Form field focus in XChange Viewer

[steltek]

I have some complicated fillable Acrobat forms that I created to use at work. I'd like to be able to use an XChange product to fill them out, but have a slight problem with how it maintains form field focus. I'm hoping there is a simple solution or that I'm just missing something here.

The forms I use are complex and often require the user to be able to use ALT-TAB jump back and forth between multiple applications to get various data, then ALT-TAB back to key the data.

If you select a form field on one of these forms for completion in Acrobat/Acrobat Reader, when you ALT-TAB to switch applications and then ALT-TAB back, the form field focus remains with the selected field (plus any data keyed before the ALT-TAB action remains in the form field and cursor position is maintained). In XChange Viewer, if you select a form field and ALT-TAB to another application and then ALT-TAB back to XChange Viewer, XChange Viewer totally deselects the previously selected form field. You have to actually use the mouse to re-select the form field or tab back down to the field, which makes it almost impossible to efficiently complete the forms we use.

Is there a setting somewhere that will cause XChange Viewer to maintain the selected field , data, and cursor position through an ALT-TAB application change? This issue is the only thing preventing me from purchasing a copy or two of PDF XChange Pro for use at work as I otherwise despise Adobe Acrobat and would dump it in a second if I could.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello steltek,

I am not aware of any particular setting that could affect this behaviour, but can you please tell us the build number of the Viewer you are using (as if it's not the latest thish could have changed between builds), and if the forms do not contains some sensitive/confidential information attach one of them here so we could test ourselves.

The current latest build is 2.5.189 and you can check yours in Help -> About in the Viewer.

Regards,
Stefan

[Giraffe]

It's not only form fields - Typewriter is the same. Going to another app. to look at or copy text, for instance, means having to double-click on the typing box to get back in. Going from typing this to PDF-X and back, or going to another tab in Opera and typing in a reply field there, doesn't lose the focus.

I had noticed the loss of focus in PDF-X but hadn't got round to commenting on it until seeing this thread.

[steltek]

Just to be sure it wasn't the build I was using, I just downloaded the current build of XChange Viewer (both the installable version and portable ZIP version) from your website. They read as being v2.5 build 189.0 dated December 6th, and both versions exhibit this same behaviour with my forms.

Basically, it appears that when ALT-TAB is hit, the contents of the form field currently being edited are saved by Viewer and the focus is then reset to the beginning of the tab order before the first form field on that particular page of the PDF (with no focus rectangle being displayed). After you ALT-TAB back, you then either have to re-select the proper form field to continue editing via mouse, or you can continuously hit the TAB key without using the mouse and tab through the fields (beginning with the first field in the tab order on that page) in the established field tab order to get back to the field you were editing. It is very awkward to have to do this, obviously. The preferred method would be to have the application remain in the form field being edited with the cursor at the end of the field (and the contents of the field NOT being selected) so that editing can continue.

Also, the behaviour differs somewhat on how the focus resets depending upon whether the document is in single page layout mode or continuous page layout mode. In single page layout mode, it resets the focus to the top of the current displayed document page at the beginning of the tab order. If you are in continuous page layout mode, however, it resets back to the beginning of the tab order on the first page with a form field. I have also noticed that, in continous page layout mode, if you have a page with no form fields in the middle of the document, instead of resetting the focus to the first page in the document with form fields it instead resets the focus to the beginning of the tab order on the first page with form fields in the document which appears after the page with no form fields on it at all. Curious.


EDIT: I've added a test form so you can see what I am talking about. The form isn't sensitive, as it is built using some standard government forms with form fields added.

[Giraffe]

Couple of things:

Alt-Tab is used to change between open apps. (in Windows at least); Tab and Shift-Tab are used to move forward and backward in fields.

As I tab through the form fields, the whole form jumps a bit.

If the cursor is in a field, simply placing the mouse over the Task Bar causes the form to jump and lose focus, the cursor no longer being in the field.

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for your test file steltek, we'll investigate this and get back to you on it shortly.

Best,

Chris

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi, all.

We will fix the issue with focus and <ALT>+<TAB> shortcut. Please wait for next build (upcoming).
Thanks for your help.

Best
Regards.

[steltek]

Hi, all.

We will fix the issue with focus and <ALT>+<TAB> shortcut. Please wait for next build (upcoming).
Thanks for your help.

Best
Regards.

I tried the new build posted today, and it seems to resolve the focus/ALT-TAB issues. I need to do some testing tomorrow with my actual forms to be sure, but it does look like you have this particular problem fixed.

Honestly, I certainly was not expecting you to be able to do something about it this fast. If only all software companies would respond like this!

Thanks!

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Glad we could surprise you this way steltek!

Some of the problems we fix are really fast to correct, and it just so happened that you reported yours just a few hours before the scedulled release of build 190 It usually takes a couple to four weeks for a new build, so even minor bugs could take that long to be fixed.

Cheers,
Stefan