How to populate different dropdown list based on selection of a value in another dropdown field? [2024]

If you are trying to create a fillable PDF form in Adobe Acrobat Pro. A dropdown field will display a list of values pertaining to the value selected in the first dropdown.

Here’s how you can easily do it. 

Use setItems() to populate dropdown field, here is an example code:

if(event.value == "Item1")
this.getField("Dropdown2").setItems(["Item 1","Item 2","Item 3"]);
else if(event.value == "Item2")
this.getField("Dropdown2").setItems(["Item 4","Item 5","Item 6"]);
else this.getField("Dropdown2").clearItems();

You can also give items an export value like this:

setItems([["Item 1", "1"], ["Item 2", "2"], ["Item 3", "3"]]);

For properties of the first dropdown: Go to properties -> Validation -> Run custom validation script.