Fill in online forms using Fill Any PDF

When the website appears, click the Signup button on the right-hand side. On the Pricing page, click the ‘Sign up for Free’ button below the member login box on the left. Now fill out the short registration form, choosing a password of at least six characters in length. Click to tick the terms of use checkbox and then click the Submit button.

A confirmation email will be sent to the email address entered in Step 1, though it doesn’t require anything to be clicked. Instead, just stay in the web browser and return to the Fill My PDF home page by clicking Home at the top left. Now type the username and password you set up into the Member Login area and click the red Login button.

The Fill Any PDF website will now display the user account page. As we have yet to do anything with the service, there is nothing much to see here. The first step is to upload a PDF form to be filled in. If you don’t have one immediately to hand, Government websites are good places to find them. We are going to work with a Gift Aid declaration form, which can be downloaded from the HM Revenue & Customs website (we have created a shortcut to the specific page at www.snipca.com/x216­ – just click the ‘Gift Aid declaration form (PDF, 88KB)’ link and follow the prompts to download the file to the Windows Desktop). Back at the Fill Any PDF user account page, click the Import Form link.

The Import Form page requires that you give the uploaded form a name, so type in a fitting description in the Name box. Now click the Browse button alongside the File field and use Windows Explorer to navigate to the PDF form file. The fields on the right-hand side of this page are optional, and really intended for use by businesses that use document controls (to automatically number documents and apply revision data and so forth). To learn more about an option, just click the little blue question mark icon alongside. Otherwise, just click Submit to upload the PDF.

And here’s our form uploaded to Fill Any PDF. This is exactly how the PDF file would look if we had clicked to open and view it on our PC. However, the big difference now is that we can use Fill Any PDF’s facilities to fill in most or all of the form without having to resort to handwriting. To begin, click the Type/Write button in the toolbar above the form.

Click the Type button, move the mouse pointer over the first part of the form that needs to be filled in and click. It’s now possible to type directly into the form. Fill Any PDF automatically attempts to choose an appropriate font size but, if it’s too large or small, use the font size box at the right-hand side of the toolbar to change it. Similarly, the default text colour is black. If you want to use a different colour, click the colour selection box to the right of the font sizer. We have stuck with the defaults here.

We have made a mistake when entering the gift amount, positioning it too high above the line. The problem is easily rectified, though. With the Type tool still selected, left-click the offending entry and hold down the mouse button while dragging and dropping it to the correct place.

This particular form has a couple of checkboxes, one of which needs ticking. It would not be too taxing to tick this one box with a pen after printing out but Fill Any PDF does have a ‘freehand’ tool that can be used to do the job while we are here. Click the Write button. The mouse pointer will change to a pencil, move this into the relevant checkbox and then click and hold down the left mouse button while drawing a small tick. If you make a mistake here, or anywhere else, click the Undo button at the top to go back a step.

That is pretty much it for this form. It does require a signature at the bottom, though. Fill Any PDF does have a Sign button, but this simply employs a cursive font for a bit of extra flair, and adds a verified date to the bottom (this is handy for business use). However, we will just sign this form with our own signature after we have printed it out. Click Print and then click Save & Close.

Fill Any PDF now offers the opportunity to email the form. If you want to do this type in an email address and message and click Send Copy, otherwise click Do Not Send. The form is now stored on the Fill My PDFs website and can be opened for viewing, printing for further editing. Click the Manage button to view the list of stored forms. Old or otherwise unwanted forms can also be deleted from here.