Fill out a PDF form, free and private.

1. 01

   Open your form

   Open the editor and choose your PDF, or drop it on the page. It opens in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

2. 02

   Choose the Forms tool

   Choose Forms. Every field the document really has is listed in reading order, so you can see at a glance whether it is a real form.

3. 03

   Click a field and answer it

   Click a field on the page and type. A checkbox toggles, a radio button picks the one you clicked, and a dropdown opens its own list of choices.

4. 04

   Check it and download

   Move through the fields with Tab, or with Previous and Next, then download the filled PDF. The answers are written into the file itself.

Usually because the page only looks like a form. A scanned or flattened PDF has no fields to type into, so nothing happens when you click. The other common causes are a field the document marks read-only, a value the form calculates for itself, a document that has already been signed, or one whose permissions forbid filling. Pandaedits names the reason on the field instead of leaving it dead.

• It has no fields at all. The most common case by far. A scan, or a form someone flattened before sending it. There is nothing to click, and no PDF reader can change that. Use the Text tool instead and place your answers on the page.
• The field is read-only. The document marks it as not fillable, often a reference number or a total the sender filled in already.
• The form works it out for itself. Some fields are computed from others by a script the document carries. Pandaedits does not run a document's scripts, so a computed field says so rather than accepting a value the form would overwrite.
• It has already been signed. A digital signature locks what it covers. Filling it in afterwards would break the signature, which is the point of having one.
• Its permissions forbid filling. A PDF can restrict form filling with a permissions password, which is asked for before anything is changed.
• It is not a text field. Push buttons and signature fields are listed because they really are there, but neither is something you type into.

In Pandaedits each of these is shown on the field before you try, greyed with the reason, rather than silently doing nothing. A field that cannot be filled says why, and the document's own text stays selectable underneath it.

• Text fields

  Type your answer over the field, in the font and alignment the form already uses.

• Checkboxes

  Tick and untick. A box whose tick the file declares but cannot draw is given one, so it still shows.

• Radio buttons

  Pick one of a group. The one you click is chosen, by its own name in the file.

• Dropdowns and lists

  Choose from the form's own options. The label is shown, and the value the form expects is written.

• Dates

  A field with a date format is filled in that format, so it is not rejected for the wrong order.

• Reading order

  Fields are listed the way the form reads, not the order they happen to sit in the file.

• The answers go into the PDF. They are written into the form's own fields, so every other PDF reader shows them and the form stays a form.
• Undo covers everything. Every fill, tick and choice is one step to undo, in the same history as your text and image edits.
• Nothing is calculated for you. A document's own scripts are never run, here or in any tab. A field the form computes says so rather than taking a value that would be overwritten.
• Protected and signed PDFs are respected. A form that restricts filling asks for its permissions password first. A digitally signed one warns you that filling it will invalidate the signature.