of all possible parameters, please see the Acrobat documentation.

Trusting weblinks in Acrobat/Reader 7.0.5

If you have upgraded to Acrobat or Adobe Reader 7.0.5 you may have noticed if you 'surf' to a web address from within a PDF you will see a dialog box which requires you to select "Block" or "Allow". I've been asked where this information is stored, and how can I manage the list.

Select Edit > Preferences > Trust Manager. Under the section Resource Access, select Change Site Settings. In the Managed Sites dialog box you can review and update current settings.