Fill in a PDF form without printing it
Application forms, school forms, council forms and HR paperwork often arrive as PDFs. Whether or not the form was made to be typed into, you can complete it on screen and send back a clean copy.
Two kinds of PDF form
Some PDFs have real form boxes: click one and you can type. Others are just a picture of a printed form. Think Pages handles both. With real boxes, it shows them ready to type into. Without them, it opens a view where you place text, dates and ticks wherever they belong.
Forms ask for exactly the details you'd least want on someone else's server: date of birth, address, National Insurance number. Here the form never leaves your device.
Key benefits
- Type, tick and chooseText boxes, tick boxes, either-or choices and drop-down lists all work.
- Answers that stay putWhen you export, your answers are written into the page, so they look the same in every PDF reader and can't be changed by accident.
- Sign in the same placeAdd your signature and today's date without leaving the page.
- Works on a phonePinch to zoom in on small boxes and type with the phone keyboard.
How to fill in a PDF form
- Open Fill PDF form and add the form.
- Tap each box and type your answer. Tick the checkboxes and choose from any lists. Use the arrows to move to the next page.
- Press Done. If the form needs a signature, press Sign and place it.
- Press Export PDF and send the completed form.
Tips
- If nothing is clickable, the form has no boxes: use Text, Date and Tick to write on it instead.
- Zoom in before typing into small boxes on a phone.
- Keep a copy of the completed form. Because answers are written into the page, the exported file is your record of what you submitted.
Questions
Why can't I type into my PDF form?
It was probably saved as a flat page without form boxes. Open it in Fill PDF form anyway: you can place typed text, dates and ticks anywhere on the page.
Can the person receiving it edit my answers?
No. Answers are written into the page when you export, so they can't be changed by accident.
Can I fill in half now and finish later?
Export what you've done and keep the file. Your answers are part of the page, so to change one later, start again from the blank form.
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