Typewriter Tool for non-fillable Acrobat pdf forms
How many times today do you receive a pdf form, and you cannot fill out the fields in the form? It happens more than I would like to admit and it is very frustrating. Think about the workflow that you have to go through to get the desired information back to the originator. They expect you to print out the form, fill it out by hand and then fax, mail, or scan and email it back. This is a very time consuming process. I have a solution for you, which is one of our top Tips & Tricks, and that is the Typewriter Tool.
First things first, you must have Acrobat 7.05 or Acrobat 8 to take advantage of this tool. It functions just like a typewriter, and allows you to type directly on the page.
The following is an example of a conference registration form that came in pdf, and was non-editable and non-fillable.
To complete this form, I turned on the Type Writer tool. This is found under the Tools Menu.
Then all I had to do was start typing on the page. I filled out the form, saved it, and sent it back to the originator. It is as simple as that. The next response you will get is how did you do that? Someone also told me a story that their daughter was applying for a job and the company had sent her a job application in pdf that was non-fillable to fill out. She used this tool and they immediately called her and asked her how she did it. The answer is yes, she did get the job but who knows if it was solely because of the Typewriter Tool.
I have found several uses for this in my personal life as well. I actually used this tool to purchase my house. I was at a conference when my offer on a house was accepted. The real estate agent faxed me the paperwork to my eFax account and it sent me an electronic version of the contract. I opened Acrobat, filled out the form with the Typewriter Tool and signed it with my Verisign Id.
If you are the originator of the form I would suggest you make the form fillable before you send it. To do this you can use the new feature in Acrobat 8 called “Run Form Field Recognition”. The Forms toolbar or the Adobe Designer application would work as well. I will cover these features in future blog posts.
Have fun,
Jonathan
Comments
thanks for the info, until now i'd been using another program to do that same task.
using earlier versions of acrobat you can type using photoshop too. but its a bit more cumbersome.
Jonathan's Reply:
Hi Keith, thanks for the feedback. Glad to see that you liked the tip & trick.
Posted by: keith | August 10, 2007 07:02 PM
Jonathan Reply: The typewriter tool does not allow you to add .jpg for signatures. You can use digital signaures under the advanced menu. To add your .jpg of your signature go to Edit-Preferences-Security and then create a new signature apperance.
Great info, I was wondering how to add a digital signature. Is there anyway to add a .jpg digital signature to this feature?
thanks!
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin McWhirter | August 29, 2007 06:21 PM