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For each Entry Field element, the following properties can be specified: position and size, the type of marking, the cell size, the number of text lines in the element, the width of the marking line, the marking line color, the tip text, the tip text color, the tip font, the mode of selecting the tip font size and the element’s background color, and the linked field. You can change the properties of the Entry Field element in the Element Properties window located in the bottom right corner of the main window. The Element Properties window is displayed only if View → Element Properties is selected on the main menu.

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Element

Type — Entry Field ID — A unique identifier of the element.

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Position and size

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 entry field element. Height — Sets the height of the entry field element.
You can change the number of lines in an entry field only if you have selected the Multiple rows check box on the Marking tab. Use the Marking tab to change the cell height.

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Alignment

Horizontal — Aligns the text within the element horizontally:
  • Center — Centers the text horizontally.
  • Left — Aligns the text to the left edge of the element.
  • Right — Aligns the text to the right edge of the element.
Vertical — Aligns the text within the element vertically:
  • Bottom — Aligns the text to the bottom edge of the element.
  • Center — Centers the text vertically.
  • Top — Aligns the text to the top edge of the element.
Orientation — Sets the orientation of the text.
  • Normal (horizontal) — The text will be placed horizontally, left to right.
  • Vertical (top-to-bottom) — The text will be placed vertically, top to bottom.
  • Vertical (bottom-to-top) — The text will be placed vertically, bottom to top.

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Marking

Multiple rows — Adds multiple rows to the entry field. Marking type — Sets the marking type for the text:
  • Letters on a Comb
  • Text in a Frame with a Comb
  • Letters in Frames
  • Letters in Separate Frames
  • Letters in Separate Doted Frames
Marking color — Selects a marking color from the drop-down list for dropout forms or from the palette for color forms. Bold marking line (for all marking types except Letters in Separate Dotted Frames) — Changes the frame of the cells to bold. Cell size — Selects a predefined character cell size from the list. Sizes for character cells in Letters on a Comb, Text in a Frame with a Comb and Letters in Frames:
  • Extra large (6.5х7.9mm)
  • Large (6.5х7.4mm)
  • Normal (selected by default) (5.2х5.7mm)
  • Small (4.0х4.6mm)
  • Custom (specified by the user). Width values can range from 4.2 to 6.7mm; height values can range from 4.7 to 8.2mm. These values can be adjusted in increments of 0.1mm.
Sizes for character cells in Letters in Separate Frames and Letters in Separate Doted Frames:
  • Extra large (5.0х7.0mm)
  • Large (5.0х6.5mm)
  • Normal (selected by default) (4.0х5.0mm)
  • Small (3.0х4.0mm)
  • Custom (specified by the user). Width values can range from 3.0 to 5.5mm; height values can range from 4.0 to 7.5mm. These values can be adjusted in increments of 0.1mm.
The Extra large and Custom cell sizes are not supported by previous versions of FormDesigner.

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Background

Same as form background — Makes the background of the entry field the same color as the background of the form. Other — Selects an entry field background color from the drop-down list for dropout forms or from the palette for color forms.
The range of available colors depends on the type of your form (black and white or color).

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Tip

Text — Contains tip text. The tip will be printed in the text entry field on the form, with each character from the tip occupying a separate character cell. Tips for elements of the entry field type may contain separator characters. Separator characters must be preceded by an ampersand (&). Examples:
  • _ _:_ _ (the separator for time) is specified as "__&:__";
  • _ _/_ _/_ _ (date separator) is specified as "__&/__&/__";
  • (_ _ _)_ _ _-_ _-_ _ (phone number separators) are specified as "&(___&)___&-__&-__".
Separators are always displayed in black and will appear on scans. A field with separators will appear as a single field in the document structure. Color — Selects a tip color from the drop-down list for dropout forms or from the palette for color forms. Font — Selects tip font.
You may purchase additional fonts and multilingual font support at www.paratype.com.
Auto size font — Selects font size for tips automatically, according to the height of character cells of the field.

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Linked field

Linked field — By default, whenever you create an element on your form, a field is created within the document structure to which this element is linked. To link your element to another field of the same type, select the name of the field from the drop-down list..

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Constraints

Cannot be blank — If this option is selected, the form cannot be exported unless the entry field is filled in. Constraints — Use the following buttons to configure constrains for the entry field: