Hello,
When integrating form elements into the PDF the spacing between the elements is very wonky at best. I don't understand that when you click on "add section above" it literally does nothing. I had to add a text box in between each element, type "test" and then white it out to achieve the spacing I needed. Why is the spacing feature (or lack thereof) so difficult? The global settings vertical spacing and padding are useless as they affect the whole document and not just one element. As a user friendly program the spacing should be one of the easiest things to manipulate. Why is it so hard?
Thank you
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Hi Eric Carroll,
Thank you for posting to the Community! We appreciate you taking the time to share these frustrations with us and hopefully we can clarify some of the issues you are running into.
Spacing and padding in the PDF Designer is one of the limitations within the PDF Designer simply because of the variable length of any given submission. Because each submission is unique, the PDF Designer is made to account for those fluctuations and variability to provide the most consistent PDF output for every submission regardless of the content changing from one submission to another. There are some tips and tricks for accommodating these limitations but there is only so much that can be done within those constraints.
Firstly, empty Sections do appear in the PDF but the spacing is around the amount of space that hitting enter between paragraphs in a document would achieve. You mentioned adding in a Text element to create that spacing which is usually the tip that we give. The greyed out "Enter text here" will not appear on the final output so you can use that to visually see where space has been left that will appear on the final result. Uncheck "Use Global Settings" and increase the Vertical Spacing for that Text element to achieve more blank space.
As for Global Settings, if any fields have the Global Settings unchecked, like in the last solution above, this will impact how quickly the spacing can be edited across the entire document. If you want universal spacing and then want to change individual fields, the only recourse for that is to make the changes to the Global Settings first before unchecking that box on individual fields to make more targeted changes.
Vertical Spacing applies to the individual field, whereas Padding applies to the column or section. So you can make the field have more space around it while shrinking the margins in the column or section that the field is located in. Or vice versa.
I hope this clarified the points that you mentioned above but please let me know if there is anything else I can help with! And if you still cannot achieve the appearance you need for your PDF, and the form is too complicated for the Basic Form Builder, our experts are always here to help you design the perfect Custom PDF to your specifications. Please reach out to your Account Manager for more information.