# Working with forms in Acrobat

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-with-forms-in-acrobat/276140>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 22, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-with-forms-in-acrobat/276140 "2004-11-22T18:11:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-with-forms-in-acrobat/276140/1 "2004-11-22T18:11:16Z")

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I know we have a few graphic designers and layout people here, so I hope an Adobe Acrobat question isn’t unreasonable?

I have a form with some text boxes and checkboxes which have to be filled out by the user. I’d like to set them to be visible, but not to print if they’re not filled out. I’ve done some research, but this seems like it will only work if the fields are numeric, not general text?

The custom validation script I’m trying is:

```auto

var f = this.getField("Model Name");
if (f.value > 'a')
	f.print = true;
else
	f.print = false;

```

Does this make sense? Is ‘a’ the right way to code a string (and is a the lowest possible value of that string?)?

Thank you!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-with-forms-in-acrobat/276140/2 "2004-11-24T02:18:47Z")

</div>

Bumping this for the evening crowd, I hope…?