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Rhonda
Rhonda

Reputation: 1721

Adobe pdf checkbox automatically selects all options

I hope this is correct forum since it may have to do with programming, otherwise tell me where to post

I am filling out this application, which must be typed. Software is Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Version 15.009.20069.28170

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/downloads/pdf/misc/mgsp_application_2016.pdf

When I select Checkbox, it automatically selects ALL options, i.e.

enter image description here

and

enter image description here

How to fix this? Thank you.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 562

Answers (1)

Max Wyss
Max Wyss

Reputation: 3615

With Reader, you can't do anything on the form. And the software to view it is innocent.

What you can do is contacting the issuer of the form, and let them know that the form is messed up.

I had a look at this form, and it is a disgrace as a fillable form (you may quote me on that… credentials on answers.acrobatusers.com).

Obviously, the creator of the form made a nice layout in InDesign, created a PDF and then let the automatic field recognition run over it. With the checkboxes, it looks as if that person added a checkbox, and then drag-copied (or copy/pasted) it (more likely the latter, because the checkbox fields are not aligned, just slapped over the checkbox symbol in the base document) — and did not adjust their export values.

Obviously, this form has not been tested at all, because if so, this would have been noticed. Also, as an electronic form, it is useless, because of the field naming caused by the automatic field recognition.

…just a "nice" example: for phone numbers, the area code is visually separated from the number, and appears between parentheses. That lead to two fields. The field for the area code is named "Phone", the field for the number is named "undefined 1".

Rant mode off…

If you have Acrobat at hand, you can open the form, go to the Prepare Form tool, and change the export values of the checkboxes.

Upvotes: 2

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