This document provides instructions for creating fillable PDF forms using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. It discusses how to create the original document, convert it to a PDF, and add various form fields like text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, combo boxes, buttons, and digital signatures. The document also covers adding hyperlinks and distributing the finalized fillable PDF form via email.

1. Clayton Boessen
HOW TO CREATE A FILLABLE
PDF FORM WITH ADOBE
ACROBAT 9 PRO

2. Page | 2
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 CREATING A PDF FILE ................................................................................................................3
3 ADDING FORM AREAS TO YOUR DOCUMENT............................................................................4
3.1 TEXT FIELDS.....................................................................................................................................................................5
3.1.1 Text Fields Continued ...........................................................................................................................................6
3.2 CHECK BOXES..................................................................................................................................................................7
3.3 RADIO BUTTONS.............................................................................................................................................................8
3.4 COMBO BOX...................................................................................................................................................................9
3.5 BUTTONS.......................................................................................................................................................................10
3.6 DIGITAL SIGNATURE......................................................................................................................................................11
3.7 EXITING FORM EDITING................................................................................................................................................12
4 ADDING HYPER LINKS .............................................................................................................13
5 FINISHING YOUR PDF ..............................................................................................................15
6 DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR PDF...................................................................................................16
7 DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR PDF CONTINUED ..............................................................................17

3. Page | 3
2 CREATING A PDF FILE
The best way to start the creating of a PDF form is to
create the original document using Microsoft Word
or some other word processing software. This helps
to create the base design of the document, which is
easy to edit. (Remember to keep a copy of this
original document in case you need to change the
layout of the form in the future)
Next open up the Adobe Acrobat Pro program.
Click file at the top left of the program window and
click create PDF. After this there will be different
options of how to create the PDF from, choose
from file.
Locate the file from the location
that it has been saved. Click the file
and choose open. This may take
some time for the file to convert to
a PDF, depending on the size of the
document.

4. Page | 4
3 ADDING FORM AREAS TO YOUR DOCUMENT
To add fields to the document, click the forms
option. Then choose add or edit fields. The first
time you do this with the PDF, there will be the
option to scan the document for fields.
Select yes to this popup,
Acrobat will scan the document
to see if there are any areas that
fields.
After Acrobat has finished scanning, add any fields
that Acrobat has missed. Acrobat has the ability to
create several different field types. Each type has
many options, to customize how each field will act.

5. Page | 5
3.1 TEXT FIELDS
Text fields are useful if you want participants to
enter unique data values. First click “Add New
Field” in the form edit mode. Then select text
field from the drop down.
There will be a blue rectangle to model the
text field. Use the crosshairs to place the
text field in the correct location.
Once the text field is in the desired area, left click to
place it. There will then be a popup that appears like
this. This allows for changes to be made to some of the
field’s main properties. Give the field a name to help
distinguish it from others objects. Click in the require
field check box to require the participant enter data in
this field.

6. Page | 6
3.1.1 Text Fields Continued
If there are more properties that need to
be changed click on the blue “All
Properties” text, or double click on the
field to open this window. Here you have
access to all the property changes
available. Some very important properties
are under the general tab. Here it is
possible to change the name of the field,
change what will appear when it is
hovered over, make the field required, or
make the field read only if you don’t want
participants change the data. Other
changes available are to limit the number
of characters that can be entered in the
field.
Other important properties for text
fields are in the format tab. Here you
can change what character types are
allowed in the field. You can make the
field numbers only by choosing number.
You can make the field a phone number
or zip code by selecting special and then
selecting the appropriate fieldunder
that.

7. Page | 7
3.2 CHECK BOXES
Another important field that is
availableis the check box this is
useful if participants are given a
binary choice of yes or no. (Note
this is not quite as helpful as a radio
button 3.3) To create a check box
select the “Add New Field” button,
then select check box from the list.
This will give a crosshair to help place the box.
Once it is place give the check box a name, you can
also force the field to be required if needed. Check
boxes have fewer properties that are available to
change than text fields.

8. Page | 8
3.3 RADIO BUTTONS
Radio buttons are similar to check boxes, but have the
ability to form groups that can be forced to accept only
one choice out of the group. To create a radio button
click the “Add New Field” button then from the list select
radio button. There will be a crosshair to help place the
button. To form a group of buttons you must give each
button the same group name. One simple way of adding
buttons to a group is to click the blue “Add another
button to group” link. This will create another button with the same properties as the first.
To create a button group that can accept only one
answer you will need to adjust the “Button Values” of
the buttons in the group. To do this double click on the
button that needs to be adjusted. This opens the
button property window open click on the options tab.
Once in the options tab change the button value to “No”. Do this for all of the buttons except
one, this button will be the default button. On the default button change the value to “Yes” and
check the check box that says, “Button is checked by default”. This will make it so the default
button is check when the form is opened. Changing the value so only one is yes will make it so
that only one option can be selected at a time from the group.

9. Page | 9
3.4 COMBO BOX
A combo box is used to provide a list of choices that a
participant can choose from. To create one click on “Add New
Field” and the combo box from the list. Once chosen there will
be a crosshair to place the combo box. Place the combo box
and give the field a name.
To add items to the combo box go to the combo boxes
properties. Once here click the options tab. Here type
the name of the choices you want to add in the item
field. Next click the add button on the right side of the
window. The item will be added to the item list. (It may
be a good idea to add a default option to the list, select
one item to do this)

10. Page | 10
If the order of items in the list needs to be changed,
select the item the needs to be moved. Then click then
up or down button on the right, continue to do this
until the order of items is satisfactory. If an item needs
to be removed click the item name and press delete.
You can also check the sort items check box to
automatically sort the items.
3.5 BUTTONS
Buttons are useful for triggering a certain action. A
particularly useful action is to submit the form when the
button is clicked. To create a button click the “Add New
Field” button, then select Button from the list. Use the
crosshairs to place the button in the correct place. Next
give the button a name, do this from the properties
popup dialog.

11. Page | 11
To change the functions of the button, go into the all
properties windows. Select the action tab from the list. Here
choose what the button will do. To submit the form choose
“Submit a Form” from the list of actions. This will open a
window that asks for a URL link the submission will be sent to.
Enter in the URL and choose what form the data will be sent
as. Click ok to accept the properties of the button.
3.6 DIGITAL SIGNATURE
Digital signatures are an important part of protecting a
document and the answers submitted by them. Once
digitally signed a document can be protected from having
any more changes made to it. This is important for
keeping the document answers genuine. To add a digital
signature click the “Add New Field” button, then select
digital signature from the list. Use the crosshairs to place
the signature field in the correct place.

12. Page | 12
To prevent changes from being made to the
document after it has been signed double click the
signature field to open up the properties windows.
Click on the signed tab. From here there are several
choices available to control what happens when the
document is signed. For important documents with
sensitive information select the “Mark as read-only”
button and make it apply to all fields.
3.7 EXITING FORM EDITING
To quit editing the form click the “Close Form Editing” button on the top right of the Adobe
Acrobat window.

13. Page | 13
4 ADDING HYPER LINKS
Sometimes it is not possible to fit all the
information participants need to know on a single
PDF form. To help with this add hyperlinks to a
website or file inside the PDF form. To do this click
the tools button at the top of the Acrobat window.
Then select advanced editing. Once selected click
on the “Link Tool” option in the list.

14. Page | 14
After clicking the link tool there
will be a small pointer, use this
to draw a box around the area
of the hyperlink
A dialog box will appear here, choose what type
of link you are wanting to create. Here it is
possible to change the appearance of the link, to
fit the style of your form. To create a web link
chose the option to “Open a web page” and
select next. After this a new dialogue box will
appear. Enter in the URL for the web page inside
of this dialogue box and click ok.
After clicking ok you have created your hyperlink, it will appear
in a blue box like this.

15. Page | 15
5 FINISHING YOUR PDF
Once you have finished adding all needed fields
and are happy with the layout of the form, you
need to publish/distribute it. To do this click the
“Forms” button near the top of Acrobat. From the
dropdown list select distribute form.
If some of the fields have default
values added you will get a
dialogue box similar to this.
Select no on this if you wish to
keep those values in the
document.

16. Page | 16
6 DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR PDF
There are multiple different ways to distribute
a PDF form. After clicking “Distribute Form”, a
dialogue box will appear that asks how you
want to distribute the form. Click the
dropdown arrow to make your distribution
selection.
Here is how to distribute the form using email. After clicking “Manually collect responses in my
email inbox” the dialogue box will change to
something similar to this. Click next to open up
the next dialogue box.
This dialogue box will allowyou to enter in the
information about the email address that you

17. Page | 17
wish to send participants responses to. This information will be send with the form to help
participants identify who the form is from.
7 DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR PDF CONTINUED
Once you have filled out the email address
information click next at the bottom of the
dialogue box. After clicking next a new
dialogue box will appear. This dialogue box
will ask you to enter in the email address that
you want to send the responses to. Enter in
the email address that you want to use to
collect responses. Once you have enter the
correct email address select send at the
bottom of the dialogue box.
The next dialogue box that appears will ask how
you want to distribute the form. You can
distribute the file from Acrobat or manually as a
PDF file. Select “Save a local copy and manually
sent it later” this will save a copy of the PDF to
the local machine. Choose the destination of
where you wish to save the file by selecting the
browse button. Once you have found the location
you wish to save it at click next. Then click finish at
the following dialogue box. You have now
successfully distributed your PDF form.

18. Page | 18