Ability to fill in PDF's on ipad

I have a fire safety inspection form in PDF format that I would like to use on the ipad.
I have been able to open it but cannot fill in any of the fields.

Does anyone know of an application that I can use to fill in PDF forms on the ipad? If not can they be converted somehow to open as fillable forms in pages or numbers?

Thanks in advance
Andrew

17 inch unibody MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 13, 2010 11:15 AM

Reply
54 replies

Jun 22, 2010 4:40 AM in response to Glorfindeal

I have tried every single app for iPhone and iPad and they are all kludgy or worse (as far as filling out a professional form). Simply Invoices for iPad by Breaux Software is the best app out there but they are his forms. I have also tried assorted web services ie pdfescape, fillanypdf, pdffiller, etc. Are either flash based or don't output well from the iPad. I have requested the feature be added to quick office for iPad ( and hope you all will go to quickoffice/ideascale.com and vote to have PDF form function added to a future version of the app) and I have requested to be part of a beta for air form for iPad (which looks very promising. www.polarbearfarm.com). In addition I have emailed Steve and requested that Apple add this as a basic app on the iPad.

Don't waste your money on any of the PDF annotate apps or database apps. I have tried them all.


If someone knew filemaker and could get fmtouch for iPad to work that would probably work but Bento is too simplistic as far as form design is concerned.

Aug 16, 2010 7:52 PM in response to jchryss

I am in a similar situation with my ipad. I tried Zosh but it doesn't allow me to edit on the form where i need it to plus it is very cumbersome. I already an editable pdf form created and I need to be able to fill in the boxes of that editable form on the ipad. Does anyone know of any program that I can go in and just fill in the editable areas of the pdf.

Sep 20, 2010 6:43 PM in response to Firecop1

jchryss
wrote:

I have tried every single app for iPhone and iPad and they are all kludgy or worse (as far as filling out a professional form). Simply Invoices for iPad by Breaux Software is the best app out there but they are his forms. I have also tried assorted web services ie pdfescape, fillanypdf, pdffiller, etc. Are either flash based or don't output well from the iPad. I have requested the feature be added to quick office for iPad ( and hope you all will go to quickoffice/ideascale.com and vote to have PDF form function added to a future version of the app) and I have requested to be part of a beta for air form for iPad (which looks very promising. www.polarbearfarm.com). In addition I have emailed Steve and requested that Apple add this as a basic app on the iPad.

Don't waste your money on any of the PDF annotate apps or database apps. I have tried them all.

If someone knew filemaker and could get fmtouch for iPad to work that would probably work but Bento is too simplistic as far as form design is concerned.


Thanks for your sharing! This is what I'm looking for, Now I got it.

Jan 2, 2011 6:40 AM in response to jeannine-h

I like the ability for it to fill out forms also and all the other PDF Management features but from a person who has to feed data to a backend database it appears to not support a submitForm action in JavaScript on a submit button. This prevents my clients from using it to submit forms in the field to their backend database with a single click like we can do from Adobe Acrobat itself. Also tried a form with a clear button on it and it said it cleared the form but all the data was still there? Maybe I'm missing something but the form I used worked just fine in Acrobat but these two functions failed when using PDF Expert. This message isn't to knock PDF Expert (which in my opinion is the best PDF reader on the iPad with their latest release), just it needs a few tweaks to become a better business tool.

Jan 12, 2011 1:22 AM in response to Gshackman

Let me advise you to email your PDF forms with the submit action to PDF Expert developers. They may investigate your forms and answer either they will support this functionality in future update or not. They did exactly that in my case. BTW, their customers care team is one of the best I've ever met. Here is the contact form to get in touch with them: http://readdle.com/contact

May 28, 2011 10:23 AM in response to Firecop1

Im a fan of Adobe Professional designer, where I can make interactive PDF forms. Im in the same boat, I'd like to use these forms on an Ipad. So far I have two apps that work..

Goodreader, which allows you to annotate your PDFs. The other is Forms Tools. This allows you to create a template over an existing PDF and create field. If it had pull down box or radio button optins, it would be better, but so far seems to be the best.

Jun 17, 2011 12:57 PM in response to chstewart

I too can't say enough good about PDF Expert (and I have GoodReader and iAnnotate and a ton of note-taking apps).


Text and hand written annotations, underlining, highlighting and strikeouts, and signature capability, along with DropBox integration, in a really clean interface that's a pleasure to use.


With so much of my workflow centering around PDFs, this app is one of my favorites.

Sep 7, 2011 8:19 AM in response to Firecop1

Great Forum!

I found an app to do exactly what most of you are describing here. It is called DocAS Lite (free version) that allows you to annotate, type within the PDF form to fill it out, record a speaker note and play it back, slide pannel to rest your palm; add notes like post or sticky note to the document. I find it basic but cool and most of all free!


I don't need to print a form just filled in the required info, signed and send it back to the requestor. Save trees!


Mish

Mar 17, 2012 5:53 PM in response to iOlga

Will iAnnotate fill out forms? I noticed the same problem when I am on my Mac Preview will let me fill in the forms but when I download that same form and open it with iAnnotate on my iPad it will not let me fill in the form? I had read that iAnnotate will let you do this but I can't seem to make it work. Did I just waste $10?

Mar 18, 2012 6:58 PM in response to Elizabeth Ingraham

Pdf Expert is great but I believe on the iOS, Apple will not allow javascript to run from within a document, which certain form functions such as a "submit form" button require.



http://blog.epdoc.com/2010/05/ipad-spells-end-of-document-innovation.html



"3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).


In fact the rules are even more stringent because the only built-in interpreter is Javascript, and it is only available from within Webkit, and you can't use it to manipulate your own document object model (DOM). Meaning the only content you are allowed to script is HTML. That means other interactive document formats are just plain verbotten.


There are some pretty reasonable and popular document formats out there that are not HTML. PDF and Excel spreadsheets are but two examples. PDF actually supports interactivity in several ways, including embedding Javascript (a basic use is to do the math in PDF forms) and 3D. The forms Javascript is an older variation that is not compatible with the Apple-provided interpreter (you can't really update 10 year old documents nor call Adobe lazy for not doing so). Even if it were, the Javascript has to bind to a native DOM, and Apple's Javascipt interpreter does not allow this.


Apple Preview supports a subset of PDF but does not support embedded Javascript. Rule 3.3.2 forbids an application from supporting PDF with Javascript. This is really too bad, because I could have seen the iPad as being a great, portable platform for using PDFs with rich forms entry and calculations."


This is really too bad

Mar 20, 2012 1:53 PM in response to Mine.Eye

I contacted PDF Expert, they esponded straight away
I haven't tried this yet, should work


"Dear Mine.Eye,


Thank you for contacting us.


PDF Expert does support some Java script in Acro PDF forms. Here is the list of supported methods.


<a href="http://helpspot.readdle.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=66">link</a>


As for the submit functionality, at present PDF Expert supports sending the PDF form over email and sending FDF or HTML data from the form.


Please let me know if you need any further assistance."

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Ability to fill in PDF's on ipad

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