How to fill out a PDF form
Updated
To fill out a PDF form, open the Fill Forms tool in your web browser, pick the PDF, and work straight through its fields — text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, and lists. When you run the tool, your answers are written into the PDF and the completed file saves back to your device.
What sets this approach apart is where the work happens: on your own device. Fill Forms is an in-browser tool — it runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and browser APIs, so the form you picked and everything you type into it stays on your device from start to finish. That matters for forms in particular, because forms are where names, addresses, and other personal details go. There is nothing to install and no account to create — the tool runs in your web browser.
Fill Forms completes the interactive fields the PDF already contains — its AcroForm fields. The steps below walk through filling a form from start to finish, then cover which field kinds the tool fills, what to do when a PDF has no fields at all, and how signing and locking the finished form fit in.
Open Fill FormsStep by step
- 1Open the Fill Forms tool.
- 2Pick the PDF form from your device. It stays there — the tool runs in your browser, and the file never leaves your device.
- 3Type your answers into the form's text fields.
- 4Set the choice fields: check the checkboxes that apply, pick one option in each radio group, and choose values from any dropdowns and lists.
- 5Run the tool in your browser to write your answers into the PDF.
- 6Save the completed PDF to your device.
Which fields Fill Forms can fill
Fill Forms completes a PDF's existing AcroForm fields — the interactive fields the document's author built in. Five kinds are covered: text fields for typed answers, checkboxes, radio buttons for pick-one groups, dropdowns, and list fields. If the form has all of these, you can complete the whole thing in one pass and save a single finished PDF.
If the PDF opens with no interactive fields at all, there is nothing for Fill Forms to complete. In that case, start with Create Fillable Forms (currently in beta): it adds text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns, radio groups, and lists by position, turning the flat PDF into a reusable fillable AcroForm — then bring the result back here and fill it.
Where the work happens
Fill Forms is an in-browser tool. It runs entirely on your device using WebAssembly and browser APIs, and your PDF stays on your device from start to finish. The finished form does not pass through a server on its way back to you — you save the completed file straight to your device.
The page and its processing engine do load over the network, and the engine is fetched the first time you use the tool, so the very first run needs a connection. After that, the filling itself runs entirely on your device, and a dropped connection does not interrupt a run that is already underway. No account is needed at any point.
Signing and locking the finished form
Many forms want a signature once the blanks are done. The Sign PDF tool creates one by drawing, typing, or picking a signature image, and lets you place it precisely on the page — so the natural order is fill first, then add the signature to the completed file.
When the answers are final, Flatten PDF locks the fillable fields into the page itself so their values can no longer be edited, while other annotations and layers are kept as-is. That is the right last step before sending a form whose field values you do not want edited. Sign PDF and Flatten PDF both take a PDF and return a PDF, and both run in the browser the same way Fill Forms does.
Limits and what you get back
Fill Forms takes a PDF and outputs a PDF, up to 100 MB per file. The output is your original document with the field values you entered written into it.
The tool fills the fields the document already has; it does not add new ones — that is Create Fillable Forms' job — and it does not edit the page content around the fields. Keeping those jobs separate is what lets each one run entirely on your device.
Common questions
Does my PDF leave my device when I fill out a form?
No. Fill Forms runs entirely in your browser with WebAssembly and browser APIs, and the file stays on your device from start to finish.
Can I fill out a PDF form offline?
Not fully. The page and its processing engine load over the network, and the engine is fetched the first time you use the tool. After that, the filling itself runs entirely on your device, and a dropped connection does not interrupt a run that is already underway.
How large can the PDF form be?
Up to 100 MB per file.
What if my PDF has no fillable fields?
Fill Forms completes existing AcroForm fields only, so a PDF without any has nothing to fill. Open Create Fillable Forms (currently in beta) first — it adds text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns, radio groups, and lists by position to build a fillable AcroForm PDF — then fill the result with this tool.
Do I need an account to fill out a PDF form?
No account is needed. Open the tool, pick your PDF, fill the fields, and save the completed file back to your device.