Creating and changing form fields. Creating and editing interactive PDF forms How to make a fillable form in pdf

The PDF format is often used as the final publication format for submitting documents that are complete and cannot be edited. Less known is that PDF has an option that allows you to create a fillable form. It can be edited and saved. Most standard PDF viewers can be used to edit the form.

This provides a simple and practical method for publishing forms that the user can do rather than on paper. The form makes it clear to the user which fields must be filled in, and by editing them the user does not risk breaking the form layout.

The sample PDF can be opened and edited using standard PDF viewing. For example: Foxit Reader, Adobe (Acrobat) Reader and others. After updating the information fields, save the form using the menu File - Save.

Create a PDF Form

LibreOffice can create PDF files. This is done using the menu File - Export to PDF. Any types of documents: text, tables, slide shows can be output as PDF. These files are read-only and are not forms.

To create a PDF form you need to use LibreOffice.Writer. Specific fields must be specified for each text to be replaced. In order to insert and edit these fields, special menus are used " Controls" in the toolbar. To use the "control form" in the toolbar, select the menu View - Toolbars - Controls.

This will open a small menu with typical GUI elements, such as text fields, lists, switches. One of the important ones is a button - an icon of a hand with an index finger on a button. This button enables or disables editing mode.

Note: If, after double-clicking on a field, the properties window does not open, check that development mode is enabled in the menu control form. See above. It is important that the margins are high enough for the font used. If the font is set to Arial 11 points, the margin must be at least 7 mm. If the margin is too small, text may look correct in one PDF viewer, but will be cut off at the top or bottom in another.

For fields List And Combo list the property " is used List elements" to set the items in the list. Click the triangle down icon and write one item on each line.

Note: Use a keyboard shortcut Shift and Enter to add a new line. Pressing only Enter will close the list.

To create a new layout with different input fields, you can copy the fields and change their properties.

In the field properties in the name column, set a unique name for each field.

How to add or change "list elements"

Let's look at an example of working with the List object in LibreOffice Writer.

If you need to edit a ready-made list in a form created in LibreOffice Writer, follow these steps:

Enable click on panel mode Controls button marked with number 1 (see figure "Working with forms in LibreOffice")
Select an object List in your document and press button 2 (you can double-click on the object).
The object properties window will open List(see picture below). On the tab Are common scroll the list of properties to position List elements(highlighted with a red frame).
Click the triangle on the right to go to editing list items.
Click on the line with the desired element and change its value. To add a new element to the list, place the cursor at the end of the element name and press the keys simultaneously Shift And Enter. An empty line will be added; you can enter a new list element into it.
Close the properties window and disable the mode Controls.

Creating a group of radio buttons

To create a group of radio buttons, we need an additional toolbar. We call it by pressing button 3 (see figure “Working with forms in LibreOffice”)
For ease of use, I recommend using the wizard. We turn it on with button 4. Next, on the additional panel we turn on the “Group” mode - button 5.

Now, while holding down the left mouse button, stretch the rectangle (switch area). After releasing the button, the wizard window will appear.

In this window, we sequentially enter the names of the parameters, adding them to the list on the right using the double arrow button.
Click the Next button. And let's move on to the next step.

Click the Next button. And let's move on to the next step. Here we also leave everything as default.

Click Finish.

The following area appears in the document.

Stretch or shrink the dimensions using the green markers.

This sequence of steps ensures that the switches in the PDF form work correctly. Tested in Adobe Acrobat Reader and Foxit Reader.

The order in which the user fills out the fields in the PDF form

When all the fields have been added and located on the page, it is necessary to establish a sequence in which the user can move from one field, using the tab key, to another. In order to set the tab order, you need to select any field and in the properties window, in " Order

If you do not see such a window, go to Tools - Options - LibreOffice - General. Check the box Use LibreOffice dialogs.

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iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac provides a wide range of tools for creating PDF forms. You can create your own form using the following tools: text box, checkbox, radio button, drop-down list, list box, and button.

1 Adding a text field

To create a PDF form, use the menu “File” > “Create”, then select the “Blank Document” option to create a blank PDF document. Additionally, you will be able to open an existing PDF file using the “Open File” button on the main screen.

Go to the “Form” tab and select the “Text Field” button, then move the cursor to the place in the document where you want to place the text field. You can drag the edge of the text box to resize it. Use this sequence to add other text fields and create your form.

Double-click the text field to open “Text Field Properties”. Use the “General” tab to set the form name and a number of other parameters. In addition, you can customize the appearance, options, actions, and format of your PDF form, as well as check the form's accuracy and perform necessary calculations.

2 Adding multiple text fields

To add multiple text fields, you need to click on the already added text field and select the “Create Multiple Copies” button in the control panel located on the right side of the window. Specify the number of text fields and their location on the page.

3 Adding a button with an independent function

Click the “Check Box” button in the “Form” tab. Move the cursor to where you add a checkbox button on the page of the PDF document. Click the check box button twice to open the settings window and select the desired check box button options.

4 Add a radio button

Click the “Radio Button” button in the “Form” tab. Move the cursor to where you want to add a radio button on the PDF document page. Click the radio button twice to open the settings window and select the radio button options you want.

5 Adding a list box

You can add a new list box to a PDF file using the “Form” > “List Box” menu item. In addition, you can double-click the list box to change and save its settings.

6 Adding a dropdown list

7 Adding a button

Creating an interactive form automatically

iSkysoft PDF Editor 6 Professional for Mac allows you to create interactive forms with just one click, using a fully automatic mode.

Open the PDF file in the application and go to the “Form” tab. Click the "Form Field Recognition" button on the right side of the screen. The program will automatically recognize the fields and tables of the form, and then add the necessary text fields and blocks of your form. In addition, the program will automatically assign names to the fields of the new form.

You can open the “Select” tab and select form fields to add information.

Form Alignment

Using this PDF editor, you can select several form elements at once and align them. To do this, you need to open the “Form” tab and select several form fields using the Command button. After that, you can click the "Align" or "Distribute" button, which is located on the right side of the screen.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is used to provide documents in static form without the ability to edit. However, PDF supports the implementation of fillable forms. LibreOffice includes standard tools for creating such PDF files.

1. Open LibreOffice Writer and create a new document.

2. Go to "View → Toolbars → Controls" and turn on the panel "Controls".

You should see something like this:

This panel allows you to add various form fields to your document.

3. Now select any of the form elements (for example, “Text field”) and, pressing the left mouse button, stretch it to the desired size.

4. Double-click the text field with the left mouse button.

A control window will appear where you can edit the text box's metadata (size, formatting, etc.) or add an event.

Other form elements are added and configured in a similar way.

5. After placing the required elements, go to “File → Export to PDF”. In the export menu you need to check the box "Create PDF Form". Any transmission format can be used. The most commonly used format FDF.

Click the button "Export" and select a location to save the finished PDF form. Open the resulting PDF file in a PDF viewer and you will see all the form fields in the document. Fill out the fields and save the PDF document. When reopened, the filled data will remain intact.

P.S. When filling out forms in the standard PDF viewer, I had a problem with the Cyrillic alphabet; the text in Russian was not displayed. After making inquiries, it turned out that this was a problem with a specific PDF viewer. Keep in mind. Therefore, in the last screenshot you can see that I used the Google Chrome browser as a viewer, but Mozilla Firefox reads PDF files, but does not support filling out forms.

A ready-made example of creating PDF forms is available here

Project PDF Maker Pilot closed. To work with forms, use programs. With their help, you can create and fill out paper and electronic forms, prepare forms for clients and partners, and much more.

Program PDF Maker Pilot specifically designed for creating PDF documents and PDF forms for filling out. You can fill out PDF forms using the free Adobe Reader.

PDF Maker Pilot allows you to add the following graphic objects when creating a PDF document:

How to create PDF forms

1. Create a new blank page or print it to a virtual document printer (PDF, HTML, DOC, XLS, TXT, etc.) to use as a background for the new form.	2. Add tables, pictures, labels, fillable fields, checkboxes and draw graphic objects, place the created objects on the pages of your form.	3. Save the file via the File \| Save as PDF. You can now open the generated PDF form using the free Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat and fill out the text fields, checkboxes, and print it.

Questions and answers... -->a href="pdfmaker_repeat.html">How to repeatedly fill out the same form with the software...-->

Creating forms for clients

You can use PDF Maker Pilot to create forms for clients. You create fillable PDF forms. Your clients can fill out and print them using free PDF readers such as Adobe Reader. By using PDF readers that support saving completed forms, your clients can save completed forms and send them back to you. For example, Foxit Reader allows you to save modified PDF documents, unlike Adobe Reader, which does not allow this.

If the book to be bound is large, then the internal margins should be significantly larger than the external ones. We received a book of more than 600 pages. The customer sent a PDF file ready for printing. But there's just one catch: the internal margins aren't big enough. They need to be increased due to external fields. How to do it?

Open the PDF in Acrobat. Go to Document – Crop pages.

We find Change page format (Change Pade Size) (just below on this panel). Our page parameters are A4 (210 by 297). We need to increase the internal margins by 1 cm and reduce the external margins by the same 1 cm, taking into account even and odd pages.

We set custom file dimensions – 220 by 297 (that is, the width has been increased by 10 mm). Uncheck the Center option. On the right, set the range of pages to which this should be applied: All, Only even pages.

It should look like this (even ones are larger in size, odd ones are smaller, we haven’t worked with them yet):

We work with odd numbers: Set the custom file size – 220 by 297, uncheck “Centered”, set the offset to 10 mm on the X scale, select the page range (All, Only odd pages).

Now we have it like this:

The margins are different, taking into account even and odd pages. The internal margin is increased by 1 cm everywhere.