Creating a PDF Form

Benefits of Creating a form with the PDF Form Wizard

Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 9 includes a Form Creation Wizard that allows you to easily create fillable forms, either

From scratch using Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 9
From another electronic form (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel or existing .PDF formats) OR
By scanning a paper copy of a form

The easiest way to share your form is by emailing it to participants. Other options for publishing/sharing can be found on Adobe's website.
Options for collecting form data include email submission, as well as, in some cases, server-hosted submission.

Steps in Creating a Form in Adobe Acrobat Pro version 9 - click to expand.

Scan, import or upload your form to the .PDF format. For more information, see Converting and Electronic Document to a .PDF.

Although Acrobat does not require that you start with a .PDF, form functionality is improved if you begin with this step.

Click Forms - Start Form Wizard.

Click Start from an existing document.

If you already have opened the .PDF, click Use the current document.

Your form will appear, with a list of fields on the left.

Editing Form Fields - click to expand.

To edit a form that was detected by the Form wizard, double click on the blue box. A menu of properties will appear.

To add a field that was not detected by the form wizard, choose the format of the button.
Then drag the blue crosshairs to the location you would like to place the field and click/drag to expand.
You can also add buttons to your form for the user to complete functions such as Printing, Saving, and Resetting the form. To do so, choose the button type that you would like, click and drag to lay it out in the appropriate location, and double click to edit properties as above. Choose Actions.

It is recommended that the trigger for any action remain Mouse Up. From here, you can choose an action. If you choose Execute a menu item, then click Add. A list of your installed menu items should appear.

Previewing and Testing a Form: click to expand.

To preview a form, click the Preview button in the toolbar.

To close Form Editing for testing, choose Close form Editing on the right side of the toolbar.

Note: Be sure to test your form multiple times. The Form Preview option does not always allow to test full functionality.

Maintained by itweb@wpi.edu
Last modified: Aug 03, 2009, 12:42 EDT

Creating a PDF Form

Benefits of Creating a form with the PDF Form Wizard

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