Creating and Modifying Interactive PDF Forms

One of the most demanded functions of PDF editors is a possibility to create PDF forms. Master PDF Editor allows placing any interactive forms in documents, which later can be filled, signed with digital signatures, printed, saved or sent via email.

In the Forms menu, you can choose an option for new form fields creation. Forms settings are displayed in the Object Inspector window. It allows specifying settings for one or multiple forms at once.

To edit form fields, enable the editing mode by clicking the Edit Document or Edit Forms button on the toolbar or choosing either of these tools in the Tools menu.

PDF files may contain the following kinds of forms:

Link enables users for a quick move to another place of the current, attached or any other document, to other files and web sites. Can also be used to initiate a predefined event.

To add a link to the document, choose Forms > Link (Ctrl+L) in the menu or click the Insert Link button on the toolbar. This will show a marker, allowing you to choose a field for link (the tool can be deactivated with Esc or the right mouse button). You can set options and define actions for the link in Object Inspector.

The Geometry section allows enables users for more pressing positioning of the link field on the document page. For more details, see Geometry Objects and Geometry Forms

The following settings can be set for a link in the Options section:

The Actions section allows setting an action performed when clicking the link.

The Action item allows users to specify a kind of action performed upon clicking the link: Go to a Page View, Open/execute a file, Open a web link, Reset form, Show/hide fields, Submit a form, Run a JavaScript. For more details, see Actions section.

The link attributes can be changed at any moment according to your requirements.

To create a button, choose the corresponding item in the Forms menu. Click a spot of the document page, where you want to locate the button. The application will create a button of the default size. Alternatively, you can hold the left mouse button and draw a rectangle box of the required size. You can create multiple instances of a button. Names of newly created buttons are the same as the first button’s name, but with an index number. If you create new buttons by copying the first one, they will have a completely identical name. Button copies work independently of each other.

If required, a copied button can be pasted to all pages of the document or specific range of pages. To do it, choose the Paste to multiple pages item in the Edit menu.

Settings for buttons in Object Inspector Geometry, General, Appearance and Actions sections are similar to these settings for other form fields. See PDF Forms Properties and Geometry.

The following settings can be set for Button in the Options section:

Check box is used to provide a user with a Yes/No kind of input to express agreement with the document items. Usually this kind of form is used when required to choose several options out of a list. If only one option has to be chosen, then radio buttons are usually used. To create a check box in the document, choose Forms > Check Box in the menu.

Settings for check boxes in Object Inspector panel are identical to other form fields settings in Geometry, General, Appearance, Actions sections. See PDF Forms Properties and Geometry.

When creating a check box, it is possible to make it required to be filled by the user. To do it, check the Required item in the General section of Object Inspector panel. When the user fills forms, the required fields are highlighted.

• Style item allows choosing a check box kind: check, circle, cross, diamond, square, or star. Export Value item is used to specify a value for export, if the field is enabled by the user when filling forms. If Checked by Default is enabled, the check box will be checked when resetting forms (menu item Forms > Reset Forms resets data in all document forms. Fields are set to default values or cleared, if there’s no default value.)

All the actions with check boxes (creation, movement, resizing, creating copies, duplicating and removing) are conducted same way as for all other kinds of form fields.

To create a radio button form field, choose the Forms > Radio Button menu item. A radio button is most common way to give users a possibility to choose one option out of a set. Radio buttons always work in groups unlike check boxes. Accordingly, all the form fields of a radio button group have to own identical Names (the General section) and different Export values (the Options section). All radio button settings are identical to those of check boxes.

All the actions with radio buttons (creation, movement, resizing, creating copies, duplicating and removing) are conducted the same way as for all other kinds of form fields.

All the radio button settings in the Object Inspector panel are identical to other form fields settings in the Geometry, General, Appearance, Actions sections. See PDF Forms Properties and Geometry.

Choose the Forms > List Box menu item to create a list.

When filling, users may choose one or multiple list box items. The possibility of such choice depends on settings applied by the document’s author. When creating several list box fields in a PDF document, all of them have to own unique Names (the General section).

The following settings can be set for a list box in the Options section:

• Item — to add an item to the list, specify its text in the Item field and click the Add button. To remove it from the list, choose the item in the list and click the Delete button.
• Export value — if required for the export value to be different from the selected list item when exporting data, specify a custom export value in this item. (If Export value isn’t set, it will be automatically set to the text of the chosen item.)
• Up and Down — these buttons allow moving the selected item up and down the list.
• Sort Items — if enabled, the Up and Down buttons are locked, and the list items are automatically sorted in alphabetical order.
• Multiple selection — if enabled, users will be able to select multiple items of the list.
• Commit selected value immediately — if enabled, the value is saved right after the user selects it. If disabled, the value is saved only when the user switches focus from the current field to another form.

All the actions with lists (creation, movement, resizing, creating copies, duplicating and removing) and settings in Geometry, General, Appearance, Actions sections are the same as for all other kinds of form fields. See PDF Forms Properties and Geometry.

With a combo box, users can choose an item out of a predefined set or specify a custom value.

Settings of a combo box in the Options section are the same as those of a list box, except for the only item Allow user to enter custom text. If this item is enabled, users may enter custom values when filling the form.

Text Field allows users to enter custom text when filling the PDF form.

To create a text field, choose the Forms > Text Field menu item and click a spot of the document page, where you want to locate your text field. The application will create a text field of the default size. Alternatively, you can hold the left mouse button and draw a rectangle box of the required size.

When creating multiple text fields in a PDF document, they all have to own unique Names (the General section). Otherwise the data will be duplicated in all text fields with the same name when one of them is filled by a user.

The following settings can be set for text fields in the Options section:

• Alignment — this item allows specifying text position in the form field (left, center, right).
• Allow Rich Text formatting — if enabled, makes it possible to enter formatted text (bold, italic, underline etc.) (The  current version doesn’t support formatted text.)
• Default value — allows specifying default text.
• Multi-line — if enabled, the entered text will be written to separate lines. Otherwise all text is written into a single line.
• Password — if enabled, the text will be displayed as start when entered by a user. (Available only if Check spelling is disabled)
• Scrollable — if enabled, a user may input text which exceeds the borders of the text field.
• Check spelling — if enabled, spell-check is performed on the text in the text field.
• Limit to — allows specifying the maximal amount of characters to be entered by a user.
• Split into — allows splitting the text field into a specified number of cells for characters input.

You can set parameters and define actions for form fields in Objects Inspector.

Find out more about PDF form parameters here: PDF Forms Properties. Objects Inspector

More like this:

Scanning paper documents to PDF
Export PDF Document to Image
PDF Page Properties