PDF barcode form fields

Open the form in Acrobat and then go to  > Preferences > Forms. Then, select the Automatically calculate field values checkbox and then select Ok.

From the All tools menu, select Prepare a form.

From the left panel, select  Barcode.

Drag a rectangle to define the barcode area, and then double-click the barcode field.

It opens the Barcode field properties dialog box.

Select Value tab and then do one of the following:

• Select Encode using, and then select a format (XML or Tab Delimited). Next, select Pick and select the fields that you want to be encoded in the barcode field. If you don’t want to include the field names in the barcode data, deselect Include Field Names.

• Select Custom calculation script and then select Edit. Next, enter your custom JavaScript code in the JavaScript Editor dialog box.

Under the Options tab:

1. Select a Symbology option: PDF417, QR Code, or Data Matrix.
2. Select Compress Data Before Encoding To Barcode option if you want to apply this compression.
   Do not select this option if a handheld scanner is used to capture data from returned forms.
3. In Decode Condition, choose the type of hardware to process returned forms: Handheld Barcode Scanner, Fax Server, Document Scanner, or Custom.
4. If necessary, select Custom and enter values for X Dimension, Y/X Ratio, and Error Correction Level.

Make any other changes in the General and Actions tabs. Then close the Barcode Field Properties dialog box.

JavaScript code is generated automatically to encode the selected fields in the XML or Tab Delimited format. The Barcode Field Properties dialog box closes, and the barcode for which you specified values appears on the form.

Click the Preview button in the toolbar.

Fill in the form. Use sample data that represents the maximum amount of information for each field or that you expect users to enter.

If the barcode field is grayed out, follow either the procedure for resizing the barcode field or for adjusting the content data. 

Ensure that the barcode field area is large enough to contain the entire incoming data. 

To remove the sample data, from the right panel, select More > Clear form.

Select  > Save.

From the All tools menu, select Prepare a form.

Double-click the barcode field.

In the Value tab, do one of the following:

• If Encode Using is selected, select Pick, and select additional form fields to be encoded.

• If Custom Calculation Script is selected, select Edit, and write more JavaScript to include the additional fields.

From the All tools menu, select Prepare a form.

Double-click the barcode field, and do any of the following:

• In the Options tab, select Custom and enter lower values for Error Correction Level and Y/X Ratio.

• If you are using an Adobe software decoder (available separately), go to the Options tab and select Compress Data Before Encoding To Barcode, but only .

• In the Value tab, select Tab Delimited rather than XML as the data-encoding format. XML requires more barcode area to encode information than Tab Delimited does.

• In the Options tab, select a different Symbology option.

• In the Value tab, click the Pick button, and deselect any fields that don’t need encoding. For example, don’t include fields with redundant information.

• In the Value tab, enter a custom script that converts user-entered text to either all lowercase or all uppercase characters during the encoding process.

To minimize the amount of barcode area for containing the data, double-click the barcode field, and in the Value tab, write a custom script that restricts data to alphanumeric characters and to a single case. (Text that is either all uppercase or all lowercase requires less barcode area than the same text written in a mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters.)

From the All tools menu, select Prepare a form.

In the Fields panel on the right, select Sort By > Tab order.

To view the tabbing order for the fields, in the Fields panel, select  > Show tab numbers.

Select one of the following Tab Order options:

• Order tabs by structure: Tabs based on the document structure, and follows the order that is set up in the tagging.
• Order tabs by row: Tabs from the upper-left field, moving first left to right and then down, one row at a time.
• Order tabs by column: Tabs from the upper-left field, moving first from top to bottom and then across from left to right, one column at a time.
• Order tabs manually: Allows you to drag and drop a field where you want it within the Fields panel. You can’t move a field to a different page, a radio button to another group, or a field to a radio button.
• Order tabs unspecified: Specifies that no tab order is specified. The page properties determine the tab order.

If you're in the form editing mode, select the cross button toward the right in the toolbar to exit the mode.

Select  Page thumbnails.

Or go to  > View > Show/Hide > Side panels > Pages.

It opens the Page thumbnails panel. 

Right-click a page icon and then select Page properties. 

Under Tab Order, select one of the following options:

• Use Row Order: Tabs from the upper-left field, moving first left to right and then down, one row at a time.
• Use Column Order: Tabs from the upper-left field, moving first from top to bottom and then across from left to right, one column at a time.
• Use Document Structure: For forms with tagged fields, follows the order set up in the tagging.
• Unspecified: Uses the existing sequence.

Select OK.