2020-09-10 17:51:06 • Filed to: PDFelement for Mac How-Tos • Proven solutions
Sign your form: Click “Sign” in the toolbar at the top of the page. Then draw, type, or choose an image for your signature. Then click “Apply” to place your signature on the form. Send your form: After you have filled the form, you can share the PDF with others and even send to sign. To share the form. We know a form is being submitted by a MAC user right away as the fonts change, the photo fields are suddenly voided out (JavaScript settings are gone), check boxes are unmarked and the list goes on! We end up spending a ton of time fixing these forms for our participants- time that could be better spent doing other work! Video on Creating Fillable PDF Forms on Mac. PDFelement for Mac is an awesome PDF form maker for Mac. You can use it to create your own professional form from a select of free form templates, or options to create a form from scratch using text fields, buttons, lists and more.
Apple's Preview program has been equipped Preview with many PDF features: the ability to review PDF files, mark up PDFs with tools, delete & merge PDF pages, and more. However, one feature it does not have is the ability to create PDF forms on Mac, including macOS 10.15 Catalina, 10.14 Mojave, 10.13 High Sierra, and 10.12 Sierra. You might be wondering how to create a fillable PDF on Mac. To accomplish the task, you should never rely on Preview, but a professional PDF form creator for Mac. Read on to discover a great solution - PDFelement to help you create PDF forms on Mac.
Steps for Creating Fillable PDF Forms on Mac
PDFelement for Mac is fully compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina), 10.14 (Mojave), 10.13 (High Sierra), 10.12 (Sierra). Download and install the package for the Mac PDF form creating tool. Follow the steps below to learn how to make PDF forms on Mac.
Step 1. Download a PDF Form Template
Pdf Form Format
One way to make it efficient to create forms in Mac is to start with PDF form templates, rather than starting from scratch. You can download PDF form templates from our template page or online. Then launch the software and click 'Open File' to import the templates you downloaded.
Step 2. Create a PDF Form from Template
After opening the form, you can click 'Form' on the left column and this will review the form toolbar. Click the last icon and choose 'Form Field Recognition' in the drop-down menu. This will make all interactive fields editable. You can then fill the content.
If you want to modify the items, you can click the tools to edit them or choose an option to add a new item to your form.
Step 3. Build PDF Form from Scratch
If you'd rather start from scratch, you can go to 'File > Create > Blank Document' to open a blank page. Then click the 'Form' button on the left column to show all the form elements like checkboxes, radio buttons, text fields and so on. Click one of the elements on the floating menu. Move the cursor to a blank area of the document to draw checkboxes, radio buttons, list box, etc.
- Create Multiple Copies: You can create duplicates of all selected fields at once.
- Show Tab Numbers: You'll be able to see the default field order when you use the Tab key to enter. This will be the same as the creation order and you can change the order manually if you'd like.
- Form Field Recognition: This will help you create a fillable PDF form automatically. This prevents you from having to add fields or boxes manually one by one.
Step 4. Edit Fields Properties
After adding an element, you can set the properties for the interactive field by double-clicking on it. To align added interactive fields, Click the 'Align' button and select one of the alignment options. To modify an existing field, click on the field to select it, then press the Delete key to delete it, or move your cursor to adjust its size. After drawing forms, you can then type in text.
Double-click the field or box to open the Properties window. You can then set the appearance, actions, options, and calculations, etc.
Video on Creating Fillable PDF Forms on Mac
PDFelement for Mac is an awesome PDF form maker for Mac. You can use it to create your own professional form from a select of free form templates, or options to create a form from scratch using text fields, buttons, lists and more. On top of being a form creator, this program is also a form filler and editor. You'll be able to fill out PDF forms and edit items as you want.
PDFelement for Mac can convert all of your PDF editing, creating and converting needs. You can make changes to PDF text, images and pages, just like you would with a Word processor. The advanced OCR technology even lets you turn scanned PDF documents into editable text. You can also convert PDF from or to various other document formats. Moreover, it supports the new macOS Mojave, so you don't have to worry about compatibility issues.
Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!
Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!
Buy PDFelement right now!
Buy PDFelement right now!
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If you are having trouble enabling forms for Reader users, check the following conditions:
Reader-enabling forms option is unavailable in the Advanced menu
- This feature is not available in Adobe Reader. You must have Acrobat 9 Pro, Pro Extended, or Standard, Acrobat 8 Professional, or Acrobat 3D Version 8.
- If you are editing the form, click Close Form Editing in the upper-right corner of the form.
- Make sure that the security settings allow form filling. (See File > Properties > Security.)
- Make sure that the PDF/A standard was not used to create the file. (Check for the Standards panel button  in the Navigation pane.) If PDF/A was used, re-create the PDF without the PDF/A setting to allow reader-enabling.
- Reader users must have Reader 8 or later.
- When you choose the Reader-enabling option, save a copy of the form using a different filename, and then send the copy to recipients.
If you’re having trouble filling in and submitting forms, check the following conditions:
- Make sure that the security settings allow form filling. (See File > Properties > Security.)
- Make sure that the PDF includes interactive, or fillable, form fields. Sometimes form creators forget to convert their PDFs to interactive forms, or they intentionally design a form you can only fill in by hand. If you can’t type in the form fields, then the fields are probably not interactive.
- Check for additional capabilities and restrictions in the purple document message bar, just below the tool area.
Pdf For Mac Download
Additional forms tips for Acrobat users
- If the form doesn’t have interactive form fields, open the form in Acrobat 9 (any version) and choose Forms > Add Or Edit Fields. Check if this message appears: “Currently there are no form fields on this PDF. Do you want Acrobat to detect the form fields for you?”. You can click Yes to run the Form Field Recognition tool, or use the Typewriter tool to create form fields.
- If the message “This operation is not permitted” appears when users open or submit your form, check for unembedded fonts or hidden objects. Also, make sure that fonts are embedded in any PDF before you import it as artwork in the form. To check for unembedded fonts, choose File > Properties > Font tab. To embed fonts, choose Tools > Advanced Editing > TouchUp Text Tool. To locate and remove content you don’t want, choose Document > Examine Document in Acrobat. For more information, see the forum post Operation not permitted.
- If you have checked all these conditions and still can’t fill out and submit the form, post your question on the Acrobat forum.
- If the form doesn’t have interactive form fields, you can ask the form creator to place form fields on the document. Or, you can download a free trial of Acrobat 9 (Windows only). In Acrobat, you can use either the Typewriter tool or Form Field Recognition tool to create form fields.
- If the form creator enabled additional capabilities, then the Document Extensions panel (View > Navigation Panels > Document Extensions) is available. You can open the panel to see what else you can do with the form. For example, you might be able to save and print data, add comments, and digitally sign it.
If other functions, such as editing document content or inserting and deleting pages, are restricted, and you have checked all these conditions and still can’t fill out and submit the form, post your question on the Acrobat Reader forum.