Type into a PDF instead of printing it out
Add text to any PDF and save a filled copy. The original is never changed.
One-page forms are the annoying case: a permit application, a supplier credit application, a W-9. They arrive as a PDF, and the usual routine is print it, fill it by hand, scan it back in. This skips all three steps.
- 1Go to Files and find the PDF. Any PDF has a "Fill in text" button (the pen icon).
- 2Click anywhere on the page to drop a block of text, then type.
- 3Drag the handle on the left of a block to line it up with the box on the form. Use the − and + at the top to size the text.
- 4Multi-page form? Use the arrows at the top to move between pages. Text stays where you put it on each one.
- 5Click "Save filled copy", then name it. It suggests the original name with "(filled)" on the end - change it to whatever is useful, e.g. "W-9 for Brookstone Flooring". The .pdf is kept for you.
The filled version is saved as a NEW file in the same category, recording who filled it. Your original is left exactly as it was - which matters when the blank form is something you reuse, or something somebody else sent you.
You can rename any file later too - the pencil on a file card changes its name and category, filled copies included.
This types text onto a document. It is NOT a signature tool, and it deliberately has no signature field, no script font and no "sign here". If you need a signature that will stand up when someone disputes it, that needs an audit trail and a tamper-evident record this does not have - use a proper e-signature service for contracts, change orders and lien waivers.
A couple of limits worth knowing. Emoji and non-Latin text (Hebrew, Chinese) cannot be written into a PDF this way and are left out - you get a warning at the top when that would happen. And a page that has been saved rotated cannot be filled accurately yet, so it tells you rather than putting the text in the wrong place.
Once it is filled, send it on the same way as anything else - tick it into a share link from the Files page or the Sharing tab on a job.