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creating fillable forms with acrobat 7 professional

You can use the Adobe Designer New Form Assistant to create editable regions of a PDF file, like those used in forms. Follow the instructions below to get started.

From scratch
From an existing PDF or Word document

Using the New Form Assistant and a Template

  1. Launch Acrobat Professional
  2. Click on the Forms button and choose to Create New Form
  3. (Click on OK if you get an alert from Adobe Designer)
  4. Follow these steps:
    1. Select Based on a Template (assuming you don't have an existing file) and choose Next
    2. If you have opted to use a template, pick one that more or less resembles the type of form you had in mind ("Information for Purchase Order" might be a good one). You'll be changing the text anyway, so base your choice on the layout of the fields and the overall appearance, not on the name of the template.
    3. Select your Return Method ("Submit/Print" might be a good choice) and then click Next
    4. If you have chosen e-mail as a Return Method, provide the e-mail address.
    5. Click Finish
  5. You should now be able to modify the template to fit your needs. To some extent this will be intuitive (click on text objects to edit them, assign a logo to the image, select and drag objects to move them, or stretch to resize them) but you might also have a learning curve here. Use the Help menu to guide you and use the PDF preview tab to see how it's going.
  6. Once you're happy with the form, choose File-Save. Give it a name and a save-to location, such as the Desktop and make sure that you save it as an interactive form.
  7. To test the new file, minimize Adobe Designer and launch the file from its icon. You should now be able to put some test responses into the editable fields and then either Submit, Print or Save that file.
  8. You can then distribute that file on your Web site or via e-mail or whatever is appropriate for your situation. Anyone with Acrobat Reader (a free download from adobe.com) should be able to edit the modifiable fields and Return the data using whichever method(s) you provided them with.
  9. If you are on the collecting end of the data, you will want to know how to manage it when it arrives. The instructions provided by Adobe are pasted below for your convenience:
    • "To view the completed form:
      1) Save the incoming .xml data file to your computer.
      2) Open a blank copy of the original PDF form that the form filler
      completed in order to generate this data file.
      3) In Acrobat, choose Advanced > Forms > Import Data to Current Form
      and browse for this data file.
      4) You will see the form with the data in it.
      5) To save a copy of the form with the data in it, choose File > Save As
      and save the file.
    • To create a spreadsheet from one or more form data files you have received:
      1) Save the data files to a place on your computer, giving each file a
      unique name and making sure not to delete the '.xml' file extension.
      2) In Acrobat, choose File > Form Data > Create Spreadsheet from Data Files.
      3) Click the 'Add Files' button to chose the data files.
      4) After the data files are added, click the 'Create Spreadsheet' button
      to create a Spreadsheet that contains data from selected data files."
  10. To make modifications to the form you created, you will need to open it up as a PDF and then use the Forms->Edit Fillable Form command to launch the Designer application and make your changes.

Using an existing Word document or PDF file

  1. You might want to follow steps 1-5 above just for practice. Creating a form from scratch using the New Form Assistant and a Template will help you to understand the overall process.
  2. To get started after that...if you have a Word document that you want to turn into a PDF file, you should first turn it into a regular PDF using either the "PDFMaker" toolbar in Word or choose PDF (instead of a printer) in Word's Print window.
  3. Once you have the PDF file, you should then open it into Acrobat 7 Professional.
  4. Click on the Forms button and choose to Make Form Fillable in Adobe Designer
  5. (Click on OK if you get an alert from Adobe Designer)
  6. (Wait for the Designer to launch -- it doesn't happen immediately.)
  7. Follow these steps:
    1. Choose Next at the Setup prompt.
    2. Choose to Maintain Editability (recommended but optional) and click Next.
    3. Select your Return Method ("Submit/Print" might be a good choice) and then click Next
    4. If you have chosen e-mail as a Return Method, provide the e-mail address.
    5. Click Finish
  8. Continue with steps 5-10 above.