Fill PDF Forms

What it's for

Fill in a fillable PDF form, such as an application or a tax or registration form, without sending it anywhere and without installing a PDF editor. Every text box, check box, radio button and drop-down in the file gets its own input here, in the order of the pages.

For example, to complete a registration form that came as a PDF, choose it, type the answers, and save the filled copy.

How to use it

Choose, drop or paste the PDF. The fields are listed under the page they are on, with the names the form gives them (these are often terse, such as Text1, so use the form itself, in a PDF reader, to see where each one sits). Fields the form marks as read-only are shown but can’t be changed. Buttons and signature fields aren’t listed.

Tick Flatten to draw the answers into the pages and remove the fields, so the answers can’t be changed afterwards. Without it, the saved form can still be edited in a PDF reader. Save the filled PDF downloads a copy with -filled added to its name.

Example

Choose a PDF with a fillable form. Type a name in the first text field and tick a check box, then choose Save the filled PDF. Open the copy in a PDF reader: the name and the tick are there.

Good to know

Only standard (AcroForm) forms can be filled. An XFA form, Adobe’s older dynamic kind, is reported and left alone. The text is drawn with a built-in font, so it covers Western European letters but not other scripts. Calculated and formatted fields (dates, totals) aren’t worked out here, scripts in the form don’t run, and signature fields can’t be filled. Digital signatures on the file no longer verify once it is changed. Check the saved file in a PDF reader before you send it, as some forms show their answers differently from how they were entered here. PDFs with a password can’t be opened.