Working with Forms

Filling Forms

There are two different kinds of forms that you can fill out using PDFpen, interactive forms which have built-in fillable form fields, and non-interactive forms that are just scanned documents without built-in form fields.

Interactive PDF Forms

These forms come with interactive fields, making it easy to tab through fields and enter text. Some other interactive fields which function in PDFpen are signature fields and calculation fields.

  1. Make sure the Select Text tool
    select-text-tool
    is selected (Command+1).
  2. Click on a form field. A blue border appears around the field.
  3. Fill in the field by typing.
  4. Use the Tab button to move to the next field.
  5. To check a checkbox or select a radio button, just click on it.

Note: Calculations in forms are performed with JavaScript. If you do not want JavaScript running in a PDF, you may turn off support for it in Preferences > General > Enable JavaScript. (User Preferences).

Non-interactive Forms

Turn a non-interactive form into an interactive one with PDFpen to create active fields for you. See how in Creating Forms.

  1. Select the Text tool
    text-tool
    (Command+5).
  2. Click on the areas of the form you want to fill in. A text box appears.
  3. Type the information.
Tip: You can double-click a tool to lock it on and use it continuously. This will help you to fill out the whole form without having to switch between tools. Click the Edit tool
edit-tool
, or any other tool, to unlock your tool. To turn the automatic continuous use feature on or off, see Preferences > Editing.

Saving Your Form

When you're done filling out the form, choose File > Save. The application saves with the information you added, allowing you to edit the form later without losing any work.

Signing Forms

See Signing Forms.