Default Properties

The default properties that are available for an object are those that can be applied to an object universally, regardless of where it appears on the page. Style, color and font attributes are ex­amples of the types of properties that have default settings. Properties such as data ID or ob­ject size do not have defaults because they are more than likely to be unique for each object.

When you set up your defaults, you should look at each object type. All defaults for proper­ties that you want to standardize should be changed to your preferred settings. For other proper­ties, set the defaults to settings you are more likely to use or, if it does not matter, leave them as is. Below we briefly describe the defaults that are available for each object type and give you some suggestions for setting them.

Default properties for lines and rectangles

Defaults are set for all properties that control the appearance of your lines and rectangles:

  • For lines you can set the Line properties (Style, Thickness, Color). All lines you draw will initially have these properties.

  • For rectangles, you can set the Line properties for your border, the Fill properties, and the Corner properties. These settings will be used initially when you draw a rectangle. They are also the starting point for rounded rectangles, circles, and ellipses. You cannot have separate defaults for different types of rectangles.

Generally, it is a good idea to set a standard line width of your preference for your lines and a standard line border for your rectangles. For your new form defaults, the fill properties for rectangles are best left as Transparent and the corners as Square. You may find the occasion to change them for some forms.

Default properties for text boxes

All text font and formatting properties have default settings. If you have a stan­dard font you use for text or labels, you should set the font defaults to that font so you won’t have to define it for each text box. If you use a lot of paragraph text or indented text, it might also be good to set the default tab space to your preference. Then this indent will be standard throughout your forms. The other formatting defaults should be set to whatever you use most often.

You can override the new form defaults for a given form whenever necessary. For example, your standard default for justification might be “none.” However, for a form that is 75% paragraph text, you may want to change it to “all except last line.” Or you might set the text font to the font that you usually use for labels and override it for forms that contain a lot of paragraph text.

Default properties for data fields

Like text boxes, all data field font and formatting properties have default set­tings. The Description, Number of Characters, Number of Lines, and Character Spacing prop­erties also have default settings. You should definitely change the default font to the font you want used for data field value entry. You will probably not need to change the default settings for other properties unless a given form has different field requirements. For example, if a form was “heavy” on numeric data fields in tables or columns, you might want to change form default alignment setting to “right” and the number of characters to the number of digits you plan to allow in those fields.

The initial default description is “Data Field”, which is probably adequate since you will be changing it anyway. If your company uses a prefix for each data field, either globally or on a form-specific basis, you may want to set that prefix as the default. Then you only need to type the rest of the description.

Default properties for inline fields

Inline data fields have default font properties. You can also change the default description from “Inline Field” to one of your preference. If you usually want your inline fields to appear in the same font as your text, you should set the default to the same font you use for text boxes. They will not appear in the text font automatically when you create the object. If you want them in another font (such as the same font you use for your data fields) or if you want to apply a special attribute (such as underlining), you should set these properties in your new form defaults.

Default properties for system text boxes

Most of the default properties that you can set for text boxes can be set for system text boxes as well. System text boxes have default font and formatting properties. The Type, Format, and XPath properties also have default settings.

If you use system text boxes to display form properties, you should set Form Property as the default Type and specify the XPath you use most often. The XPaths to all the form properties are alike except for the element you are retrieving, so you can simply change the element name (title, identifier, publisher, etc.) instead of having to type the entire path in each time. If you do not use form properties, set the default to Page Numbering.

Default properties for other objects

The other objects have very few defaults. Images have no default settings. You can change the default description for placeable bitmaps, signature fields, barcode fields, and circle fields, which you might want to do if you use a standard prefix for your descriptions. For signature fields, circle fields, and barcode fields, you can set some additional properties:

  • For signature fields, you can set the default line color.

  • For circle fields, you can set the default line color, line thickness, and line style. If you use circle fields, you should set the line attributes to the way you usually want the circles to appear when an option is “circled.”

  • For barcode fields, you can set the default type, text display, bar height, vertical and horizontal alignment, and font properties.