PDF Forms Using Acrobat® and LiveCycle® Designer Bible

Chapter 15. Working with Field Calculations

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with preset formulas

• Scripting with Simplified Field Notation

• Working with time calculations

Calculating field values is a common function for many types of forms. You may have product sales forms that need calculations for sums, sales tax, shipping charges, and so on, or you might want to calculate employee time on HR forms or average responses on customer satisfaction surveys. Other than simple office forms, calculating values is commonplace with many PDF and LiveCycle Designer forms.

Acrobat provides several methods for performing calculations. You can use some preset built-in formulas, use a simple scripting language known as Simplified Field Notation, or use a more robust scripting language like Acrobat JavaScript.

In this chapter, we begin with simplicity covering preset formulas built into Acrobat and explore scripting formulas using Simplified Field Notation. To create some basic field calculations, you can follow steps in this chapter. However, when you need more sophisticated formulas, you'll need to look ahead at Part V where we cover JavaScript.

Using Acrobat's Preset Formulas

As a forms-authoring application, Acrobat is the ideal program that permits you to create very impressive and utilitarian forms. Tools and features enable you to create just about any kind of form you need for whatever purpose you desire. Adobe has worked hard on making Acrobat a simple but very powerful forms-authoring program for several ...