How to make a fillable PDF form in PDF by Zaweba

Turning a flat document into a form people can fill on screen is one of the jobs PDF by Zaweba was built for. Open the PDF, choose Form, then Prepare form, and you can drag out boxes on the page to make fields of every common kind.

The kinds on offer are text fields, check boxes, radio buttons, drop-downs, lists, buttons, picture fields, date fields and signature fields. Between them they cover nearly every form you are likely to make, from a simple sign-up sheet to a detailed application.

Adding fields

In Prepare form, pick the kind of field you want and drag a box where it should go on the page. That box is the field. Start with the obvious ones: text fields over the blank lines, check boxes over the little squares, a signature field where the signature goes.

Choose the kind with the person filling the form in mind. A text field is fine for a name. For a question with a fixed set of answers, a drop-down or a set of radio buttons stops people typing something unexpected. A date field gives them a calendar to choose from. A picture field lets them add a photo or logo by clicking it.

If your page already looks like a paper form, with lines of underscores and empty boxes, it is worth trying the automatic field finder first. It makes fields for you from the drawing, and you can then tidy them up here.

Arranging and copying

Once fields are on the page you can select them, move them, resize them and arrange them. Lining up a column of fields so their edges match makes a form look far more professional and makes it easier to fill.

Two copying tools save a great deal of dragging. You can copy fields onto other pages, which suits forms where the same header fields appear on every page. And you can copy a field in a grid, which is just what you need for a table of rows and columns, such as an order form with lines for items, quantities and prices.

Tab order

Tab order decides where the cursor goes when someone presses Tab. If it jumps from the name field to a box at the bottom of the page and then back up, the form feels broken even when every field works. Set the tab order so it follows the way people read the page, usually left to right and top to bottom, and filling the form becomes quick and natural.

Editing properties

Every field has properties you can edit: how it looks, its options, and for many kinds a format and calculation as well. This is where you give a field a sensible name, add the choices to a drop-down, and set how numbers and dates are shown. Spend a moment naming fields clearly. The names appear in the form fields panel and in exported data, so "Postcode" is far more useful than a name made up automatically.

A good order of work

Start by adding all the fields roughly. Then name them. Then line them up and set the tab order. Then go through the properties, adding formats and calculations where they help. Finally, leave Prepare form and fill the form yourself as a test, pressing Tab through it and checking every field behaves.

Save a clean copy before you share it. If you typed test values while checking, Clear form empties them. Fields that are too small are the commonest problem, so make text boxes tall enough for the text and wide enough for a typical answer. Check the tab order again after any later changes, and don't flatten a form you want people to fill, since flattening turns fields into part of the page.

With Prepare form, PDF by Zaweba lets you make proper fillable forms offline and for free, without sending your document anywhere.