Setting Form Field Properties Programatically

Setting form field properties using JavaScript can automate the process

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

If you will be setting form field properties while creating and positioning a form field programatically using the addField method you should first define a variable for the field by running the following script in the console like this:

var f = this.addField("MyField", "text", 0 , [0, 18, 72, 0]);

Now you can use f instead of typing this.getField("MyField") for each field property you are going to set:

f.alignment="center"; //sets the field alignment to center
f.fillColor=color.yellow; //sets the fill color of the field to yellow
f.textColor=color.blue; //sets the text color of the field to blue
f.textFont="Times-Bold"; //sets the font of the field to Times Bold

The JavaScript property settings are not always intuitive. For example, the font Helvetica Bold-Oblique as shown in the Font dropdown of the field properties in the image below cannot be set by copying that font description into the script.

The script is as follows:

f.textFont="Helvetica-BoldOblique";

Notice the difference in spacing and hyphen placement? To set the font to "Times Bold" as displayed in the field properties dropdown, you would use the following script in the console as outlined above:

f.textFont="Times-Bold"; 

Setting Colors

In the example above, colors were set to blue and yellow using color.blue and color.yellow. This method can be used for the following colors:

• blue

• yellow

• red

• green

• cyan

• black

• white

• transparent

How Do You Know The Correct Property Settings?

The easiest way to determine the correct property settings is to the set the property manually using the Acrobat User Interface, and then read the field property with a script like this:

this.getField("MyField").textFont;

When the script above is run from the console it will return the correct string to set that particular font with a script. Then you read the fill colors of fields with colors listed above, the script will not return color.blue, color.red, etc. It will instead return an array of the color model and numbers for that color model:

//With a field in which the fill color was set to color.red
this.getField("MyField").fillColor;
//returns RGB, 1, 0, 0

//With a field in which the fill color was set to color.blue
this.getField("MyField").fillColor;
//returns RGB, 0, 0, 1

//With a field in which the fill color was set to color.cyan
this.getField("MyField").fillColor;
//returns CMYK,1,0,0,0

//With a field in which the fill color was set to color.white
this.getField("MyField").fillColor;
//returns G, 1

//With a field in which the fill color was set to color.black
this.getField("MyField").fillColor;
//returns G, 0

Instead of color.red, color.blue, etc. to set the fill colors, you can also set them with the arrays like this (in order from the code block above):

• f.fillColor=["RGB", 1, 0, 0];

• f.fillColor=["RGB", 0, 0, 1];

• f.fillColor=["CMYK",1,0,0,0];

• f.fillColor=["G", 1];

• f.fillColor=["G", 0];

The "G" stands for Grey. Greys are all mixtures of black and white. The number after the G is how much white there is. 1 is all white. 0 is zero white, so it’s black. You can get any shade of grey by making the number a fraction of 1 like this:

• f.fillColor=["G", 0.5];

• f.fillColor=["G", 0.75];

Any Color From The Color Object

In fact, you can set the fill color, or the text color, or the border color of a field to any color in the color object by using the color picker to manually set the color, then reading the color with a script.

PDF Form Field Color Picker

When the fill color is set to the color as shown above, reading the fill color of the field with a script returns: RGB,0.835296630859375,0.560791015625,0.1999969482421875

Almost Any Field Property

It’s not just the alignment, fill color, text color, and font properties that can be set with a script when creating a field, but almost any field property can be set. The trick is to find the JavaScript call for the particular property. If you search "field properties" in the Acrobat JavaScript reference guide you can find the entire list.

Not every field property can be read by running a script in the console. Formats, keystroke scripts, and mouse actions can be set using the setAction method but these properties can’t be read with a script.

In Using JavaScript To Add JavaScript to a PDF Part 2 I describe in detail how to obtain scripts to set these field properties.

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