Fill in a PDF form
Drop in a fillable PDF and its fields are listed page by page, in the order they appear. Type the answers, tick the boxes, and pick the choices; the preview shows the filled page, and the form never leaves your machine.
The page appears here once a PDF is open.
How to use it#
- Drop a PDF form onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
- Fill in each field in the list. Moving to a field shows its page in the preview.
- Tick Flatten if the answers should not be changed after you send it.
- Download the filled PDF. The blank form is left as it was.
Fillable forms and the other kind#
A fillable PDF carries real form fields: boxes you can type into, checkboxes, radio buttons, and lists. Government forms, tax forms, and most application forms made in a PDF editor are this kind, and every field they have shows up here, labelled with the description its author gave it where there is one. That includes fields some programs put on a page without adding them to the form’s own list of fields, which a reader going by that list alone would miss.
Many PDFs only look like forms. A scanned page or a document exported from a word processor has lines to write on and nothing to click. Drop one in and the tool says so; add text to the PDF types answers onto any page instead.
What filling in changes#
Each answer goes into its field, so the result is still a form: another program can read the values, and anyone who opens it can still change them. Fields you leave alone keep exactly what they held. Answers are drawn in Helvetica, which covers English and the other Western European languages; a character it cannot draw is named before you download.
Some forms carry a second copy of themselves in an older format called XFA, which some readers show in place of the ordinary fields. That copy is taken out, so every reader shows the answers you typed rather than the empty XFA version. A form built only in XFA has no ordinary fields to fill, and the tool says so. In a browser such a form usually opens as one page that says Please wait and warns that your viewer may not be able to display it. Adobe Acrobat or Reader on a computer can fill it in.
Should you flatten it?#
Flattening draws every answer onto its page and removes the fields, so the file looks the same but nothing in it can be edited any more. It is the right choice when you are sending a finished form to someone else, since a stray click cannot change an answer and every reader shows it identically.
Leave it unflattened when the form will be passed on to someone else to complete, or when the organisation that asked for it reads the answers automatically, which needs the fields to still be there. If in doubt, keep an unflattened copy as well.
Flattening also works on a form that is already filled in, whoever filled it. Drop it here, leave the answers as they are, tick Flatten, and download: the copy that comes back looks the same and can no longer be edited.
Frequently asked questions#
Is my form uploaded?
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No. The form is read and filled in this tab, and the filled copy is made here. Nothing is sent to a server, which matters for forms, since they ask for names, addresses, dates of birth, and account numbers.
What does flattening a form do?
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It turns the answers into ordinary content on the page and removes the form fields. The page looks the same, but the answers can no longer be edited, and software that reads form data will find none. Flatten a copy you are sending as final; keep the fields for a copy someone still has to work on.
Why does it say my PDF has no form fields?
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Because it has none: the boxes you see are printed on the page rather than built into the file, which is common with scans and with forms exported from a word processor. Preview on a Mac guesses at lines and boxes like these and offers to fill them, so a form can look fillable there and still have no fields for this tool to find. Add text to the PDF lets you type onto the page at any position instead. A form built only in XFA, an older Adobe format, also shows no fields here.
Can I fill in a PDF form on my phone?
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Yes. The page works in a phone browser with nothing to install: drop or choose the form, type into each field in the list, and download the filled copy like any other file. The preview sits below the list, and moving to a field turns it to that field’s page.
Do I need Adobe Acrobat to fill in a PDF form?
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Not for an ordinary fillable form. This page fills one in any current browser on Windows, a Mac, a Chromebook, or a phone. The answers are saved into the copy you download, so they are still there when the form is opened somewhere else. The exception is a form built only in XFA, which shows no fields here. Acrobat or Reader on a computer can fill one of those.
Can I sign the form too?
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Signature fields are listed as left alone, because signing is a different job. Fill in the form here, download it, then open the filled copy in the PDF signing tool to add a drawn, typed, or uploaded signature and the date.
Why can I not change some fields?
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The form marks them read only, usually because they are filled in by the organisation or worked out from other answers. They are shown, greyed out, with what they hold, and left as they are.
Why does my PDF not open?
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The most common reason is a password. A form protected against opening cannot be filled until the password is removed, which the PDF password remover does if you have it. A file that opens freely but is locked against changes is refused as well, and the remover lifts that only with the file’s owner password.