How to Create a Fillable PDF

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.

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We'll show you how to create a fillable PDF form from a scanned document, spreadsheet, or other type of file using Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Part 1 of 3:

Building a Form from a Document

Step 1 Open Adobe Acrobat DC on your computer.

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Step 2 Click the Tools menu.

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\n"> Click the Tools menu. It's at the top of the app. Advertisement

Step 3 Click Prepare Form.

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\n"> Click Prepare Form . It's the purple icon near the center of the window.

Step 4 Click Select a File.

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Step 5 Select the document you want to import.

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Step 6 Click Start to build your form.

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Click Start to build your form. This imports the file into Acrobat. The app will attempt to create fillable fields based on the appearance of the document. You can edit these fields and add new ones as needed.

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Editing Form Fields

Step 1 Click the Tools menu and select Prepare Form.

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Click the Tools menu and select Prepare Form . It's at the top of the screen. This places you into form editing mode. Now that you've imported a form, you can edit the existing fields, create new fields, and add other elements like menus and lists.

Step 2 Edit an existing text field.

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Step 3 Click the Text Field tool to add a new field.

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Step 4 Click the location where you

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Step 5 Type a name for the field into the

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Step 6 Click All Properties to access the field

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Click All Properties to access the field's editing tools. This new dialog box allows you to edit the field’s appearance and add special options. [4] X Research source

Step 7 Edit the text field.

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Step 8 Add buttons, menus, and other options.

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Saving and Distributing the Form

Step 1 Click Preview at the top-right corner to preview your form.

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Click Preview at the top-right corner to preview your form. This allows you to view and test the fillable PDF.

Step 2 Click Edit to return to editing mode.

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Click Edit to return to editing mode. It's at the top-right corner. This brings you back into editing mode, where you can make final changes if necessary.

Step 3 Save the form to your computer.

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Step 4 Click Distribute.

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Step 5 Select how you want to receive the form results.

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Select how you want to receive the form results. If you'd like to receive the results via email, select the Email option. If you have a web server set up to collect results, select Internal Server, and then follow the on-screen instructions to specify a server.

Step 6 Click Continue.

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Click Continue . If you're sending the form via email, you'll now be prompted to enter some more information.

Step 7 Enter the recipients

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Enter the recipients' email addresses. Separate each email address with a comma (,). If you aren't ready to send the form to other people just yet, enter your own address instead.

Step 8 Type your own custom message to appear in the email message with the form.

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Step 9 Choose your tracking preferences.

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Choose your tracking preferences. Select "Collect Name & Email from Recipients to Provide Optimal Tracking" if you want to see a person's name and email address in their form response email. You can also enable or disable the feature that allows anonymous submissions.

Step 10 Follow the on-screen instructions to send the form.

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Follow the on-screen instructions to send the form. The form will appear in the recipients' inboxes as an attachment.

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Community Q&A

Do I need a specific type of Adobe? Community Answer

I believe the version used in the tutorial is Adobe Acrobat DC. It must be purchased. The free trial will not allow you to create a fillable PDF.

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If your users see the error "This operation is not permitted" when filling out the form, it may be because the form contains hidden objects or unembedded fonts. Navigate to File > Properties > Font to check for unembedded fonts.

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