How to edit a fillable PDF – Make a Printable

Do you have an editable PDF and don’t know how to use it? Do you think you probably need fancy software for it but don’t want to pay for it?

Edit a fillable PDF form in your PDF reader

It’s really pretty simple. You can edit your editable PDF right in your normal PDF reader!

First, look for blue rectangles in the file.

In this directed drawing printable I’ve created, you can edit both sets of instructions individually as well as the word bank.

In this case, I’ve given standard instructions, so the user doesn’t have to take time to write them out.

When printed, the blue rectangles aren’t visible and the printout looks like a normal page.

RTF Formatting for Editable PDFs

As a bonus, the creator of a fillable PDF can enable RTF formatting for the editable text fields.

Unfortunately, the formatting controls don’t show up by default, so it’s not easy for the user to find out that additional options are available. In fact, the user has to press ctrl + E with an editable field selected in order for the controls to pop up.

These form field text properties provide a lot of extra formatting options that can come in handy for special use cases.

You can change the font, font size, font style, color, and more.

There are also alignment options, spacing options,

and the user can even add their own link to editable fields!

Editing a PDF is easy

In short, it’s easy to edit fillable pdfs with no extra software. Make sure to try using ctrl + E while having an editable field selected to see if the creator of the pdf form enabled RTF formatting.