How to fill in a PDF form you received, even a flat one

Fillable or flat: the first thing to work out

PDF forms come in two kinds, and the method depends on which one you have.

• Interactive (fillable) forms have real fields: text boxes, check boxes, drop-down lists. Click a field and you can type.

• Flat forms are just a picture of a form, or a page of text with blank lines. Adobe explains that some creators never convert their PDFs into fillable forms, or design them to be filled "only by hand or with the Fill & Sign tool."

A scanned form is always flat. So is a form that someone printed, filled in partly by hand, and scanned back to you.

How to tell in ten seconds

• In Adobe Acrobat Reader, a purple message bar appears at the top when a form has fillable fields, and clicking it highlights where they are.

• Adobe also suggests hovering over a blank with the hand tool. If the pointer turns into an I-beam (the text cursor), you can type there. A pointing hand means you can tick a box or choose an option.

• In Preview on a Mac, click a blank. If a cursor appears and you can type, it is a field.

Filling in an interactive form

In Adobe Acrobat Reader (free, Windows and Mac)

Adobe's steps are simple:

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat Reader, not just in your web browser.

2. Click inside a field and type. For check boxes and radio buttons, click to select.

3. Press Tab to move to the next field, Shift+Tab to go back.

4. Save the form, or use Submit if the form has a button that sends it.

Adobe notes that some text fields are dynamic: they grow to fit what you type and can even spill onto the next page.

In Preview on a Mac

Apple's steps: open the form in Preview, click a field and type. On macOS 14.2 or later, Preview can also fill in names and addresses from your own card in Contacts, though Apple says not all PDFs support this.

Filling in a flat form

You can't type into fields that don't exist, but you can place text on top of the page.

Acrobat Reader: Fill & Sign

Adobe says the Fill & Sign tools let you "add text and other symbols anywhere on the form," including check marks and cross marks. In recent versions of Acrobat, Adobe's help places these tools under E-Sign; menus vary by version, so look for Fill & Sign or E-Sign:

1. Open the form in Acrobat Reader.

2. Choose the text tool, click where the answer goes and type.

3. Drag the text box into line and use the larger or smaller text buttons to fit the space.

4. Use the check mark or cross mark tool for tick boxes.

5. Save.

If you opened the form from a website, Adobe's advice is to save it to your computer first, then open it directly in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader and choose Fill & Sign. Browser PDF viewers may not offer these tools.

Preview on a Mac

Apple says that if a PDF won't accept typing, click the Show Form Filling Toolbar button, then the Text Box tool, and place text where it belongs.

Tips that make a flat form look tidy

• Zoom in before placing text so the boxes line up with the printed lines.

• Match the size of the printed text. Too large and it overlaps; too small and it is hard to read once printed.

• Fill one page, then print or preview it to check nothing has shifted.

• Keep a blank copy. Save your filled version under a new name so you can start again if needed.

Signing the form

Both tools can add a signature. In Acrobat Reader, Fill & Sign lets you add a signature or initials. In Preview, Apple's steps are to open the Markup toolbar, click Sign, and create a signature with your trackpad, your Mac's camera (holding your signature on white paper), or an iPhone or iPad.

Whether a typed or drawn signature is acceptable is up to whoever asked for the form. If in doubt, ask them before you send it.

Filling in a form is not the same as editing it

Sometimes you don't want to fill in a blank. You want to change printed text: a wrong address in the header, a date, a typo.

• Acrobat Reader can't do that. Adobe's help page on editing problems says issues occur "when you open a PDF file in Adobe Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat, which is used for editing." Changing existing text needs the paid Acrobat app.

• On a scan, there is no text to edit. The page is an image. You would need to run text recognition first, and the result still may not match the original fonts.

• Ask whether you should edit it at all. If the form came from an employer, agency, school or landlord, changing their printed wording can cause problems. Fill in your answers and note any error in a cover message instead.

When you do need an editable version of a scanned form, converting it to Word is often easier than editing inside the PDF. Our guide to turning a scanned PDF into an editable Word document covers the free routes.

Before you send it

Run through this short checklist:

• Every required field is filled in, including dates and check boxes.

• Text sits inside its box and doesn't cover printed words.

• Names, account numbers and dates match your other documents.

• The signature is in the right place.

• You saved the filled copy, and you opened the saved file again to confirm your answers are still there.

• You kept a copy for your records.

A sample flat form

Northgate Community Center (a fictional example) emails a one-page membership form as a scan. You can't click into any blank, so it is flat. In Acrobat Reader you add text boxes for your name, address and phone number, tick the "monthly" box with the check mark tool, add your signature and save as "membership-form-filled.pdf". Then you reopen the file to check every answer is there before replying.

Turn a scanned form into an editable file

If you get a scanned form you need to rework, not just fill in, EasyToDecode is launching soon with a converter that turns scans and photos into Word files with tables, columns and headings in place, and flags pages that don't closely match the original. See how it works or join the waitlist.