PDF2XL Online Help

Fields

Although PDF2XL is mostly based on the assumption that the data that the user needs appears in the document as a table, there are a lot of cases in which some of the data is available in locations outside of a table.
This is where fields come in.
There are two types of fields, the regular fields created from data on the page (as explained below), and predefined fields, the contents of which are retrieved from the file system, the conversion process itself, or from internal fields in the document.

PDF2XL's fields are designed to allow the user to add additional data from the page into converted table(s).

Creating and Editing Fields

The user can add a new field to the page layout by click-and-dragging a box with the mouse. When the mouse button is released, the field is added to the layout.
Note that fields cannot overlap each other, or any of the tables. This means that the user cannot select a region a part of which intersects with a field or a table.

When used in Layout Editing mode, PDF2XL will automatically decide that the marked area is a field. If it decides that the marked area is a table, the user can replace that table with a field by selecting the Field command from the Change To sub-menu of the Selection menu, or the Change to a field command from the table's context menu.
If the Smart element creation mode is off, the user should select the Field Creation mode before marking the field's area.

Existing fields can be selected clicking on them. The field's area can be changed by dragging its border.

Fields can be erased using the Delete Selection command of the Selection Menu, or via the document's Context Menu.

Each field can have a name.
The name of the field is used when converting it; more information is available in the Fields Conversion topic.

The field can also be attached to a specific table. It will be converted with that table only, and can be moved when the table is moved. It will also be hidden if the table is not found on the page.

When created, the output of a field conversion is the data inside it, just like a table cell. The user can also mark the field as Text to ensure that the indentation and line wrapping will be kept (providing the appropriate options are set in the Format settings page).
Additionally, the user can mark the field as an image, in which case the field will be converted as an image.
Note that image fields and text field's line wrapping will not be converted into the clipboard or into CSV files.