How to fill in a PDF form, whether it has fields or not

Open the form and click a blank space where you would write. If a box lights up and a cursor appears, the form is fillable: it has real fields, and you just type. If nothing happens, the form is flat: it only looks like a form, and you have to place text on top of the page.

In BuzPulse, Edit PDF handles both. A fillable form shows its fields in a side panel. On a flat form you switch to Add text, click where the answer goes and type. If the form is long, or you want your passport or ID details copied in for you, Smart Form Filler does the matching and asks you about anything it is unsure of.

A fillable form (some people say "interactive") has fields built into the file. A flat form has none: its boxes and lines are just drawing. Both look the same in a printout, so test the file itself.

• Click a blank box. In a fillable form the box highlights and takes typing. Many viewers also have a "highlight fields" option that colours every field at once.
• Open it in Edit PDF. When a form has real fields, the file bar shows how many, for example "12 form fields", and a Form fields panel appears beside the page. No count and no panel means a flat form.
• Check whether you can select the text. If you cannot select any word on the page, the form is also a scan (a photo of a paper form). A scan is always flat.

1. 1

   Open the form in Edit PDF

   Choose the file on the Edit PDF page. The form fields panel lists every field by its name in the file.

2. 2

   Fill the fields in the panel

   Type into text fields, tick checkboxes, and pick from dropdowns and option lists. The value is stored in the field itself, not drawn over the page, so the form stays a real form.

3. 3

   Decide whether to flatten

   The panel has a Flatten the form on export box, off by default. Ticking it writes your answers into the page and removes the fields, so whoever receives the file cannot change them. This cannot be undone, so keep an unflattened copy if you may need to edit again.

4. 4

   Download

   Open the downloaded file in another viewer to check that every answer shows.

Field names come from whoever built the form, so they can be unhelpful, such as "Text12" for a surname box. Match them to the page by trying one and watching where it appears.

1. 1

   Open the form in Edit PDF

   Same page as above. You will not see a form fields panel, and that is expected.

2. 2

   Switch to Add text

   Press Add text, then click the spot on the page where the answer belongs. The editor tells you to click anywhere on the page to place new text.

3. 3

   Type, then check the alignment

   Place each answer on its line or inside its box. For a tick box, type an X (or a tick character) in the box. Zoom in to see that nothing runs over a border.

4. 4

   Download and print one copy to check

   Added text is drawn onto the page, so what you see is what the recipient sees.

You do not need OCR to write on a flat form, even a scanned one. OCR (software that reads the letters in a picture) only matters if you want to change words that are already printed on a scan. The scanned vs searchable PDF guide covers that.

Placing text by hand works for a short form. For a long one, or one you fill again and again, Smart Form Filler does the finding and matching. You give it the form and the supporting PDFs, such as a passport or ID. It looks for the fields, reads your documents, matches each value to a field and writes the answers onto the original pages.

• It works on all three kinds: fillable, digital and scanned forms.
• On a form with no fields, it finds the places an answer goes by looking for drawn boxes, underlines, rows of single-character boxes (like a passport number) and checkboxes, then reads the label printed next to each.
• It reads the machine-readable code on a passport or ID and checks its check digits.
• Every value is shown for you to review and edit before the file is generated, and a value it is unsure of waits for you to confirm it instead of being filled in silently.
• It runs in your browser, so the documents are not uploaded.

Example only: an employee emails you a leave request as a PDF with six blanks (name, ID number, start date, end date, reason, manager) and a signature line.

Even on a fillable form, some fields are locked. In Edit PDF, read-only fields, buttons and signature fields cannot be changed in the panel, and it tells you how many it skipped. The form author may have set a field to read-only on purpose, for example for a reference number.

A signature field is never filled by typing. To sign, use Sign PDF, and read electronic vs digital signature to see what each kind proves.

• It does not make a flat form fillable. On a flat form you place text on a page. The person who receives it cannot click into your answers afterwards.
• It does not fill signature fields. Signing is a separate step.
• Smart Form Filler can be wrong. Check every value against your documents, even those it marks as sure.
• Flattening is permanent. Keep a copy of the unflattened file.
• It does not tell you what to write. Whether an answer is right, for tax or immigration for example, is for the form's issuer to say.