Tab Order for Image-Related and Inline Fields

When arrayed data is included in a field type, it affects the sort order for some field types but not others.

Circle fields and barcode fields

Arrayed circle fields behave like standard circle fields. It does not matter if they have short or long data IDs. They can also be indexed with non-arrayed fields. They will appear in the order you placed them in after you save the file. Arrayed barcode fields behave like circle fields. They can be sorted in any order.

If you have a form with both arrayed and non-arrayed circle fields, you can arrange them in any order you want:

Notice how the arrayed and non-arrayed circle fields with short data IDs are interspersed with circle fields with long data IDs. If you save and reopen the file, the fields will remain in the same order you placed them in.

Signature fields and placeable bitmap fields

Non-arrayed signature fields are sorted with short data IDs first. If you also have arrayed fields on the page, they are sorted as follows:

  • Arrayed fields with short data IDs appear after non-arrayed fields with short data IDs.

  • Arrayed fields with long data IDs are intermixed with non-arrayed fields with long data IDs. They will remain sorted in whatever order you place them in.

For example, you could sort a group of arrayed and non-arrayed signature fields in a logical order:

However, when the file is saved and reopened, the sort order described on page 304 will be ap­plied in­stead:

Normally, this sort order will not be an issue for signature fields because, if you keep your signatures in arrayed fields, you are not likely to have non-arrayed fields intermixed on the page. If you do, you may want to consider using long data IDs for all of them if your end-user application supports them.

Arrayed placeable bitmap fields sort in the same order as signature fields. However, it is highly unlikely that there will be enough fields that require user access on a given page to make sort order an issue.

Inline fields

If you have both non-arrayed and arrayed inline fields on the page, they will be sorted by text box as follows:

  • Text boxes with non-arrayed inline fields with short data IDs will appear first.

  • Text boxes containing arrayed inline fields with short data IDs will sort next. These text boxes can contain non-arrayed inline fields with short data IDs as well.

  • All text boxes containing inline fields with long data IDs will sort last. It does not matter if the text box contains other arrayed/non-arrayed inline fields or inline fields with short data IDs.

Within a given text box, the fields will be arranged in the order in which they appear in the text box, regardless of whether they are arrayed or not.

Suppose you have had a form with text boxes containing a combination of non-arrayed and arrayed inline fields and try to arrange them like this:

When you save and reopen the file, the text boxes will be re-sorted:

Within each group, the text boxes will remain in the order you placed them in. Notice that the three boxes with long data IDs keep the same order as they were given originally. The fields within each text box are sorted in the order in which they appear in the text box, regardless of data ID and whether or not they are arrayed.