Programming Process
- The Programmer creates form fields in InDesign using the Official Template.
- The Programmer will need these scripts: Release Any Anchor, Destroy All Anchors, Break All Text Threads.
- The Programmer ensures each field has a unique Name and a Description (called a Tooltip in Acrobat and required for accessibility.)
- The Programmer ensures each field uses Arial Regular 10pts, and the option “scrollable” is unchecked. (NEVER use a different font for fields – Arial is supported on both PC and Mac.)
- The Programmer checks the option for “Required” on appropriate fields as needed, and “multiline” where applicable.
- The Programmer anchors completed form fields to relevant text.
- The Programmer finishes the process for finalizing accessible InDesign documents before exporting.
Building Text Fields
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Lines need Rectangle Frames on top of the line to become Text Fields.
Don’t shrink the height of the Text Input field or the text the user types into it will not fit.
Allow a minimum of 0.1875 or 0.25 Space After for all text near the Text Input fields so the leading (line spacing) throughout the form doesn’t look squished.
- Copy and paste a Line shape from the Template onto your form. (The line shape is already artifacted. Lines are used on all forms in case a user decides to print them.)
- Draw an empty rectangle frame and apply the Object Style “Text Input.” (This automatically sizes the frame to 0.25″ height, required for Text Input Fields that use 10 pt Arial Regular.)
- Size and place the rectangle frame directly on top of the line.
- Adjust the width of the rectangle frame as necessary to meet the ends of the line.
- Apply the Button type “Text Field.”
- Enter a unique Name and a clear Description (Tooltip).
- Set the text to Arial Regular 10 pts and mark as “Required” where applicable.
- Leave “Printable” checked.
- Uncheck “Scrollable.”
- Anchor the new button to relevant text.
- Save.
- Copy and paste this Text Field to reuse it for future Text Fields. Remember to change the Name and Description (Tooltip) to reflect the new usages.
Building Signature Lines
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Signature lines need Rectangle Frames on top of the line to become Signature Fields.
- Repurpose a Text Field or draw a new rectangle frame and apply the Object style “Text Input.”
- Apply the field type “Signature Field.”
- Enter a unique Name and a clear Description (Tooltip).
- Mark as “Required” where applicable.
- Save.
Building Multiline Entry Fields
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Boxes become Multiline Entry Text Fields.
Multiline Entry Text Fields allow users to type a paragraph of text that wraps. The option “multiline” must be selected for this to work. Scrollbars can be used, but are generally discouraged as they are not cross-compatible with Adobe Sign, and cause someone reading the form to have to scroll down within the field to see the complete text the user typed into it.
- Click on the box and apply the field type “Text Field.”
- Enter a unique Name and a clear Description (Tooltip).
- Set the text to Arial Regular 10 pts.
- Mark as “Required” where applicable.
- Leave “Printable” checked.
- Uncheck “Scrollable.”
- Check “Multiline.”
- Save.
Building Check Boxes
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Squares become Check Boxes.
Check Boxes are only used for multiple-choice questions. Users can select multiple options. Check Boxes should always be presented as squares to distinguish them from Radio Buttons.
- Click on the square and choose the Button type “Check Box.”
- Leave “Printable” checked and the Button value set to “Yes.”
- Set the Appearance to “[Normal Off].”
- Enter a unique Name and a clear Description (Tooltip).
- Mark as “Required” where applicable.
- Leave “Printable” checked.
- Save.
NOTE:
InDesign’s default checkbox appearance is an orange-on-white check. This check does not display when the form is used in Acrobat. It displays as a black checkmark.
However, if the form is opened in a browser (not recommended by Adobe for multiple reasons), the orange checkmark is visible. This orange value does not meet color contrast ratios, so it is best to correct the checkbox options in Acrobat.
To do so:
- Open the form in Acrobat.
- Choose Prepare Form.
- Click on each checkbox (or hold SHIFT) to select several at once.
- Right click and choose the Option tab.
- Change the Checkbox style to “diamond.”
- Save.
Building Radio Buttons
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Circles become Radio Buttons.
Radio Buttons are only used for questions with mutually exclusive options, meaning other choices “grey out” when one choice is selected. Users cannot select more than one option. Radio Buttons should always be presented as circles to distinguish them from Check Boxes.
- Use the “Release Any Anchor Script” to release each inline circle.
- Select all the circles first and apply the Button type “Radio button.”
- They must all be selected or it doesn’t make the radio button group correctly – the group is what prevents multiple options from being selected.
- Change the Button value from “choice” to whatever the choice is (what the text says on the document.)
- Enter a unique Name and a clear Description (Tooltip).
- Mark as “Required” where applicable.
- Leave “Printable” checked.
- Click on each one individually and set the Appearance to “[Normal Off].”
- Anchor them to relevant text.
- Save.
Building Tables with Form Fields
The steps below assume the Official Template is used, where Paragraph and Object Styles and other presets are already set up.
Tables with form fields can absolutely be accessible, but they need special handling.
Fields used in tables are simply Text Input fields. All tables must be regular tables or they are not accessible, meaning table cells cannot be skipped or merged. Edit the table with the client requesting the work if those issues are present. Tables created in InDesign need remediation in Acrobat to be accessible. See those steps here.
- It is required to the header row when inserting the table in InDesign.
- Type some text into each cell in the table so that there will be text to anchor the Text Field to. To do this, create a Paragraph Style mapped to the export tag P and call it “P Table Hidden” or similar.
- Make the character color of the text something that stands out like magenta to make it obvious that it needs to be changed later.
- Type the text into each cell. (For example, in a table to gather Name and Title, type Name 1, Name 2, Name 3 and Title 1, Title 2, Title 3 in each cell.)
- Build the Text Fields and give them the same Name and Description to match what was typed into the cells. (For example, the Names and Descriptions would be Name 1, Name 2, Name 3…)
- Anchor the Text Fields to the text in each cell.
- Go back into the Paragraph Style and change the character color to No Color.
Anchoring Fields to Text
Text Input and Signature fields must be anchored to text to ensure the text and the field will be placed together in the tags tree in Acrobat.
Other field types placed as inline objects (Multiline Text Entry Fields, Check Boxes, and Radio Buttons) are already anchored because they are inline objects.
You can tell a field is anchored if you see an anchor icon on the field in InDesign. If you see a blue port, it is not anchored.
- Anchor all Text Input Fields to relevant text.
- Click the blue port on the text field and drop the anchor at the start or end of the word.
- Use the script Release Any Anchor to release an anchored field with one click.
- Use the script Destroy All Anchors to release all anchors in the document.