How to Create a Fillable PDF in Adobe Acrobat DC

UFV has provided all employees with an Adobe Creative Cloud account that includes the Acrobat DC App. If you haven’t done so already, please follow the instructions set out in the Adobe Installation Guide. Once those steps have been completed, you are ready to begin creating PDFs using Acrobat DC.

While there are many different ways to create a Fillable PDF document, one of the most common and easiest methods is to start by using an existing MS Word document that can be converted to PDF format. Outlined below are the steps for this approach.

For information on creating a signature and signing a PDF or inserting a signature field, please see the corresponding guides listed below.

• How to Create a Signature and Sign a PDF in Adobe Acrobat DC
• How to Add a Signature Field to a PDF in Adobe Acrobat DC

Convert an MS Word Document to a Fillable PDF

1. Open Adobe Acrobat DC, either from the windows menu or directly from Creative Cloud.
2. Navigate to the right-hand side menu bar and select Create PDF. 
3. Click Create and browse to the location of the Word file to be converted. 
4. Select the file and click open.
5. A message will be displayed at the bottom of the page that the file is being converted. Once the conversion process is complete, the file will open in Acrobat DC as a PDF.
6. Save the new PDF form.

Add Fillable Fields to a PDF Document

1. Now that the Word file has been converted to PDF, navigate to the right-hand side menu bar and select Prepare Form as shown below: 
   1. If Prepare Form is not available in the side menu, select Tools from the menu bar at the top of the page, and select Prepare Form from the list of available tools.
2. Click the Start button as shown below: 
   1. Acrobat DC will prompt for the document to be saved before continuing. Navigate to the folder location that the file is to be saved to, name the file, and select save.
3. Once the file is saved, the document will open in Acrobat DC with Fillable fields that Adobe identified when the file was being opened.
   1. Acrobat DC identifies blank areas, such as cells in a table, as Fillable fields.

Edit Fillable Fields

1. All Fillable fields that were identified are given a name by Acrobat DC. These Fillable fields are listed in the right-hand side task pane.
2. If Acrobat DC identified some fields as Fillable that should not be, the Fillable fields are easily removed by selecting the name of the field in the right-hand side task pane and clicking the Delete key on the keyboard.
3. To edit a field, select the item from the task pane and right-click the mouse to bring up the properties dialog box. From here the properties for the Fillable field such as alignment, or text size can be defined.
4. To add a Fillable field, select the appropriate field type from the Prepare Form menu at the top of the page.
   • By hovering the mouse over any of the icons a tooltip will appear and provide an explanation of the tool’s functionality.

 Note: Adobe may sometimes default to the Adobe Sign toolbar when using the Prepare Form function. The Adobe Sign toolbar looks like this:

Forms created in Adobe Sign style will not output correct signature fields.

To change the form type from Adobe Sign to Acrobat Form:

1. Click on the More drop-down button in the bar on the right-hand side of the page.
2. From the menu, click Convert / Revert to Acrobat Form.

For more helpful tips and videos, Adobe help resources can be accessed directly from Creative Cloud.

1. On Creative Cloud’s landing page, on the left-hand side select Acrobat&PDF.
2. This will launch the home page for Acrobat DC and its related Apps.
3. Select View Acrobat Tutorials to see a number of resources for working with PDF documents.