Edit an entry field

Change the properties of an entry field in the Element Properties window in the bottom right corner of the main window. The window is shown only when View → Element Properties is selected.

Element

Property	Description
Type	Entry field.
ID	A unique identifier of the element.

Position and size

Property	Description
Left	Sets the distance between the left edge of the form and the element.
Top	Sets the distance between the top edge of the form and the element.
Width	Sets the width of the entry field.
Height	Sets the height of the entry field.

To change the number of lines or the cell height, use the Marking tab. You can add multiple lines only if Multiple rows is selected.

Alignment

Property	Description
Horizontal	Aligns the text horizontally: Center, Left, or Right.
Vertical	Aligns the text vertically: Bottom, Center, or Top.
Orientation	Sets the text orientation: Normal (horizontal) (left to right), Vertical (top-to-bottom), or Vertical (bottom-to-top).

Marking

Property	Description
Multiple rows	Adds multiple rows to the entry field.
Marking type	Sets the marking type: Letters on a Comb, Text in a Frame with a Comb, Letters in Frames, Letters in Separate Frames, or Letters in Separate Dotted Frames.
Marking color	Selects a marking color from the drop-down list (dropout forms) or the palette (color forms).
Bold marking line	Makes the cell frames bold (for all marking types except Letters in Separate Dotted Frames).
Cell size	Selects a predefined character cell size. See Cell sizes.

Cell sizes

Cell size	Letters on a Comb, Text in a Frame with a Comb, Letters in Frames	Letters in Separate Frames, Letters in Separate Dotted Frames
Extra large	6.5 x 7.9 mm	5.0 x 7.0 mm
Large	6.5 x 7.4 mm	5.0 x 6.5 mm
Normal (default)	5.2 x 5.7 mm	4.0 x 5.0 mm
Small	4.0 x 4.6 mm	3.0 x 4.0 mm
Custom	4.2–6.7 mm wide, 4.7–8.2 mm high	3.0–5.5 mm wide, 4.0–7.5 mm high

The Extra large and Custom cell sizes are not supported by previous versions of FormDesigner. You can adjust custom values in increments of 0.1 mm.

Background

Property	Description
Same as form background	Makes the element background the same color as the form background.
Other	Selects a background color from the drop-down list (dropout forms) or the palette (color forms).

The range of available colors depends on the type of your form (black and white or color).

Tip

Property	Description
Text	Contains the tip text. The tip is printed in the entry field, with each character in its own cell.
Color	Selects a tip color from the drop-down list (dropout forms) or the palette (color forms).
Font	Selects the tip font.
Auto size font	Sizes the tip font automatically to the cell height.

Tips can contain separator characters, each preceded by an ampersand (&). For example:

__&:__ produces _ _:_ _ (time separator)
__&/__&/__ produces _ _/_ _/_ _ (date separator)
&(___&)___&-__&-__ produces (_ _ _)_ _ _-_ _-_ _ (phone number separator)

Separators are always shown in black and appear on scans. A field with separators appears as a single field in the document structure.

You can purchase additional fonts and multilingual font support at www.paratype.com.

Linked field

Property	Description
Linked field	By default, each new element is linked to a field created for it in the document structure. To link it to another field of the same type, select the field from the drop-down list.

Constraints

Property	Description
Cannot be blank	If selected, the form cannot be exported until the entry field is filled in.
Constraints	Configure rules with the Add…, Edit…, and Remove… buttons. See Configure entry field rules.

Introducing ABBYY FormDesigner

ABBYY FormDesigner Interface

Working with ABBYY FormDesigner

Appendix

Element

Position and size

Alignment

Marking

Cell sizes

Background

Tip

Linked field

Constraints

​Element

​Position and size

​Alignment

​Marking

​Cell sizes

​Background

​Tip

​Linked field

​Constraints

Element

Position and size

Alignment

Marking

Cell sizes

Background

Tip

Linked field

Constraints