Question 1

Does it work on a scanned form?

Accepted Answer

Not the automatic part. A scanned page is a picture, and finding fields reads the text and lines a typed PDF is made of. You can still add every field by hand, by drawing a box where each answer goes.

Question 2

How is this different from Adobe Acrobat's Prepare Form?

Accepted Answer

It does the same core job, finding fields and letting you edit them, and it is free without a trial or an account. Acrobat goes further with calculated fields, number and date formats, and scripts, which this does not add. Fields a PDF already has keep any of those when you move them or change their settings here; renaming one can break a calculation or script that refers to it by its old name.

Question 3

Will the form work in every PDF reader?

Accepted Answer

The fields are standard AcroForm fields, which Adobe Acrobat and Reader, the viewers in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, Preview on a Mac and most phone apps fill in. Text typed into new fields uses the standard PDF form font, which covers Western European letters.

Question 4

What does a signature box do?

Accepted Answer

It marks where the person filling in the form should sign. In Adobe Acrobat and Reader, clicking it starts a digital signature. Other readers show it as a box. To sign a PDF yourself, use Sign PDF.

Question 5

Does it work with a PDF that has a password?

Accepted Answer

A PDF that opens without a password but blocks editing is opened anyway, and the restriction is taken off the copy you save. One that needs a password to open has to be unlocked first with Unlock PDF, which needs the password.

Question 6

Is the PDF uploaded?

Accepted Answer

No. It is read, changed and saved by your browser on your computer. Forms are often full of personal details, which is exactly why they should not be sent to a server to be edited.

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