Best Practices Document for Designing Forms Version 0.4 Best Practices for Designing Forms Page 1 of 48 Adobe XFA Training Materials Copyright 2005 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. NOTICE: All information contained herein is the property of Adobe Systems Incorporated. No part of this publication (whether in hardcopy or electronic form) may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the Adobe Systems Incorporated. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All instances of the name PostScript in the text are references to the PostScript language as defined by Adobe Systems Incorporated unless otherwise stated. The name PostScript also is used as a product trademark for Adobe Systems’ implementation of the PostScript language interpreter. 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Best Practices for Designing Forms Page 2 of 48 Table of Contents Overview............................................................................................................................. 5 Software Components..................................................................................................... 5 Steps to render a form:.................................................................................................... 6 Best Practice #1: Use Relative Binding Whenever Possible .............................................. 7 Relative versus Full Binding........................................................................................... 7 Best Practice #2: Use Flow Content Subforms whenever possible .................................... 9 Positional Content Subforms .......................................................................................... 9 Flow Content Subforms ................................................................................................ 10 Repeatable Subforms .................................................................................................... 12 Best Practice #4: Use Subforms to Structure Form Content............................................. 14 Best Practice #5: Use Picture Masks for Universal Formatting ....................................... 16 Picture Masks................................................................................................................ 16 Determining the locale of the form............................................................................... 16 Best Practice #6: Use Fonts that ensure accurate output and minimal output size........... 18 Overview of Font Selection .......................................................................................... 18 Best Fonts to Ensure Output Target Support ................................................................ 20 Embedded Fonts and Output Stream Size .................................................................... 20 Best Practice #7: Ensure Forms are Accessible................................................................ 21 Overview of Accessibility............................................................................................. 21 Designing Accessible Forms......................................................................................... 23 Checkboxes and Radio Buttons .................................................................................... 23 Best Practice #8: Use Dynamic Properties to Bind Data to a List.................................... 24 Best Practice #9: Useful Online References ..................................................................... 27 Adobe “eRoom”............................................................................................................ 27 Adobe Web Site ............................................................................................................ 27 Adobe LiveCycle Online Help...................................................................................... 27 Best Practice #10 – Use the Hierarchy View to Select Form Content.............................. 28 Best Practice #11 - Designing an Accessible Multi-line Table ........................................ 29 Step 1: Turn off table generation option...................................................................... 30 Step 2: Create the data bindings.................................................................................... 31 Step 3: Create the Header Subform .............................................................................. 31 Step 4: Create Captions for Header Subform ............................................................... 32 Step 5: Remove the captions from the DATA subform................................................ 33 Step 6: Set the Accessibility Role for the Subforms..................................................... 33 Step 7: Allow the table to span multiple pages............................................................. 34 Step 8: Set the Header to appear on each page ............................................................. 36 Step 9: Arrange the position and size of the fields ....................................................... 36 Best Practice #12 – Designing an Accessible Multi-line Heterogeneous Header Table .. 41 Best Practice #13 – Designing Accessible Nested Tables................................................ 43 Best Practice #14 – Designing Accessible Horizontal Tables.......................................... 44 Best Practice #15 – Designing Accessible Tables with “Out of place” Rows.................. 46 Best Practice #16 – Designing Accessible Tables with a large number of data fields ..... 48 Best Practices for Designing Forms Page 3 of 48 Document History: Version Number Date Released Comments 0.1 August 16, 2005 First release 0.2 September 26, 2005 Added examples of how to design accessible tables and incorporated suggestions from various colleagues and SAP personnel. 0.3 November 18, 2005 Added additional examples and made minor updates 0.4 December 5, 2005 Updated with comments from SAP The latest version of this document can be accessed from the Adobe ERoom. The URL for this document is: https://eroom.adobe.com/eRoom/fid302/SAPAdobe/0_7b81 The ERoom location is: SAP/Adobe Alliance -> Trollinger/Package 2B -> Trollinger Package 2B Documents of Record -> Document Library Best Practices for Designing Forms Page 4 of 48 Overview The purpose of this document is to outline the best practices to follow when designing forms using Adobe LiveCycle Forms Technology. An explanation of the software components that are used to create and render a form is the best way to start to understand the practices outlined in this document. As you can see from the diagram below, a form consists of a set of XML files that are combined by the Adobe Document Services. In the same way that it is not necessary to understand the mechanics of an automobile to drive one, it is not necessary to view or edit XML files in order to use the Adobe LiveCycle Products. However, possessing a good understanding of the operations taking place behind the scenes is essential if you wish to become a good form designer. Adobe Designer Form Layout XDP:XDP Template subform Template (XDP) pageset subform config schema Data (XML) datasets Configuration ADS XCI PCL, Application PostScript or or Database ZPL Software Components Name Description Adobe Designer Adobe LiveCycle Designer – a Graphical User Interface application for creating template (XDP) files ADS Adobe LiveCycle Document Server – takes a template, XML data and configuration settings and renders the form to PDF, PCL, PostScript or ZPL. Application or Database An application or database that exposes data via XML Best Practices for Designing Forms Page 5 of 48 Steps to render a form: Step Description Define XML Data Decide on what data structure will be exposed by the application or database and used by the template Design template Drag