How do I keep the format in a fillable PDF, specifically the "$" symbol and the 2 decimal places?

Question

I created a fillable form in Acrobat Pro and when we use it in Adobe Reader on the iPad, the preset format for money doesn't stay when the fields are populated, but if we email the filled form back to the iMac, the format is there and it's fine.  Any suggestions?  Do I need to do something with the original fillable form so that it carries over to the iPad?

Answer 1

I have been having a similar issue for a client's interactive PDF report that needed the "Show/Hide" feature in InDesign to reveal many acronyms' definitions in a "Pop-up" box when the acronyms were clicked on. Then the "Pop-up" boxes could be clicked on to close themselves using the same "Show/Hide" feature. While I have been going a little crazy the last FEW MONTHS scouring the forums and blogs (and just spent an hour and a half on the phone with Adobe's tech support staff that apparently only support desktops and laptops but have NO CLUE about the delivery of Adobe content via tablets and other mobile devices), I can say that a few things have been helpful - on the expert blogs (but sadly not in any of Adobe's support forums or call centers).
Buttons in interactive PDFs are NOT supported in iBooks or Acrobat Reader on the iPad.
Basic buttons, like navigational buttons (go to next or previous page) or submit, DO work in the "PDF Expert" app, which is $9.99 in the App Store.
So far, no matter which workaraound I have tried from the forums and blogs, the "Show/Hide" buttons still do NOT seem to work properly in even the "PDF Expert" app. (I see a highlight field where my buttons and pop-ups should be but no content in them - no text and no background - only a translucent highlight that shows that somewhere in there it's trying to work. The highlight fields even show and hide the way the buttons and pop-ups are supposed to, which is maddening!)
The only recommendation I could get from the Adobe tech support folks was to use InDesign and the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) instead and publish an app through the iTunes Store.
Unfortunately that is NOT an option for me because my client's report is confidential and being sent to only a small group of less than 100 people.
I could bypass the iTunes Store and distribute the "Ad Hoc" method of attaching the .ipa file (the app file) to an email list of up to 100 people but my client would have to buy the DPS Enterprise Edition, which costs upwards of $20,000. (Yes, that's $20K in American dollars.)
There is NO option to distribute "Ad Hoc" with the Single Edition of DPS which comes with the Creative Cloud. I guess a lot of people ask that of the DPS forums and the experts give cranky repies that "No, it is just not possible with any DPS version less than the Enterprise Edition."
There is no middle ground on this yet but a lot of people seem to be asking for it. What's up with that, Adobe? No support for the small to mid-sized businesses for simple interactive brochures and reports that they don't want to release to the world, just to a select few?
The only solution I have found even slightly feasible is to create buttons that control "Multi-State Objects" (or MSOs) to behave similarly to the "Show/Hide" buttons and create a DPS .folio file from the InDesign doc.
I still can't recommend that my client pays $20,000 to be able to distribute his interactive quarterly report but I think I found a way around a small distribution.
You can share a .folio file with people through an email from the "Folio Builder" panel in InDesign. (See this help file: http://helpx.adobe.com/digital-publishing-suite/help/create-folios.html and scroll down to the "Share Folios" section.)
Apparently, this link is not permanent, but I haven't found an answer anywhere as to when it will time out. I'm thinking at least 3 months will be enough for my client for the time being until the next quarterly report comes out. Hopefully by then Adobe will have come up with a cost-effective solution for the small to medium-sized business that wants to publish interactive documents for the iPad or the PDF apps on the iPad will become mature enough to handle these slightly more robust interactive features.
I hope this was helpful to some of you trying to do something similar. If anyone has an elegant solution for the nearly-working interactive PDF on the iPad, please let me know. Thanks in advance!