Been discussed before, but any news in this space? Anything besides Acrobat and PDFpen to create fillable forms from a PDF locally on the Mac?
Iām not sure why you want the PDF fillable. Could you provide more context?
For example, thereās a wonderful form creation product named MachForms. Itās easy to get the responses in a PDF format, but the actual creation of the product is done via their online forms creation product.
ā¦ put differently, do you need the āresultā to be in a PDF format, or you need the content creation to be in a PDF format? (Iām guessing youāre having a hard time finding what you want because ā¦ itās not very practical.)
Or from another perspective ā¦ whatās wrong with Acrobat and PDFpen if theyāll get the job done? PDF Expert can do the same thing. Is this a price issue?
At any rate, I just tried filling in a U.S. Social Security form today. There were āglitchesā and I had to rely on pen put to paper. Worked great!
I want to send a pdf to clients that they can fill in just by opening the pdf. PDFpen is janky and Acrobat isā¦ Adobe. Just wondering if there are other solutions people use successfully without uploading to a website.
EDIT: I want to take an existing PDF and convert to a fillable PDF without uploading to a service. I donāt believe PDF Expert can do that, but if so that would be great.
Iāve done it in LibreOffice. Itās been a while but I can try to remember/look up how I did it if youād like.
1 Like
Got it. I just double-checked PDF Expert and you are correct in that PDF Expert canāt do that.
ā¦ hmm ā¦ online forms seems much easier to me. I do remember creating PDF as forms but that was in the days when I was using Acrobat Pro. But great form creation options cost less than Acrobat. Plus they have the benefit of being able to make sure the document gets delivered to you, and other security issues.
I realize you think it āshouldā be super simple but good forms are actually much more reliable than PDFs that you send via email. ā¦ again this leads to the dearth of options of PDF software which creates fillable forms.
If Acrobat Pro does the job well, why not use it? (It certainly used to do the job very well.)
Just FWIW ā¦ In those cases that I am using the form to collect data for post processing, I am now preferring a Google form.
Otherwise, I use LaTeX with the hyperref package as a FREE (as in no cost, not as in no pre-training effort) method to create PDF forms.
Which, for PDF files, should be to say, it sets the standards.
Perhaps you might include why otherwise you put Acrobat and PDFPen in the āanything else butā category at the outset. Price? UI?
In any case, your later post states that you are want to convert an existing PDF to a PDF form. This is a different process than just creating a PDF form from nothing. Why not create a form page that exactly mimics the input you need from the existing PDF. Then, merge the existing PDF with the (one page) form that you create from scratch. The existing PDF becomes the āinstructionsā. The (single page) form becomes the āfill this inā.
If so ā¦ as near as I can tell, MS Word can create a fillable form.
Here I have to wonder whether you will need also pay due respect to considerations on whether your clients will want you to secure their inputs in whatever they will be sending back to you. By example, I ask my students to save their signature PDF forms in a flattened format before uploading.
So ā¦
-
Are you collecting inputs that you will need to post-process in some other computer app? If so, a Google form is far superior to a fillable PDF form.
-
Are you wanting to collect information that will be post-processed by reading and want to provide your clients with a way to input the information electronically on to an existing document? If so, rather than converting the existing document to a fillable PDF, create a (one page) form for the inputs and tack that one page to the end of the existing PDF document.
-
Will your clients need to have assurances that their input information is āsecureā against inadvertent changes? Here again, a Google form that sends the submission to you and duplicates the input back to the client might be preferred. Otherwise, consider how to include instructions about āflatteningā the PDF form before returning it.
ā
JJW
1 Like
I didnāt think this was a rare use case. Imagine a piece of paper that asks for:
Name _________
Email _________
If that same piece of paper is now a PDF, a fillable version allows the user to type their responses into those blanks. Acrobat and PDFpen have this feature. I was asking for alternatives apps for this purpose, not alternatives methods of collecting information.
2 Likes
Nitro does it pretty robustly:
Available on SetApp, too.
1 Like
Consider sending a test PDF to all (or a test group) your clients asking for feedback:
: did it work on their machines without adding new software?
: if it worked, do they prefer it compared to how you used to do it
: if it did not work, does the client have permissions, e.g. from employer who owns the computer, to install other software? [corporate machines are mostly locked down with no chance of change]
: do they support the idea of using PDF filling-out as a way forward, or use the existing way?
2 Likes
Thanks everyone for the alternative suggestions.
As far as creating formsā¦
While Adobe is the standard, Iām just not a fan and donāt like giving them money. Iāve been using PDFpen for years. The interface is cumbersome and I was just wondering if there was something better for creating PDF forms. I will check out Nitro.
1 Like
Itās a bit pricey, but I use Wondershare PDFelement | [Official]
It can create forms from scratch or convert āplainā PDFs by recognising where entries should be.
Works really well for meā¦
1 Like