Acrobat Time Saving Tip – Setting Tab Order
Acrobat PDF files are pretty much the standard for sharing online documents.
There are free pdf converters that will allow you to “print” from any program to a pdf file; however, I have long been a fan of using the original Adobe Acrobat Professional.
One of the handiest uses of Acrobat Professional is the ability to create forms that users can fill out, print, email back to you, and even submit to a database.
I have recently created application forms, estimate worksheets, and interactive postcards for clients using Adobe Acrobat Professional and the Livecycle Designer that ships with Acrobat.
Creating forms used to be tedious with early versions of Acrobat Professional . However, since version 7.0 and the debut of Livecycle Designer as a companion program, creating editable forms has been a snap.
Rather than drawing each individual form field, Livecycle will automatically detect most, if not all of your form fields.
Make the form convenient for the end user by setting the tab order of the form.
Setting Form Field Tab Order
In Adobe LiveCycle, go to “View” => “Tab Order”
Boxed numbers will appear on each form field displaying the current tab order.
Shift Click on the field that you would like to be first in the tab order, then click on each field in the desired tab order.
That’s it. Click save and you’re done!
October 29th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Thanks for sharing the time saving tips. I teach Adobe Acrobat
and am also a big fan of using Professional. So many more great features then the original version.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
This is a great way to save time when using Acrobat. Any way I can save time is a good thing.