Fill a PDF Form
Fill in a PDF form in your browser. Every field is listed with the right kind of input, a tick box for a tick box and a list for a choice, and you can lock the answers in when you are done. Nothing is uploaded.
- Nothing uploaded
- Works with no signal
- No sign up
- Quality unchanged
Nothing loaded yet.
The fields
Each one is listed with the input it expects.
Load a PDF to see its form fields.
The pages themselves are untouched. Only the information about the document changes.
Your PDF never leaves this device.The file is read by your browser, the metadata is shown and edited here in the page, and the download comes from your own machine. Whatever the document says about you is never sent anywhere.
Your name is probably in there already
Word puts your account name in the author field. Most PDF printers record their own version in the producer field. Neither asks first, and neither is visible when you look at the document, so a drawing sent to a client can carry the name of whoever happened to export it and the exact build of the software on that machine.
How to use this tool
Drop a PDF form on the box at the top. Every field it contains is listed with the input it expects: a box to type in for text, a tick box for a tick box, and a list of the allowed answers for a choice.
Anything already filled in comes through as it was, so you can amend a form rather than start it again.
Choices are checked before anything is written
This is where most form fillers quietly let you down.
A choice field only accepts the exact options it was built with. Type Concrete into a field offering Gravel or Asphalt and the value cannot be stored, so a tool that writes first and asks later leaves you with a form that looks filled and is not. Here the whole form is checked over first, and a value the form will not take is refused by name with the allowed answers shown.
A difference of capitals is treated as a typing slip rather than a different answer, so asphalt is matched to Asphalt. That correction is reported rather than done silently, because you should know the form uses different wording from you.
Read only fields are left alone
Some fields are marked read only by whoever built the form, usually because they are worked out from other answers or fixed by the issuer. They are listed so you can see they exist, and never written to.
Buttons and signature fields are listed the same way. They hold no value to fill in.
Locking the answers in
By default the form stays a form: the fields remain editable, which suits sending it on to somebody else to complete.
Choosing to lock the answers turns them into ordinary page content. That matters for two reasons. Nobody can change them afterwards, and every reader shows the same thing, which is not always true of a filled form. The words also become part of the page text, so the finished document can be searched.
It cannot be undone here, so keep the original if you may need to edit it again.
A worked check you can repeat
Take a form with a name box, a tick box, and a surface field offering Gravel or Asphalt. Fill in the name, tick the box, choose Gravel, and three fields are reported as filled.
Now type Concrete into the surface field. Nothing is written at all, and the tool names the field and lists what it will accept.
The handling was checked against an independent implementation before publishing: twenty nine hand written cases covering every field type, values given as text, numbers and true or false, wrong options, options differing only by capitals, read only fields, and a document with no form at all. Then forty thousand generated forms mixing the field types at random.
Four properties were checked on every one. Every field is accounted for exactly once, the counts always match the entries, a read only field is never written to, and a filled choice is always one the form actually offers. None of them broke.
Mistakes that catch people out
Expecting every PDF to be a form. A scanned or printed page has no fields. It only looks like one.
Locking too early. Once the answers are locked they cannot be edited again. Keep the original.
Assuming a filled form looks the same everywhere. It does not always, which is exactly what locking solves.
LiveCycle forms. Some official forms are built with a different technology that this cannot read. It will say there are no fields.
Assuming a password protected file will open. It will not. Remove the protection first, in software that has the password.
Common questions
Is my form uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is opened by your browser, the fields are read and written here on the page, and the download comes from your machine.
Why does it say there are no fields?
Either the document is a flat page rather than a form, or it uses a kind of form built with Adobe LiveCycle, which this cannot read.
What does locking the answers do?
It turns the values into ordinary page content. Nobody can change them afterwards and every reader shows the same thing, but you can no longer edit them either.
Why can I not fill in some fields?
They are marked read only by whoever made the form, usually because they are calculated or fixed. Those are listed but left alone.
Why was my answer rejected?
A choice field only accepts the options it was built with. Rather than silently doing nothing, it tells you which values are allowed.
Will the filled form print correctly?
Yes. The appearances are redrawn when it is built, so what you see is what prints, rather than the values appearing only in some readers.
Related PDF tools and reference
Reference: ISO 32000, which defines the interactive form fields used here.