Form Field fonts defaulting to wrong font after FormMaker upgrade.

ccorrales

I've recently had an issue with FormMaker and fonts when creating an interactive PDF. Form fields in the PDF default to Verdana when InDesign and FormMaker are set to Helvetica Regular in both the Buttons and Forms panel and FormMaker Appearance tab.

I have templates with premade form fields. These fields worked correctly with the previous version of FormMaker 4.0 Pro. However I upgraded when that version had server connection issues. This issue only affects fields and files created with the previous FormMaker version, previous files that worked correctly with version 4.0 default to Verdana when outputting the PDF using 4.0.10. When I create a new field from scratch it correctly uses Helvetica Regular after running the FormMaker extension in Acrobat.

I do have a workaround. I set FormMaker to Helvetica (core PDF font), which causes the Buttons and Forms panel to show Arial Regular. The fields will now correctly show Helvetica in the interactive form. I do not need to set the Buttons and Forms font, just the FormMaker font. This does require each form field to be selected and is time consuming. I can also bulk select the fields in Acrobat and change the the font to Helvetica regular.

Current software
FormMaker: 4.0.10 Pro
Indesign: 18.1
Acrobat: 2024.002.20964

Please let me know if you have ant questions.

Thanks

Ariel

Hi,
Unfortunately, FormMaker 4.0.10 is not fully backwards-compatible with previous versions, because a lot of changes and improvements were made. So you should keep your eye open for any oddities. (And if you find any, use the "Purge selected fields" button under the Document tab.)
Regarding the font... How have you created the text fields in InDesign? If you've used text frames (rather than rectangles) and paragraph styles, I think that changing the font in the paragraph style to something else, running FormMaker export, and then changing it back to Helvetica in the paragraph style properties should work to reset all the fields to Helvetica.
If you have not used paragraph styles, it should still be possible to do a find/change for all text, change it to some other font, export the PDF from FormMaker, and then find/change all text back to Helvetica.
I think either of those options should work.
However, if you've used rectangles (I mean, graphic rectangles rather than real text frames) in InDesign, these options are not applicable.
Let me know how it goes.

ccorrales

Hi Ariel,
Neither of the work arounds apply as paragraph styles are not used, we assign the font through the Buttons and Forms panel, or the FormMaker dialog. There is no text to find and replace in the form fields. FormMaker is ignoring the assigned font from the previous version when creating an interactive PDF. The FormMaker dialog in InDesign shows the correct font, but when the extension is run in Acrobat, it doesn't assign the correct font to the form fields. The Acrobat properties dialog shows Verdana before and after the FormMaker extension is run.

If I change the font assigned to a form field in the FormMaker dialog from Helvetica Regular to Helvetica Oblique then back to Helvetica Regular, then create an interactive PDF, the correct font is assigned to the field after running the FM extension in Acrobat. I would describe it as version 4.0.10 not seeing the font assigned in version 4.0.

I hope that all makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks

Ariel

Hi @ccorrales,
I think your summary is probably correct: 4.0.10 is not seeing the font assigned in version 4.0 (actually, I think the previous version would have been 3.5?).
Is there a specific reason you're not using text frames for the form fields? This really would make it very easy to switch all the fonts and get everything to work in a few clicks...

ccorrales

Hi Ariel, my apologies I didn't see your last reply. (Busy season here.) We do use text frames for the form fields, however, they are anchored to their label text. This only allows me to select one form field at a time.

I've tried purge data, both from selected fields and from entire documents, no affect. I've also assigned a paragraph style through object styles, no affect. And assigning a paragraph style to the field itself, also no affect.

We're using an Acrobat script to change the fonts after output for the affected forms.

Thanks for your suggestions, we really appreciate FormMaker. We have forms with multiple radio buttons that need java scripts, and being able to add them in InDesign and have the data travel with the document is a huge time saver versus adding the scripts in Acrobat..

Ariel

Hi @ccorrales,
What I mean about text frames is that the text in them can have paragraph styles, and I think that if you change the font in the paragraph style, the change will "stick".
However, if you could send me the InDesign file (or part of it) to play around with, I'll be happy to try and test this myself. If I see that nothing really works, I'll see if I can write a script that will make the document compatible with the latest FormMaker version (no promises though!)