Fill PDF Form

The tool fills PDFs with interactive form fields, known as AcroForms, which is how most fillable PDFs are made. You can tell a PDF is fillable when your PDF reader highlights boxes you can click and type in.

A filled form can still be changed by anyone who opens it. Flattening turns each answer into ordinary text on the page and removes the fields, so the form looks the same everywhere and the answers can no longer be edited. Flatten the copy you send if the receiver should not change it, and keep an unflattened copy if you may need to correct something later. Some offices ask for unflattened forms so their systems can read the fields; follow their instructions.

The answers are written with the standard PDF font, which supports English and Western European letters with accents. Characters outside it, such as Devanagari, Chinese or emoji, can't be shown in the field and the tool tells you which fields contain them. Signature fields and buttons are not filled; use the Sign PDF tool to add a signature.

Forms often contain names, addresses, ID numbers, bank details and health information. The PDF is opened and saved by your own browser and is never sent to a server, so your answers stay on your device. Close the tab when you are done on a shared computer.

Read the instructions that come with the form before you start, and check whether dates must be written as DD/MM/YYYY or another format, whether names should be in capital letters, and which fields are mandatory; required fields are marked with a star where the form says so. Fields with a set number of boxes, such as PIN codes, account numbers or PAN, often limit how many characters you can type. Save the filled PDF and open it in your usual PDF reader to check that every answer appears where it should before you print, sign or send it. Keep a copy of the filled form for your records, and use the Merge PDF tool if you need to attach supporting documents to it as one file.