Field Tabbing Order problem - the tab order is always wrong

[M***@adobeforums.com]

What's with the Tab Order anyway. Although the Tab Order list shows all the correctly numbers fields, when I save and use my pdf form the Tab order is not right. This is very frustrating.
I have yet to create a pdf that has the right field TAB ORDER.
Any help?
Thanks.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

I'm having the same problem. Have you figured out a solution?

[O***@adobeforums.com]

You will need to move the tab order the way you need it.

I have learned that if you make changes to the original file and save as a new pdf, open the old pdf file with the correct form fields then go to Document>Replace Pages and then select the new file and it will keep the tab order to same instead of having to change it each time you make a change to the original.

[M***@adobeforums.com]

One thing...I happened to stumble across 2 conflicting instructions. One said, hold shift while clicking the first field to set tab order. This is what I did. The tab order never stuck. The other instructions just said to click on the first field, no shift. Since I've been doing that the tab order seems to work.
However....the tab order process is far from slick or ideal. You can't simply swap 2 fields, you have to re-tab the whole page, all 40 fields (or whatever). It's a pain.
Also, I wanted one of my fields to be exempt from tabbing, in other words not part of the tabbing and not editable. But there is no way to exempt a field from being in the tab order.
Sometimes it blows me away what very expensive programs don't do.

If anyone has any new tips about tabbing, please post.

[O***@adobeforums.com]

What version are you using?

I have 9 Pro, when sorted by tab order, I can select the tabs, click, and drag to the desired location.

If you need one tab to be exempt from tabbing then you should have that field set to read only.

[l***@adobeforums.com]

HELP WITH TAB ORDER....ADOBE, please give me back the old 'advance/form fields/set tab order.... What has Professional 9.0 done.

I understand (the define tabbing order options, by row, column, or by structure, these options are great for newly created documents), however for pdfs that previously exsisted, I have a form with 120 fields on page 1, are you saying with 9.0, to define my tab order, from the left page panel....
Did Adobe think how long/time consuming this would be do scroll through the page panel, to drag/drop?? HELP, any other option?

The page panel drag/drop is great for 10 or so fields, not 100+.

[M***@adobeforums.com]

I'm using Acrobat 8.0.
Thanks for the read-only tip. I searched for this but couldn't find it...but now I have found it. This still doesn't exempt the field from the tab order...it still 'tabs' to the field, but at least you can't edit it which is good. You can still tab to the print and reset buttons however which don't seem to have a non-tab option. I don't want my users to tab to the reset button and hit "enter" but mistake. Could easily happen.
Also, I don't seem to be able to drag the tab numbers anywhere to create a new order, as you suggested...it's still click on every single one to redo the tab order. Very annoying.
thanks for the discussion, much appreciated.

[unknown]

In Acrobat 9 you can reorder the tab order of fields in the navigation panel.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

I too have a problem with tab order. Sure, you can click and drag them into the correct order in the left panel, but at some point between doing that, saving the changes, optimizing the PDF and enabling it... at some point in there Acrobat often decides to rearrange the tab order. Not drastically, but nevertheless it is a problem when the form contains a couple hundred checkboxes, and all the related checkboxes need to stay in the correct tab order.

My Acrobat 9.1 is set to "Order Tabs Manually" in the Tab Order drop-down in the left pane. I do not have it set to show tab numbers, though I have in the past. (It just doesn't seem to be a very useful feature.) I don't see anything in the Preferences that should affect tab order.

I've seen many similar posts in the forum archives that all either have gone unanswered or did not contain any useful information. If anyone knows the trick to reliably preserving the manual tab order, please drop us a clue!

[l***@adobeforums.com]

B Alheit, when you say 'navigation panel', is that same as page panel, if so, that's my trouble, with 100+ fields....its a 'step backwards' that adobe took, the idea of setting the tab order right there in the panel, is great, but not for forms with 100 or so fields, because the panel window is only so long, you have to scroll up/down moving the fields around

[unknown]

I mean the navigation panel 'Fields'.

[j***@gmail.com]

Go to Edit - Preferences - Forms and untick the box that says "Automatically adjust tab order when modifying fields".