Adobe Acrobat 8 3D - Manual (Page 208)

201 ADOBE ACROBAT 3D VERSION 8
User Guide
Filling in PDF forms
Fill in and clear a form
If a PDF form contains interactive form fields, you can fill in the form with one of the tools in the Select & Zoom
toolbar: the Hand
tool or the Select tool. When you place the pointer over an interactive form field, the
pointer icon changes to one of the following:
• Pointing Finger or Pointing Hand Plus icon . Appears when the pointer is over a button, radio button, check
box, or item in a list.
• Arrow . Appears when you can select an item in a list of options.
• I-beam icon . Appears when you can type text into the form field.
If the form fields aren’t interactive, the basic pointer icon doesn’t change.
Noninteractive PDF forms can be printed and filled in by hand. Or, you can choose Tools > Typewriter > Typewriter
and use the Typewriter tool to type information over the blank form fields and then print a copy of the completed form.
Note: Some text fields are dynamic, meaning that they automatically resize to accommodate the amount of data you
enter and can span across pages.
See also
“Forms preferences” on page 199
Fill in an interactive form
1 If necessary, select either the Hand tool or the Select tool.
2 (Optional) To make form fields easier to identify, click the Highlight Fields button on the document message
bar. Form fields appear with a colored background (light blue by default), and all required form fields are outlined
in another color (red by default).
3 Click in the first form field you want to fill in, either to select that option or to place an I-beam pointer in the field
so you can start typing.
4 After making a selection or entering text, do any of the following:
• Press Tab or Shift+Tab to accept the form field change and go to the next or previous field.
• Press the Up Arrow or Left Arrow key to select the previous radio button in a group of radio buttons, or press the
Down Arrow or Right Arrow key to select the next radio button.
• Press Esc to reject the form field change and deselect the current form field. If you’re viewing the form in Full
Screen mode, pressing Esc a second time causes you to exit Full Screen mode.
Note: If the current form field is a single-line text box, you can press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to accept your
typing and deselect the field. If the current field is a check box, pressing Enter or Return turns the check box on or off. In
a multiline text form field, pressing Enter or Return creates a paragraph return in the same form field. In all cases, you
can press Enter on the keypad to accept the change and deselect the current form field.
5 After you fill in the form fields, do any of the following:
• Click the submit form button, if one exists. Clicking this button sends the form data to a database across the web
or over your company intranet.
• Choose File > Save As, and rename the file to save the form with the data you entered.