Adobe InDesign offers powerful tools for generating interactive pdfs. These pdfs can be used to gather information via form tools, or they can be coded with an interactivity that allows the user to navigate throughout the document in a manner similar to navigating through a website.

These features can create an impressive end-result; however, there is one issue that can arise: “The Purple Bar” issue. If you have generated long-format interactive pdfs from InDesign, you will be well-acquainted with this “Purple Bar” reference.

Adobe has coded a few different warning messages to appear on any pdfs that have form fields. The warning message encountered frequently is: “Please fill out the following form. If you are a form author, choose Distribute Form in the Forms menu to send it to your recipients.”

Sample of View with Purple Form Error Message

This message is handy for the majority of viewers of a form document. However, the bar also appears on interactive documents that do not have any fields to fill out! This is because Adobe interprets a large amount of buttons on an interactive document as form fields. This includes Previous/Next and other navigation buttons. This has been an issue from Adobe CS3 onward, and the subject of many animated Adobe support forums. Turning off the purple bar is easily done once the end-user manipulates his or her preferences. However, this workaround is less than ideal and appears more like a programming error versus a software flaw. Another workaround has been to program the navigation within InDesign using linking versus buttons. This proves tedious and is unattractive for scalable templates.

Problem Solved!
After many hours of testing and scouring support sites, a fix has finally emerged that appears to work across platforms and versions and its easy to do. Go into Acrobat reader Document Properties>Initial View tab> Check the “Hide Window Controls” option.

Adjust Initial View from Document Properties Panel

Once the pdf is saved and reopened, the purple bar is removed:

Sample of View without Purple Form Error Message

Turning off the Window controls option should be weighed against the needs of the audience and the nature of the document.

For more information on the interactivity options in Adobe, go to Adobe TV and check out their video: Interactive InDesign PDF & SWF.