Is it fillable? Check first
Drop the file on Fill forms. If the PDF carries AcroForm fields, they appear as a checklist and the job is easy: type, tick, pick, flatten, download. If Bindery reports that the document has no fields, the form is a flat page — a Word export, a scan, or a print-to-PDF — and one of the four methods below applies: on a form made on a computer, start with the first; on a scan, use the second or third. Either way, nothing you type leaves your device.
Method 1: let Bindery find the fields
When Fill forms finds no fields it offers Find the fields. On a form made on a computer — exported from Word or LibreOffice, built in a form designer, saved from a website — Bindery reads what the page is drawn with: answer lines and boxes, small squares for checkboxes, rows of letter boxes, underscore and dot leaders, ☐ glyphs, a “Label:” with empty space after it, and empty table cells. Each becomes a proposed text, multi-line, checkbox or comb field, outlined on the page and named from the printed label next to it. Switch off the ones that are not blanks, fix any label it paired wrongly, and check the list before anything is written. Then type your answers or fill them from My details and download a flattened copy, or keep a fillable PDF for next time. Detection works on digital forms only; scanned forms are not supported yet. It is a set of rules rather than a model, so expect to switch off a decorative rule or two, and to add a blank it missed with Method 2 or 3. Making a PDF fillable and typing into a flat form walk through it step by step.
Method 2: type onto the page
Open Edit and mark up and choose the Text tool. Click where an answer belongs, type it, adjust the size to match the printed boxes, and move to the next line. Checkboxes take an X or a ✓. It works on any PDF, scans included, and it is the fastest way to complete a one-off form, and the result is a permanent part of the page — exactly what a printed-and-handwritten form would be, without the printer. Add your signature the same way, drawn or typed and placed on the line.
Method 3: draw real fields, then fill
If the same form will be filled again — by you, by colleagues, by clients — spend ten minutes in Create form. On a digital form, press Detect fields first and keep what it got right; on a scan, or for anything it missed, drag a text field over each blank, a checkbox over each box, a dropdown where there is a fixed choice, and name them like data. Save the fillable master. From then on the form completes in Fill forms as a checklist, and Fill from spreadsheet can produce one completed copy per row of a list. The fields are standard, so they also work in Acrobat, Preview and every browser.
Method 4: it arrived on paper or as a photo
Photograph it with Scan from phone, which straightens the page and sends it directly to your computer, or convert existing photos with JPG to PDF. Then use Method 2, or Method 3 for a form you will reuse: Find the fields needs a form made on a computer, and scanned forms are not supported yet. If the scan is faint or crooked, Clean scanned PDF first.
Making it look like it was filled properly
- Match the size. Printed forms usually use 9–11 point text; pick a text size that sits inside the box without touching its edges, then keep the same size for every field.
- Align to the baseline. Place text so it sits on the printed line rather than floating above it; a consistent offset reads as deliberate.
- Dates and numbers. Write dates in the format the form asks for (day/month/year is printed on most non-US forms) and use one style throughout.
- Checkboxes. A single X or ✓, centred; never both. If a choice is exclusive, mark one option only.
- Long answers. Where a box is too small, write “see attached” and add a page with Word to PDF and Merge. Do not shrink text below readable size.
- Zoom before you download. Check every page at 200%; overlapping text is invisible at fit-to-width and obvious on paper.
What recipients accept
Most organisations accept a typed-and-signed PDF because it is what they receive from every e-signature service. The exceptions are forms that must be filled in ink — some notarised documents, certain government identity forms, anything that says “wet signature” — and forms scanned by machine, which need the original page size and no scaling. When in doubt, ask, and send the PDF as an attachment only if the content is not sensitive; otherwise use a sealed link. Keep a copy of what you sent: the flattened, signed PDF is your record.
Finishing
- Sign with the Sign tool if a signature is required.
- Flatten if you used fields, so answers cannot be cleared: Flatten.
- Check properties with Remove metadata — a form built on someone else’s template still names them as author.
- Compress if it is a scan going to a portal with a size cap: Compress shows the real sizes.
- Protect or seal if it contains personal data: password, or a sealed link that expires.
What not to do
- Do not upload a form full of personal details to a “free online form filler”. The methods above run in your browser.
- Do not use white-out to hide something on a form you are sending on; it covers pixels but leaves the text. Use Redact.
- Do not print, sign and photograph unless the recipient insists on ink — a placed signature is the same electronic signature most organisations accept.