Filling in forms

A PDF form has fields: boxes to type in, tick boxes, choices and lists. Nixt PDF fills them in from the side panel and writes each answer so that every PDF reader shows it, not only the value behind the scenes.

A form that was printed or scanned and has no fields can still be filled in — see Typing on a page that has no fields and Turning a page into a form.

Finding the fields

When a document has form fields:

• The fields are tinted on the page, so you can see where they are. Required fields are tinted red. To turn the tint off or on, click Show the fields on the Fill & Sign tab.
• The side panel adds a Form view, listing every field. Click the form icon at the top of the side panel to open it.

Filling in fields

You fill fields in from the Form view.

1. Open the Form view of the side panel.
2. Find the field. Each one is listed under its label — the description the form gives it, or its name when it has none.
3. Fill it in:

A typed answer is written to the document when you press Enter or move out of the box. Each answer is one change that Undo can take back.

Labels beside a field tell you more:

• required — the form says this field must be filled in.
• locked — the field is read-only. Its value is shown but can’t be changed.

Signature fields and buttons are listed too, with their value or —. To sign a signature field, see Signing.

Totals and calculated fields

Many forms — invoices, expense claims, order forms — have fields that add up other fields. When a form sets up a field to be the sum, product, average, smallest or largest of other fields, Nixt PDF works the answer out as you type, in the same undoable step, including totals of totals. Number formats the form asks for are applied to the answer.

Nixt PDF never runs scripts from a document. It recognises these standard calculations and works them out itself. An empty field counts as nothing rather than as zero, so an unfilled form doesn’t show 0.00 in every total.

Clearing the form

Click Clear the form at the bottom of the Form view to empty every field you can fill in. Undo puts the answers back.

Field commands

Click the More button (three dots) beside a field in the Form view:

Describing a field

The field’s settings dialog is titled with the field’s name.

Click Save to apply.

Saving the answers

Save the answers on their own — without the document — to keep a record or to fill in the same form again.

1. On the Fill & Sign tab, click Save the answers….
2. In the Save the answers dialog, choose where to save. The name starts as the document’s name followed by -answers.csv.

The file is a spreadsheet with three columns — Field, Question and Answer — and one row for each field. It opens in any spreadsheet app, including Nixt Sheets.

Filling in from a file

1. On the Fill & Sign tab, click Fill in from a file….
2. In the Choose a data file dialog, choose a file.

Nixt PDF reads two kinds of file, and tells them apart by what they contain rather than by their names:

• A spreadsheet file (CSV) whose first column is the field name and whose last column is the answer — such as a file made with Save the answers….
• An XFDF file, the form-data file other PDF software exports.

The message says what happened:

Undo takes the whole import back in one step.

Flattening a form

Flattening makes the answers part of the page and removes the form, so nothing can be typed into it again. This is different from making fields read-only, which any PDF software can undo.

1. On the Fill & Sign tab, click Flatten the form.
2. In the Flatten the form? dialog, click Flatten it.

The message says Flattened 14 fields onto the page. Fields that had nothing drawn for them are counted separately: Flattened 12. 2 had nothing drawn to keep — those fields were blank in every reader.

Undo takes a flatten back.

Typing on a page that has no fields

A form that arrives as a flat page — scanned, or exported without fields — can still be filled in. Add text and Tick write straight onto the page, so what you add prints and can be selected like the rest of the page.

Adding text

1. On the Home or Fill & Sign tab, click Add text.
2. In the tool strip, choose a Colour.
3. Click where the words should start.
4. In the Type on the page dialog, type in What should it say?.
5. Click Type it.

The text is one line, 12 points, in a standard sans-serif font.

Adding a tick, cross or dot

1. On the Home or Fill & Sign tab, click Tick.
2. In the tool strip, under Mark:, choose Tick, Cross or Dot, and a Colour.
3. Click where the mark should go. The mark is centred on the point you click.

Turning a page into a form

Make it a form… reads the current page and proposes fields wherever the page looks like it is asking for an answer: a run of underscores, or a label with empty space after it.

1. Go to the page.
2. On the Fill & Sign tab, click Make it a form….
3. In the Make it a form dialog, review the proposals. Each one says why Nixt PDF thinks a field belongs there, for example the label it found.
4. Untick any proposal you don’t want, and change the names in the boxes if you like. Each name must be unique on the form.
5. Click Add 6 (the number of proposals ticked).

The message says Added 6 fields. Type into them to check they landed where you want. The fields are text fields with a visible border and background, described with the label that was found. Undo takes all of them off in one step.

If nothing on the page looks like a place to write, the dialog says so.