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Creating Dynamic Forms with LiveCycle Designer
Part VIII
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Populating a table. In Acrobat you use the Place Multiple Fields command and you
need to copy the total number of fields pertaining to the rows (or columns) you want to
duplicate. For example, if you have 10 rows as in our example, type 10 in the Create
Multiple Copies of Fields dialog box. In Designer, specify the copies while excluding the
selected fields. For example, when you have one row of selected fields, as in our example
form, type 9 for the number of copies in the Copy Multiple dialog box.
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Sizing and Aligning fields. In Acrobat you size and align fields using a context menu
command. In Designer you use the Layout tools in the Layout toolbar or use menu
commands.
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Duplicating fields. In Acrobat you can duplicate fields using the Ctrl (or Option on the
Mac) and click + drag (or use copy/paste keyboard shortcuts) a field or fields to duplicate
them. All the duplicated fields have the same field name. You need to edit the field names
in the Fields panel in Form Editing Mode, choose Rename Field from a menu command
or context menu, or edit the field names in the field Properties window. In Designer,
when you duplicate a field or fields by using either drag, position, Ctrl or copy/paste, the
fields are automatically renamed.
Because of the renaming feature, manually creating tables is a much faster task in Designer than in
Acrobat. The one advantage we believe Acrobat has over Designer is the use of a context menu to
align and size fields. However, this is a minor issue because you can easily undock the Layout tool-
bar and keep it in a handy area for accessing the tools when aligning, sizing, and distributing
fields.
For more information on designing tables in Acrobat, populating tables with fields,
and setting field properties, see Chapter 8.
Designer File Naming Conventions
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n Acrobat we add fields to a form and name the fields with unique field names or we use hierar-
chical names such as item.0, item.1, item.2, and so on. When you duplicate names in Designer,
Designer creates an array of field names such as item[0], item[1], item[2], etc. The names in Designer
are not really unique field names but rather each instance of a field is treated as a unique field unless
the binding for the fields is Global. When the binding is Global, the fields are treated the same way
Acrobat treats the field names. The only difference is that the fields remain as separate instances
unless you instruct Designer to make them different.
When you drag a field from a library palette to a form, Designer treats the fields as truly unique,
much as you would add new field objects in Acrobat. However, if you add fields from a custom
group, like the row fields we use as an example in this chapter, Designer creates an array.