Fill in the fillable fields on the original PDF in real time

Is there a way for someone to fill out a form with the fillable areas being overlayed on the form? As if they were filling it out on paper? I could be setting up these forms wrong, but right now when someone fills their information it just shows the necessary fields separate from the form itself.

Hi Admin_LMB,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. Just to confirm, are you referring to the fields on the original PDF? Do you want your users to see the data being transferred to the original PDF in real time?

If that is the case, I'm afraid that feature is not available on the Smart PDF forms. This will only create an online form based on the fillable fields in your original PDF document. I also see that you've enabled the Preview PDF button. This is one way of showing the Original PDF with the filled-in data to your form submitter before submitting the form. 

But if that’s not exactly what you’re asking for, can you explain a bit more so I can help you better? If it helped sending a screenshot, we have a guide here explaining how to do that.

After we hear back from you, we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on and how to help.

We would basically like the form to look like this when a user fills it out...so they can see everything at once and not have to scroll up and down to view the preview.

Hi Admin_LMB,

Thanks for getting back to us. Unfortunately, that is not available on the Smart PDF forms. As I've mentioned earlier, the Smart PDF forms will only convert your PDF form to an online form. Also, the Smart PDF Builder will only import your PDF fields to create the online form version, not its design. As a workaround, you may want to check out our Fillable PDF form creator.

This will allow you to create fillable PDFs. If you're interested, you will have to recreate your form from scratch. Feel free to check out this guide for more information.

Reach out again if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the info. So when I click that link it starts out in the fillable PDF area but eventually seems to default to a smart PDF.

Moreso, with the Fillable PDF, does that behalf the same as the smart in that we can send a link for the form to signers? Or does this create an actual form that has to be sent as a form/attachment?

Hi Admin_LMB,

Thanks for getting back to us. If you want to create a fillable PDF, you can select "Create a fillable PDF Form" at this link, and choose "Create New PDF Form".

By the way, this will create an actual fillable PDF form that can be sent as an attachment. Also, in order to submit the form, you will have to open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader or any other similar PDF reader. And when someone submits the form, you will instantly get an email notification to your registered email address and on your Jotform account.

Reach out again if you have any other questions.