Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

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David12846
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Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:46 am

Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by David12846 »

I've looked for ways to set a Form Field Text Box so it is "scale-able" but no luck.

I've seen other pdf forms with fields that are "scale-able". By scale-able I mean, if a user continues to enter more text than the field can show, all the text in the field starts to shrink proportionately.

I have a document where the visible field is set to 13 characters (Courier New, Regular, 10 point). 13 is the max characters that are usually entered. Occasionally I need to enter up to 19 characters. I have no room to widen the field because another field "next door" takes up the rest of the width of the page. Making the enter-able text font smaller for all the pdfs is not an option, except for the few cases when I need to enter up to 19 characters.

The form is attached. The field I'd like to make scale-able is directly under "Our accession #". Note that there are 21 fields in the column. Except for the tab order, all are identical. If I had to, I could make the 21 fields to the right (the "Description" column) not as wide, but I'd rather not.

I don't know if what I want to do would be a property of OpenOffice Writer or if it is something I could change in my pdf program.

Thanks

David
Attachments
Accession Sheet - Screen - Copy (2).odt
(14.65 KiB) Downloaded 66 times
OOo 4.1.9 on Ms Windows 7
John_Ha
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Re: Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by John_Ha »

Automatic reduction of fonts does not appear to be an available option.

If you set the character limit to 20 the entered text scrolls left and the first characters, while still there, do not display. This could be very confusing and lead to errors.

While I have never used forms examining the options available in Design mode when I right-click > Control ..., reveals many options. Have you checked them all - they seem to allow you a lot of alternatives? For example:

1. Add horizontal scroll bars to the accession field to show if the text needs scrolling.

2. Reduce the width of the Description field and increase the width of the accession field. Make the description field more than one line deep if more than one line is needed. Either increase its depth or add vertical scroll bar.

3. Set the page to landscape so you have more space.

Forms are covered in Chapter 15 - Using Forms in the Writer Manual. Press F1 to access the Help screen and search Help. When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.
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Attachments
Accession Sheet - Screen - larger.pdf
Larger description box
(58.65 KiB) Downloaded 66 times
Accession Sheet - Screen - larger.odt
Larger description box
(15.32 KiB) Downloaded 59 times
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
David12846
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:46 am

Re: Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by David12846 »

John_Ha,

Thank you for the reply.

The only option I might consider is to set the page to landscape mode. The other options are great suggestions for most situations. In my case, I need to print a paper copy that shows all the information that was entered.

As you can tell from the document, it is an acknowledgement form for items donated to our Historical Society. After the page is printed it is sent to the donor who signs it with an ink pen and returns it to us. We then file the signed paperwork into an old fashion file folder.

On the form, the Accession # on the left needs to line up with the Description on the right. I could use vertical scroll bars for both fields. This would eliminate the redundant fields in both columns. But again, all the information entered in the fields needs to be on the printed document.

Most of the time several items are donated to us. In the past I have tried the following two methods but both methods often led to printing extra pages.
  • 1) Made the form with 1 Accession # field and 3 or 4 Description fields the full width of the page under the Accession #. The Accession # field and the 3-4 lines were repeated down the page.
    2) Widened the Accession # fields and reduced the width of the Description fields.
In the future I might try #2 above and set the page to legal size. This would likely eliminate having to print more than one page, but letter size paper is much cheaper than legal size paper (and we ARE a nonprofit organization with a limited budget :( )

David
OOo 4.1.9 on Ms Windows 7
John_Ha
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Re: Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by John_Ha »

Your original form has space for 21 items each described by a single line. You say you cannot afford to reduce this width by six characters so as to give the number 19 characters, so use two lines per item. You can now do exactly what you want and still have room for 10 items per page. If someone gives you more then use two pages. Do many people really give you more than 10 items - if so, use more than one page. Or layout the page so you are not wasting so much vertical height.
On the form, the Accession # on the left needs to line up with the Description on the right
I am not going to spoon feed you and design your form for you - I am giving ideas so I did not bother to do much alignment. Check all the options - you can align things how you want.
Clipboard01.gif
Incidentally you need to give your description fields individual, separate names or you cannot type different text in them.

Showing that a problem has been solved helps others searching so, if your problem is now solved, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
Attachments
Accession Sheet - Screen - larger.odt
(15.53 KiB) Downloaded 65 times
Accession Sheet - Screen - larger.pdf
(54.38 KiB) Downloaded 61 times
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
David12846
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:46 am

Re: Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by David12846 »

Thanks John_Ha.

Rarely do we have a description of less than 3 lines (what it is, what it is made of, dimensions, color, age of item, donor restrictions, etc). Some people give only 1 or 2 items, but often we receive 5 or 6 items. Last week we received 11 photographs and each photo has to be listed individually. If the location or who is in the photo is known that information has to be recorded too (as does the type of photo such as Daguerreotype, Tintype, Albumen, etc).

Apparently text can not "shrink to fit", but I will check out all the options you suggested. No need to design the whole form for me (I've been designing on-screen forms for 30 of the last 37 years at my paying job. Currently that data gets saved to an Oracle database. In the early 1990's, to IBM Filing Assistant).

David
OOo 4.1.9 on Ms Windows 7
John_Ha
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Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Scale-able Text box on fill-able form

Post by John_Ha »

David12846 wrote:Apparently text can not "shrink to fit"
Correct. AOO offers "Expand box size to accept text at the specified font size" instead.

Showing that a problem has been solved helps others searching so, if your problem is now solved, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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