How To Create A Fillable Form In Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020
Riley Boylan
I'm trying to help folks in the office use Acrobat Pro to created fillable form PDFs from scratch in Acrobat Pro. I'm finding that the tools are glitchy, the snap to grid functionality is seemingly impossible to align text labels, and it is making sense that almost all tutorials on creating PDF Forms start with Word or InDesign or something else.
Are any folks here using Adobe Acrobat to create forms from scratch? You'd think that basic functionality of layout would be super easy to use, and that everyone would use Acrobat as a standalone tool for creating forms.
Acrobat is not a content creation tool. It's a document finishing tool. It was a huge mistake from Adobe to include editing tools. These tools are only provided for experts to examine contents and to tweak a design. Using it to create content is like pulling your own teeth.
Yep, I'm delusional. And yet, folks here, there and yonder continue to use Acrobat Pro as a content creation tool and wonder why it is so frustratingly difficult to use. I'd like to sit down with the Acrobat Pro Product Manager, their head Marketing person, and demonstrate their product using their built in tools to create content and add a form, from scratch. Then I'd like them all sitting in a conference room with laptops, to be given a form to create from scratch just so I can watch them struggle. The Marketing does not line up with the capabilities and strengths of the application. I dare them to meet with me.
Thom, thank you. I have searched high and low for this admission from an experienced Acrobat Pro user, and finally you said it clearly and succinctly. I can finally move on from bashing my head trying to create forms and content from scratch in Acrobat.
I use my iPad for work, and in this case, I need to open a PDF, add fillable fields and send it to recipients for signatures. This feature does not seem to be supported on a mobile device. Both in the Acrobat and Fill & Sign apps, I only seem to be able to fill the form myself. I am unable to create fillable fields for others and/or request e-signatures. Yet, these articles by Adobe clearly state otherwise:
Worst case I will subscribe to another service to get this done, however, if possible I would like to stick with Adobe products. There is no other documented instance of this issue that I can find and Adobe support is of no help.
Editing in this context will be limited to add or modify static text content only, not PDF field objects (such as text fields, dropdown menus, listboxes, date field objects, action buttons and widgets, such as radio buttons or checkboxes, for example).
A prime example is that many people (including myself when I joined these forums) don't know how to differentiate Adobe Acrobat Pro DC from Adobe Acrobat Reader due to how these product names are used interchangeably during software marketing campaigns.
Prime examples of such tools are Advanced Indexed searching, OCR & Scanning, setting up time stamp servers to apply fully encrypted certificate-based digital signatures in a document, digitally certifying a document with self-signed or certificate-based digital signatures, customizing stamps, redacting documents, print production, embedding of copyright restricted font types, making PDFs accessible, exporting/importing documents to different file formats, distilling and postcripting PDF files, just to name a few.
But to be clear, let's not ignore the fact that With the Adobe Acrobat mobile app you can indeed use the Fill & Sign tool with a PDF a form to edit, delete and add static text content to it (provided that you also have a with a paid subscription).
Additionally, you may use Acrobat Online services, print, comment, share and distribute a PDF securely with Adobe Sign services (among many other Adobe Document Cloud and Creative Cloud and third-party solutions).
You will not be able to edit PDF objects or customize a PDF form with built-in features that are exclusive of the full desktop versions (which were designed to work with Microsoft Windows or macOS operating systems on top of more capable processing hardware).
Moreover, the Acrobat mobile app will not allow you to fully customize a PDF with more advanced capabilities using Acrobat JavaScript programming code directly from the app... which is also the most flexible way to truly edit a PDF document.
Hey thank you for the in-depth answer! Honestly, I understand there are software limitations on mobile devices. Truth be told, I am using an iPad Pro (5th gen) and it has more than enough specs to be able to do exactly what a computer does, but that's in my case specifically. That being said, after posting I went ahead and downloaded DocuSign and it does exactly what I need, on a mobile device. You can add fillable fields and request e-signatures. I am not sure why Adobe doesn't have a solution to this yet and why they say they do in their articles. The Fill & Sign app seems like it could very easily do that. I don't need to edit a PDF per say, and even if I needed to, the mobile Adobe Acrobat app does allow me to do that. It's more that as a working professional that's often on the go, being able to send a contract for e-signatures is a must and as of right now with the current Adobe mobile apps, I can only sign them myself.
Regardless, I'm happy overall that this feature has been implemented. Like you pointed out though, they could work on making the feature more obvious. Signing documents and sending them to be signed are equally as important in terms of signing contracts on-the-go and should be equally accessible.
Excuse me if this is the incorrect forum. I received a fillable PDF form and, of course, filled it out. I could print it and save it on a Windows 7 machine with it opened by Foxit Reader. The Document's properties were all "allowed." But, to make sure I can create a form using Acrobat X and distribute to computers running (most likely) Acrobat Reader on Windows XP and 7, etc., I took the form to a machine running Ubuntu 10.10 and opened it with Adobe Reader 9. Immediately, Reader notified me the form could NOT be saved and to PRINT a copy. The document's properties were a mixture of allowed and disallowed. My plans are sunk if I can't distribute the form from a Web site. What's my problem?
I'm sorry I don't quite know how to make my sample show up. On my form, I have a group of items lets say Blue, Yellow, Red, Brown, Tan etc. I want the user to simply circle or oval one or more of those items. The original form mine is based on did not have a check-mark, a bullet or an "X" by each item which should have made the selection easy and I cannot change the design at this stage. Well, I have the sample here but I don't know if it is going to show up.
See attached sample form. It's a very simple setup; the circle (oval) overlays a textfield and the circle presence is toggled when the textfield is clicked via some javascript. The text that's displayed is set in the Default property of the textfield. You can just duplicate the "Item" subform and change the text for each one.
You didn't tell me how this form is being used so this may not be 100% of what you need. For example, the state of the circle is not bound to any data, and the circles are cleared whenever the form is first opened. If you're just looking for a visual form that will be printed this is fine; otherwise you'll need to modify it a bit.
Thanks for helping out on this. The user will open this form in Reader and simply type in all the other text fields. Then comes these troublesome data that are a group of static items in the form. The circle or oval will be in a field/circle box/button - something - that overlays each of those items that when clicked, puts a circle/oval around the item. Clicking the same field/circle box/button again should turn off the circle/oval and so on; a toggle of some sort. When the field/circle box/button is clicked on and a circle/oval is put around an item, it should be permanent just as the other info the user has typed in and the whole thing will be saved. The filled form will be printed at a later date.
I am very new at this and so, writing a javascript is well beyond my capabilities at this point. The javascript you put together didn't make it through. The pdf file opened with only "Brown" in the entire page. If you need any further clearification, please let me know. Thanks.
I'm trying to do the exact same thing on an existing work order so our office can go paperless. I have the scanned work order and added fill in the blank fields but some of the choices on the work order need to be circled. It sounds like a simple toggle button will work. Your Brown circle sample is what I want to do. I have no scrip experience. Can you please help?
Because I have no script experience, I could not create a button to get this done and I could not get Adobe people to help me out. Ultimately, I shelved the project for now. It is however near the top of my "to do list" and in the next few weeks I am going to do this one way or the other. I'll keep you informed, if you're still interested.
This is an older thread but I found it useful for applying it to a form I have that required words to be circled (rather than checked off). But I'm having a little trouble with it and am hoping someone could troubleshoot it for me.
It seems like I can only get one subform to work at a time. If, in Adobe (Pro or Reader), the user clicks any of the choices in one subform, it seems like it disables the clicking in the other subform. I will link to the form I have created so you can see what I mean:
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