How to Set Tab Order for Page Elements in Adobe Acrobat

A tab order is the order in which elements are selected on a page when the "Tab" key on the keyboard is used. You can set the tab order for all the page elements in a PDF document including fields, links and comments. Follow the steps below to set the tab order for your Adobe Acrobat page elements.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

1. Start Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional and open an existing PDF from your files that contains page elements to which you want to set the tab order.

2. Select the "Pages" button from the top of the navigation pane on the left side of the Adobe Acrobat screen to display each of the pages in the open PDF as thumbnails.

3. Right-click on top of the thumbnail that represents the first page that contains an element you want to include in the tab order.

4. Choose "Page Properties" from the pop-up menu to display the "Page Properties" dialog box and click the "Tab Order" tab at the top of the dialog box, if necessary.

5. Click the type of tab order that you want to use for the page elements in your PDF document. You can choose to set your tabs to follow row order, column order or document structure. Choosing "Unspecified" will set the tabs to follow rows, fields, links and comments.

6. Use the "OK" button to close the "Page Properties" dialog box and return to your PDF document. You can use the "Tab" key on your keyboard to view the tab order you have just set.