How to create a fillable PDF form?

Boobesh Ramalingam
Boobesh Ramalingam
Co-founder of Guesswork.co.

This is a common question from people who send out a fillable PDF. Everyone has to download it, fill it in and send it back. It is hard to fill on a phone and the answers are stuck inside each file, so you copy them out by hand. A Google Form is free and easier to fill, but it cannot keep the look of your document. With Formesign, you can automatically convert your PDF forms into interactive web forms, streamlining data collection while maintaining the PDF format for record-keeping. Even better, you share one short link and every response comes back to one place, not one file at a time.

Let's start. Create your form and follow the steps below.

Fillable PDFs are great for creating simple, professional forms that make it easy to collect information, but they also have limitations such as poor mobile usability, limited ability to edit responses and a lack of real-time analytics, automatic data storage and collaboration features.

How to create a fillable PDF form?

The Upload a PDF to collect signatures screen with Membership application.pdf added and the Proceed button marked
  • Select "No, turn it into a form I can edit" and click Continue
Do you need the signed document to match your original PDF, with No, turn it into a form I can edit marked and the Continue button marked
  • About 30 seconds later, Your signing link is ready will be displayed. Click Edit form
  • Review the form and make edits as needed
  • Each signer starts on Google Sign-in. If your users have no Google account, click Expand workflow, click the signature field and click Not required beside Verify identity.
  • Click on "Share" tab
The tabs Edit, Preview, Share, Signed PDF and Responses, with Share marked
  • Click Link, copy the short link and share it with your users to collect responses. They get a mobile-friendly form and the signed PDF follows the new form layout.
You can also set up your form to automatically generate a response PDF and sync it to your google drive or email it as an attachment. Click here to learn more.

Summary

If your users have to download a PDF, fill it out and send it back, collecting responses is slow and prone to errors. With Formesign, you upload your PDF, it is converted into an interactive web form and you share the short link to collect responses. Create your form and complete the steps above.

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