Interactive Form Fields not highlighting

[StratosSpawn]

Hello, I am currently viewing a PDF document that has interactive form fields that need to be used in the file, but for some reason they do not seem to highlight, even after I have clicked the "Highlight Fields" button on the green bar that recognizes that the document contains interactive form fields.

I have even ensured that when viewing the drop down menu for the "Highlight Fields" button, "All Fields" is selected, along with all other options listed in the drop down menu. Is there something else that I am missing to be able to view these fields?

I am not the creator of this document, but simply an end user to have to utilize the document, and very much dislike Adobe for reading/editing documents.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi, StratosSpawn

Can we see the document in question perhaps?

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi all,

Make sure to NOT having marked the last option in the drop-down menu : "Only Required Fields".

Kind regards.
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PDF-XChange Editor - Highlight Fields.png

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ADDENDUM
@PDF-XChange Support
It seems like changes (mark/unmark) made via the drop-down menu are NOT remembered for the next time when PDF-XChange Editor has been restarted. Only changes made via File > Preferences > Forms are. Is that intended ?
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PDF-XChange Editor - Preferences - Highlight Fields.png

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi Willy,

Thanks for the feedback - I'll mention it to the team.

Kind regards,

[StratosSpawn]

I've attached a screenshot of one of the pages that has interactive fields. I've selected one of the fields to show that it is a check box, and the rest of the lines on that particular page have check boxes as well. I did ensure that I had the "Only Required Fields" off, so that shouldn't be the issue - my drop down menu looks just like the one that Willy Van Nuffel included in his post.

There are other pages in the document where I believe that the interactive fields are text boxes, as we are able to enter alphanumeric characters in those fields, but they also do not highlight.

Update: I'll have to try and attach the file or embed the image when I'm not on my work computer. They have very strict file uploading and website access restrictions that are preventing me from doing it from work.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Thanks for the feedback.

You can verify if it really goes about form-fields by activating the "Properties Pane" (via the View-ribbon > Panes).

Then, select one of the fields.

Now, verify the title in the Properties Pane. You should either see "Text Field Properties" (in case of a text "form" field) or "Text Box Properties" (in case of a text "comment" field).

If you could add a (sample) PDF where you have the problem with, that would be helpful.

@PDF-XChange Support : thanks for transferring the issue with the Highlight Fields drop-down menu to the Development team.

Kind regards.

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Thanks Willy,

The devs have cofirmed this issue and it will be fixed in an upcoming build.

Kind regards,

[StratosSpawn]

I'm not sure if I've done the BBCode correctly for posting the image, but we'll see if it works. My apologies if I end up messing something up and then have to try it as an attachment. Unfortunately due to the document being a confidential work document, I don't think I can share the full file, but just this screensnip. I should also mention (I think I did previously) that all of the separate lines on this page all of check box fields in front of the sentence.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/u9L3Bft.png[/img]

Interactive Form Fields Issue.png

[StratosSpawn]

I just tried viewing the Fields from the Panes window, and then selected the properties for one of the fields. When I'm on the page that I just posted the image of in my previous post, I see the following as in the attachment:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/X3aDrvW.png[/img]

Interactive Form Fields Properties.png

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi StratosSpawn,

Could you possibly redact the sensitive information from the document, or extract a single page of the document that contains the issue, and attach it here so that we can take a look?

Kind regards,

[StratosSpawn]

I'd be willing to try that, but I'm not quite certain how to go about doing that. If you may happen to have some tips or suggestions on how to either redact the information or just extract a single page and then redact it, that would be helpful!

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, StratosSpawn

If extracting the page is possible, that would be the best option - simply open the "thumbnails" pane, and drag/drop the page you want to extract directly to your desktop:

PDFXEdit_ykfsvPfGHv.gif

If you do need to omit some information from the page, the "mark for redaction" tool is located on the Protect tab:

image.png

When using this, do ensure that the "blocks" you draw do not overlap all of the fields we will be investigating, as it will entirely remove them when applied with the "apply all" button.

image(1).png

(then save the file, and attach that copy of it here)

Kind regards,

[StratosSpawn]

Ok, now this throws a wrench into the works. I followed the instructions to separate out a page and then redacted the spots I needed to without covering anything for the form fields. When I opened the individual page after saving the redactions, I decided to try the highlight fields button and it works just fine on the individual page!!

I'm not sure what exactly occurred in the process to allow the fields to actually highlight. I'm going to see if I try and redact something in the full original file (I'll save a copy first) and see if that resolved it. If not, I may have to redact a bunch of stuff on the 21 page document to possibly upload the whole file.

[StratosSpawn]

Ok, now I'm completely stumped!! I was just getting ready to try the redaction on the original file but out of curiosity decided to click the Highlight Fields button and it worked as it should!
I didn't do anything to the original file that I was having issues with, but I believe that my work laptop did an automatic update and restart overnight, so perhaps this resolved it?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, StratosSpawn

In any case, I am glad to hear that it is working as expected now!

Kind regards,