Using leaders in text

To add a leader
To edit a leader
To delete a leader
To enable a visual clue for No Leader
To delete tab stops

Use leaders to guide the reader from one piece of information to another across a page, such as in a table of contents, price list, or invoice. You can add leaders to a line or block of text in text objects and in the caption area of objects such as text fields, decimal fields, and numeric fields. When the text object or caption area is in edit mode, the Leader command is available in the Insert menu and the Context menu.

You can define and edit leader properties such as the end position, pattern, line thickness or dot spacing, and alignment. You can also adjust the positioning, size, and appearance of leaders by using the options in the Font and Paragraph palettes.

When you add a leader, Designer draws a leader from the insertion point to the end position that you specify. The leader end position is based on ruler increments. The default end position extends the leader to the right edge of the caption or static text object. You can only define or edit one leader at a time. All changes are applied immediately.

You can define different leaders for each paragraph of text. However, it is important to understand that a new paragraph inherits the leader properties from the previous paragraph. In other words, when you create a new paragraph, any leaders defined in the previous paragraph apply to the new paragraph.

Note: Designer can not anticipate the content of run-time data. If you intend to populate a form with rich text that contains leaders, you must set the target version to Acrobat 9 when you design the form.

To add a leader

Place the insertion point where you want the leader to start within the text object or caption area, and then select Insert > Leader.
In the Leader End Position box, type the ruler position where you want the leader to end.
In the Leader Pattern list, select the pattern to fill the leader.
In the Leader Dot Spacing or Leader Underline Weight list, select the amount of space to appear between dots or dashes, or select the thickness of the line.
Set the alignment for the leader by doing one of these actions:
- To align the left side of the text that follows the leader (immediately before the first letter) with the specified end position, click Left Align Leader.
- To align the right side of the text that follows the leader (immediately after the last letter) as the end position for the leader, click Right Align Leader.
Click anywhere in the Layout Editor to close the dialog box.

To edit a leader

Select the leader and edit it.
Click anywhere in the Layout Editor to close the dialog box.

To delete a leader

The Delete Leader command removes the selected leader (tab), the associated tab stops, as well as any leader properties, such as pattern, spacing, and alignment.

Note: The Delete Leader command is available on the Edit menu after you select a leader. However, if the Delete Leader command remains unavailable after you select a leader, this means that the leader is not associated with a tab stop. When this is the case, you can use the Delete key to remove the leader.

Select the leader to delete.
Select Edit > Delete Leader.

To enable a visual clue for No Leader

When you select the No Leader option while inserting Leaders, the leaders are not displayed in both, the Preview PDF and the final PDF form. You can turn on a visual indicator to display tab stops when No Leader is selected. As this value is read while opening the document, close and reopen already open documents for this value to take effect.

In Tools > Options > Formatting, check Show non blank tab stop in design view option.
Specify a character to see in place of blanks.

To delete tab stops

If you use the Delete key on the keyboard to delete a selected leader, only the tab character is removed. Any associated tab stops or leader properties such as pattern, spacing, and alignment are not removed.

To delete unused tab stops, you must use the Delete Tab Stops dialog box.

Note: The Delete Tab Stops command is available on the Edit menu when there are one or more tab stops in the current paragraph. If there are two or more paragraphs within a selection, the dialog is unavailable.

Select Edit > Delete Tab Stops.
Complete one of the following actions:
- To delete selected tab stops, select one or more tab stops from the list, and then click Clear.
- To delete all tab stops, click Clear All.
Click OK.