Fill in and clear a form

If a PDF form contains interactive form fields, you can fill in the form with one of the tools on the Select & Zoom toolbar: the Hand  tool or the Select  tool. When you place the pointer over an interactive form field, the pointer icon changes to one of the following:

  • Pointing Finger   or Pointing Hand Plus icon . Appears when the pointer is over a button, radio button, check box, or item on a list.

  • Arrow . Appears when you can select an item in a list of options.

  • I-beam icon . Appears when you can type text into the form field.

If the form fields aren’t interactive, the basic pointer icon doesn’t change.

Noninteractive PDF forms can be printed and filled in by hand. Or, you can choose Tools > Typewriter > Typewriter and use the Typewriter tool to type information over the blank form fields and then print a copy of the completed form.

Note: Some text fields are dynamic, meaning that they automatically resize to accommodate the amount of data you enter and can span across pages.

Fill in an interactive form

  1. If necessary, select either the Hand tool  or the Select  tool.
  2. (Optional) To make form fields easier to identify, click the Highlight Fields button on the document message bar. Form fields appear with a colored background (light blue by default), and all required form fields are outlined in another color (red by default).
  3. Click in the first form field you want to fill in, either to select that option or to place an I-beam pointer in the field so you can start typing.
  4. After making a selection or entering text, do any of the following:

    • Press Tab or Shift+Tab to accept the form field change and go to the next or previous field.

    • Press the Up or Left arrow key to select the previous radio button in a group of radio buttons, or press the Down or Right arrow key to select the next radio button.

    • Press Esc to reject the form field change and deselect the current form field. If you’re viewing the form in Full Screen mode, pressing Esc a second time causes you to exit Full Screen mode.

      Note: If the current form field is a single-line text box, you can press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to accept your typing and deselect the field. If the current field is a check box, pressing Enter or Return turns the check box on or off. In a multiline text form field, pressing Enter or Return creates a paragraph return in the same form field. In all cases, you can press Enter on the keypad to accept the change and deselect the current form field.
  5. After you fill in the form fields, do any of the following:

    • Click the submit form button, if one exists. Clicking this button sends the form data to a database across the web or over your company intranet.

    • Choose File > Save A Copy, and specify a location for the copy.
      Note: If the form author gave Reader users extended rights, the saved copy will include the entries you made in the form. Otherwise, the saved copy will be blank.

    • Print the form.

Clear a form in a browser

 Do either of the following:

  • Select the reset form button, if one exists. You cannot undo this action.

  • Quit the browser, and start again.

Note: Clicking the web browser’s Reload or Refresh button, the Back or Go Back button, or following a link to another page may not completely clear the form.

Clear unsaved form entries

 Choose File > Revert.