Adobe Fillable Forms

October 24, 2014

OVERVIEW

This guide will walk you through the steps to create, edit, and lock an Adobe fillable form.

Step 1

Create the basic format of your form using Microsoft

Word. Make sure to leave enough space in between

lines where form fields will be needed.

Step 2

Open Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.

Select Create Form.

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Step 3

Choose “From Existing Document”, then click Next.

Locate the Word document that you would like to

make a fillable form, then click Continue.

Step 4

From the toolbar on the right, click “Add New Field”,

then select the type of fillable field you wish to

create.

Step 5

Place your mouse pointer in the location you wish to

place your fillable field, then click on the screen to

place the field.

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Step 6

Enter a field name for your box. Typically this would

be a description box like “Enter name here” or

“Select an option”.

You can modify the field box size by clicking on the

field box so that it has dotted lines around it, then

click and drag a dot to make the field box bigger or

smaller.

Step 7

Repeat steps 4 – 6 until you have placed all of your

field boxes in the correct location.

NOTE: Double-click on a field box to open the

properties box. This will allow you to configure

settings such as text size, max number of characters,

enter in options for a dropdown box, etc.

Step 8

Once you have placed all of your field boxes where

you would like them to stay, click the Close Form

Editing button to see what the form looks like from a

user perspective.

Go ahead and fill out your form as a user would to

make sure you are happy with each field’s

placement.

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To get back into edit mode, click the Tools | Forms |

Edit button.

To see what the user sees, click the Close Form

Editing button like step 8.

Step 9

To lock your form so that users can only fill out your

form, click the Protection tab in the right side

toolbar, then select Restrict Editing.

Enter the same password in both fields, then click

the OK button to save the password.

You will receive a popup message that your settings

will not be saved until you save and close out of your

form. Please save your form as a PDF file, then close

your form completely.

Step 10

Reopen your new PDF form document to verify that

users are unable to edit any field boxes on your

form.

If you need to make changes to your locked form,

click the lock icon in the left side toolbar.

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Step 11

Click the “Permission Details” link.

Set your “Security Method” to “No Security”.

Enter the password you set from step 9.

Click the OK button to continue.

Click the Tools | Forms | Edit button in the right side

toolbar to make changes to your form.

Helpful Tips:

 Dropdown Boxes: To enter in values for a dropdown box, double-click on the box to open

the field’s properties. Next, select the “Options” tab. Enter a value in the “Item” box,

then click the Add button to add the value. Repeat the steps above to add additional

values to your dropdown box. Click Close when you are done.

 Clear Filled in Fields: While testing your field boxes you may want to quickly clear all of

your form fields to get back to a blank form. You can easily do this by selecting Tasks |

Other Tasks | Clear Form from the toolbar on the right-hand side.

Need Additional Help?

Email helpdesk@uww.edu