How to Create a Fillable PDF Form from Microsoft Word

Fillable forms are a fast and straightforward way to collect information. They’re especially useful if you’re a business owner, or if your job involves collecting information from customers. 

A fillable form can be shared within seconds, unlike paper forms that may have to be mailed or require a client to drive to a face-to-face meeting. Fillable forms  can help improve workflows because it offers the following benefits:

• You can save time and money by using forms.
• Reduces errors. A dedicated information form streamlines information, ensuring every recipient receives the same information. At the same time, it will ensure that recipients fill out all fields without any mistakes.
• Enhances customer experience. An easy-to-navigate, clean, and professional form will make your clients or colleagues feel good.
• Saves trees by eliminating paper documents.
• Protects information. Fillable documents are more secure than paper documents because you can add a password to increase security.

Use Microsoft Word to create a fillable PDF form from scratch from the ground up

You can use Foxit PDF Editor Suite to create editable fields with a Word document by following these steps:

1. Select File > New Document in the Microsoft Word program.
2. Create your form. Enter the details for your form. Foxit PDF Editor Suite looks for horizontal lines to determine where to place fillable fields, so you’ll need to create them yourself if your document doesn’t already have them.
3. Create a PDF. To convert your Word document to a PDF, drag and drop it within Foxit PDF Editor Suite.
4. Prepare the form. Select Form > Run Form Field Recognition in PDF Editor Suite. The program will then be prompted to locate the horizontal lines to create fillable fields intelligently.
5. Save your form. Click File > Save as to save the form.

How to convert a Microsoft Word file to a PDF form

An alternate workflow, if you already have a Word file created that you’d like to convert into a fillable PDF form, are the following steps using Foxit PDF Editor Suite:

1. Open Foxit PDF Editor Suite, then go to File > Create > Form > From a File. Now select your Microsoft Word file and click Convert.

2. A progress bar for conversion will appear in the lower right corner. Once the conversion is complete, the newly created form file will be opened automatically in Foxit PDF Editor Suite.

3. Fix unrecognized fields. If any fields in the newly created form field were not converted into interactive form fields from your Word document, click Form > Designer Assistant > Text Field in the toolbar, then, point your cursor to where the unrecognized field is to create an interactive field on the table cell manually.

Remember that when you make static forms into interactive forms, the completion rate increases and the accuracy improves. That’s why it makes sense to convert Word documents into PDF forms.