Admission forms, job applications, membership forms and claim forms are often shared as PDFs. If you don’t have a printer or a computer nearby, you can still fill them in, sign them and send them back from your phone.

Step 1: Find out if the form is fillable

There are two kinds of PDF forms:

  • Fillable forms have real boxes you can type into, tick boxes you can tap, and dropdown lists. They’re made with software like Adobe Acrobat or Word.
  • Flat forms are ordinary documents with lines and boxes printed on them. They were meant to be printed and filled in by hand.

The easiest way to tell is to open the form in Fill PDF Forms. If it finds fields, it lists them all. If it says no fillable fields were found, it’s a flat form; skip to the section on flat forms below.

Step 2: Fill in the fields

On a small screen, tapping tiny boxes on a zoomed-out page is fiddly. Fill PDF Forms shows every field as a simple list instead: text boxes for names and addresses, larger boxes for longer answers, tick boxes, option buttons and dropdowns. Work down the list, then check the preview.

A few tips:

  • Write dates the way the form asks, for example DD/MM/YYYY.
  • Use capital letters if the form says “BLOCK LETTERS”.
  • Type answers in English letters. Urdu and Arabic script can’t be written into PDF form fields with Convertpdfly yet.
  • Check text that’s too long for a box. Some forms have small boxes; shorten long answers so they’re fully visible.

Step 3: Keep editable, or lock the answers

When you save, choose one of two options:

  • Keep fields editable if you might change the answers later, or someone else needs to add theirs.
  • Lock the answers (flatten) for the final copy you submit. Your answers become part of the page, nobody can change them, and the form looks the same in every PDF reader. Many offices prefer flattened forms.

Step 4: Sign it

Most forms need a signature. Open the completed form in Sign PDF, draw your signature with your finger, tap where it goes, and add the date. Our guide on signing PDFs online has tips for a neat signature on a phone.

What about flat forms?

A flat form has no fields to fill in. You have a few options:

  • Use your phone’s built-in PDF markup tools. On iPhone, the Files app has a Markup option that lets you add text boxes anywhere. Many Android PDF apps have a similar “Add text” feature.
  • Ask the organization if they have a fillable version or an online form.
  • Print it, fill it by hand, then take clear photos of each page and combine them with JPG to PDF. Our guide to turning photos of documents into one PDF explains how to get a clean result.

Sending it back

Name the file clearly, such as Ali-Khan-admission-form.pdf, so the receiver can find it. If the email or upload portal has a size limit, use Compress PDF. And if you’re attaching supporting documents, combine them into one file with Merge PDF.

Forms are full of personal details: your address, phone number and ID numbers. Convertpdfly fills and signs forms in your browser without uploading them, so those details stay on your phone.