Creating an Interactive PDF

Here’s a quick run-through on how to create an interactive PDF. It goes along with “Increase Productivity: Create a Client Questionnaire.” I’m currently using Acrobat Pro 7 but the steps should be similar in other versions.

Once you have your document designed in either Illustrator or InDesign, go through the following steps to make your PDF into an interactive form that can be emailed back to you.

Open your PDF
Go to TOOLS > ADVANCED EDITING > SHOW ADVANCED EDITING TOOLBAR
Once the ADVANCED EDITING TOOLBAR is opened, choose the 6th icon over—the tooltip should read “BUTTON TOOL.” Click on the drop-down arrow and look at your options. The ones you’ll be using are “BUTTON TOOL,” “CHECK BOX TOOL” and “TEXT FIELD TOOL”
For a text field, choose the “TEXT FIELD TOOL” and draw a text field where you want one to be. A properties window will open after your draw your text field.

Text Field Properties Animated Gif

Text Field Properties

Go through the same steps with all your fields, giving each a unique name.
To send the data you’ll need to create a button by using the “BUTTON TOOL.”

Button Tool Properties Animated Gif

Button Tool Properties

After you’ve created all your fields, save the PDF. You’ll need this PDF to import the data into once it’s sent back to you as the FDF file. You can import the form data one of two ways, you can double-click the file returned to you and Acrobat will prompt you to navigate to the PDF you just saved or you can open the PDF you saved go to “FILE > FORM DATA > IMPORT DATA TO FORM.”