Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Acrobat/Reader -- Convert Wingdings Characters to Check-Boxes or Radio-Buttons




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Update (03/04/2020): Now available is a companion tool that can convert sequences of underscores to text fields! You can find it here.

When creating their forms in Word, many people like to use the Wingdings characters for their form fields, such as radio-buttons and check-boxes. They are easier to move around and control, compared to graphic elements, because they are simply textual symbols.
The problem begins when you convert your file to PDF and want to convert them to PDF form fields. Acrobat does not always identify these symbols as form fields, and when it does, it doesn't always assign them the correct form type: Check-boxes can become text fields and radio-buttons can become check-boxes... Which means you then have to make a lot of manual adjustments to get them working correctly.

This issue can now be easily solved using this new tool I've developed which will identify Wingdings characters and convert them into the correct form fields in your PDF file.
The tool can identify 8 different kinds of check-boxes and 7 different kinds of radio-buttons, as can be seen in this list:

Types of recognized Wingdings (click to enlarge)

So let's say we have a simple form with Wingdings boxes that we want to convert to check-boxes:
The original file
After installing the script we can run it easily via the Tools panel, like so:

Accessing the script in Acrobat
The symbols are recognized and the fields generated. When done, the script reports how many fields were added to the file:


We can now see the generated fields in the file:



And interact with them, just like any other fields:



This tool can even be used in the free Adobe Reader (version XI or higher)!

Also, it will work with files from other applications, like Excel or InDesign, as long as they use the Wingdings font.

For more information about this tool, you can contact me directly.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Works like a charm. Brilliant!

Unknown said...

I'm working on a course and I wanted to make all of my PDF documents fillable. The only option for checkboxes is to place them manually! This script saved me hours of work, thank you for creating it.

R'gated said...

Hi Gilad,

I am interested in this script but have two related questions regarding its use-cases.

a) For example, after the checkbox fields are generated will the document allow us to parse the remaining fields (multiline text, text fields) through Acrobat itself? Or do we have to add them manually since Acrobat deems the form as "already fillable".

b) If we apply the same situation in reverse, like a form is already fillable but has issues with checkboxes. Will this script be able to parse them?

Thank you.

Gilad D. (try67) said...

@R'gated

a) No, it won't allow you to do that because the fields detection wizard only works if there are no fields in the file. You need to run it first, and then the script.
b) Yes. My script can be used at any time.

pokeflute said...

Is it possible to name the checkbox fields according to the question? In your example screenshots, I would like to able to export Attendance checkbox results into csv not just as Checkbox1, Checkbox2 ... but as Attendance_checkbox1, Attendance_checkbox2...
Thanks.

Gilad D. (try67) said...

@pokeflute

Not currently, but I can certainly customize it for your specific needs.
Please contact me privately via try6767@gmail.com to discuss it further.

Unknown said...

I have a PDF that uses the 3rd checkbox type example in the "WingdingsList.docx" that you provide.

When I run this tool, none of the Checkboxes on the PDF get a checkbox field as they should.

I thought maybe something was wrong with this specific file, but I just tried converting the "WingdingsList.docx" file to PDF and running the tool on that, and the tool only placed checkbox fields on the First, Sixth, and Eighth Checkbox types from your example file.

Is there something I can do to fix this? Or am I out of luck?

Additionally, in the Radio-button section, only the second radio type had a radio applied to it.

Please assist when possible.

Thanks!

Gilad D. (try67) said...

Could you send me the file you're using, please? It might depend on many factors, such as how it was created, what platform you're running it on, etc.

Unknown said...

Yes, thank you for the immediate response both in this comment section and over email. I just shared the file with you.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this! Super easy to use. Correctly identified all checkboxes. It did add a few checkboxes around certain words, but it's much easier to delete a few boxes than add them.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this! Super easy to use. Correctly identified all checkboxes. It did add a few checkboxes around certain words, but it's much easier to delete a few boxes than add them.