Tab Order?

Hi Guys, I saw a post form 108 where you'd be adding tab order to your roadmap. Is it possible yet? if not, how can we go about changing the tab order the long way? I notice I can open/edit in Acrobat, so if I were to modify the tab order in Acrobat, could I upload to replace my e2PDF template? for my use case, the PDF is not flattened so it can be edited direct after being received via email and my customer likes to tab through fields.

OR, can you tell me how the e2PDF plugin decides tab order? then maybe I can modify my existing template so it will work the way I need.

Thank you.
B.

oops, I meant 2018, not 108. lol

Hi,

Unfortunately E2Pdf still doesn't support setting custom tab order. Currently it used as document structure, which is depending on unchangeable Field IDs and order of added fields inserts in PDF.

As a meanwhile solution, you can try to set "Tab Order" on original PDF to Order by Row or Order by Column and re-upload (Screenshot how to download and re-upload original changed file attached), in this case it must respect order from top to the bottom or left right however it's not possible yet to set custom tab order.

P.S. We will try to speed up completing this point as it was marked as not critical and not top requested feature.

We remain at your service.

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We would really appreciate your feedback at WordPress.org!

Hi,

We just released an update (1.13.08) with possibility to set "Tab Order" directly inside E2Pdf Template.

Also now it's possible to set order manual if you will use Tab Order as "Use Document Structure". By default fields will be ordered by it's ID however now it's possible to control it also with "Z-index" via "Right Mouse Click" -> "Properties". If you need to specify order for all fields then it must be set "Z-index" on all fields to keep correct order, 1, 2, 3 and so on. Unfortunately there is still issue with "Radio" buttons and it will not yet respect this "Z-index" option, however we hope to fix it in nearest time.

"Tab Order" as "Row Order" and "Column Order" must work without issues with all fields.

Let us know please if it will be any problems of using this option.

P.S. It must work correctly in Adobe reader however not in built-in browser PDF viewer as it seems has incorrect order of fields processing.

We remain at your service.

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We would really appreciate your feedback at WordPress.org!

Oh wow, you guys rock! I'm trying it out. You mentioned an issue with radio buttons, so I've started re-adding my fields in the order that I need them to tab, and I've noticed that the radio buttons just get skipped entirely. Is that expected even when adding fields manually in order?

So it seems even if I add fields to the template in the order I want them tabbed, it just skips right past radio buttons. Is there a way around this? for example could I use a checkbox field on e2PDF and map it to a radio field?

Hi,

Unfortunately yes, radio buttons will have same behavior even if added in correct order as due some technical part on pdf generation they added always firstly to PDF document, independent on "order" and "z-index" setting, and that's why you see them as skipped as they set as first elements and all other elements have higher added priority. It was one of the reasons why "Tab Order" was not yet implemented, however we included this fix in our roadmap and hope will solve this issue also to respect order correctly, however it will require some time as we need to make some core changes in our PDF render engine.

Checkbox - can be as temporary solution, it must respect "Z-index" and added order.

We remain at your service.

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We would really appreciate your feedback at WordPress.org!

It works fantastic!! THANK YOU GUYS!!!! :)