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How to Convert an Adobe PDF to a Fillable and Savable Form by PDFill PDF Form Maker

An interactive PDF form is a collection of PDF fields for gathering information interactively from the user. A PDF document may contain any number of fields appearing on any combination of pages, all of which make up a single, global interactive form spanning the entire document.  An interactive form can be filled out on a computer and may be submitted through an Internet or local network connection.

PDFill PDF Form Maker is specially designed for the fillable PDF forms that can be filled out using free Adobe Reader. This form was generated without any programming, HTML or PDF knowledge. You can use PDF Form Maker to create, fill, edit, delete, Reset, or submit PDF form fields. PDFill supports the most common PDF Form Fields: Text Field, Check Box, Radio Button, Combo Box, List Box or Push Button.  See details about PDF Form Maker from here.

Here are 4 steps to convert non-interactive Adobe PDF into PDF Form by adding PDF Form Fields using PDFill PDF Form Maker:

Step 1: Read your PDF into PDFill PDF Editor

Step 2: Add New PDF Form Fields

Step 2.1: Add a Text PDF Form Field

Step 2.2: Add a Check Box or Radio Button Form Field

Step 2.3: Add a Combo Box or List Box Form Field

Step 2.4: Add a Push Button Form Field

Step 3: Save all Editing into a new PDF with PDF Form Fields

Step 4: Distribute your new PDF Form


Step 1: Read your PDF into PDFill PDF Editor.

  • click the icon of "PDFill PDF Editor" from your desktop to start PDFill PDF Editor. You will see a screen like this:

  • To open a PDF file, select Menu File > New Project to Open PDF. Or, click  from Toolbar. Then, a File Selection Dialog comes up.  Select this PDF file. Please wait a few second until all PDF pages are read into PDFill.

Step 2: Add New PDF Form Fields

You should now see your beautifully designed PDF open inside PDFill PDF Editor with a Forms Toolbar that looks alike the following images:

This toolbar is where you provide interactivity to your static PDF. To create a form field, just click one of  the Form Field tool. Select the type you desire it to be: Text, Check Box, Radio Button, Combo Box, List Box, and Push Button.

Step 2.1: Add a Text PDF Form Field

  • First, click Text Field Tool in the Forms Toolbar.
  • Then, hold Left mouse button to create a form field of the required size.
  • Finally, the new form field properties dialog comes up to set the new text field's properties.

The first Tab is General Tab. You need to set new Field Name. You can change Tooltip, Common Properties, and Font Properties:

Click Appearance Tab to change Borders, Colors and Position:

Click Options Tab to change Alignment, Max Characters, Default Value and other properties.

Click Actions Tab to Add a PDF Action.

Click Format Tab to Add Custom Format and Keystroke script:

Click Validate Tab to add custom validation script:

Click Calculate Tab to add custom calculation script:

After all settings, click OK to close the dialog. To access this form field properties again, click Properties Button .

Step 2.2: Add a Check Box or Radio Button Form Field

  • First, click Check Box Tool or Radio Button Tool in the Forms Toolbar.
  • Then, hold Left mouse button to create a form field of the required size.
  • Finally, the new form field properties dialog comes up to set the new form field's properties.

There are 4 tabs for the Check Box Field and Radio Button Form Field.  Only Options Tab is different than that of Text Box field.  Please see the Text Box Field's tabs for General, Appearance, and Actions.

Step 2.3: Add a Combo Box or List Box Form Field

  • First, click Combo Box Tool or List Box Tool in the Forms Toolbar.
  • Then, hold Left mouse button to create a form field of the required size.
  • Finally, the new form field properties dialog comes up to set the new form field's properties.

There are 7 tabs for the Combo Box Field.  Only Options Tab is different than that of Text Box field. Please see the Text Box Field's tabs for General, Appearance, Actions, Format, Validate and Calculate.

There are 4 tabs for the Combo Box Field.  Only Options Tab is different than that of Text Box field. Please see the Text Box Field's tabs for General, Appearance, and Actions.

Step 2.4: Add a Push Button Form Field

  • First, click Push Button Tool in the Forms Toolbar.
  • Then, hold Left mouse button to create a form field of the required size.
  • Finally, the new form field properties dialog comes up to set the new form field's properties.

There are 4 tabs for the Push Button Field.  Only Options Tab is different than that of Text Box field.  Please see the Text Box Field's tabs for General, Appearance, and Actions.

  • Now that you have your text areas specified, its time to add a Submit button so that your clients can easily email you back the completed PDF form data. Please see the steps on How to submit PDF Form Data (FDF) by Email.

Step 3: Save all Editing into a new PDF with PDF Form Fields

The "Save PDF Options" Dialog will come up. All the PDF Editing will be saved directly into the original PDF with options: Output Options, Description, Encrypt/Decrypt, Initial View, and Presentation Effect. You can click each Tab to see the content.

If you just begin to use PDFill PDF Editor, use the default options and click "Save PDF as ...".

  • You must save editing into a project file (PFL) so that you can resume editing later.
    To save this project, select Menu File > Save Project or click
    from Toolbar. 
     

Step 4: Distribute your new PDF Form

  • The final PDF with interactive PDF Form Field is fillable and savable with Adobe Reader XI.
  • You can put your PDF under a website using FTP like this example:

https://www.pdfill.com/example/pdf_form_maker_new.pdf

  • You can email this PDF to your clients.
  • With Adobe Reader XI, your clients can fill, print, save or submit this PDF.

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