Creating a form template in acrobat

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
May 23, 2025
2 replies
1938 views

How can I create a form template in Acrobat.

I understand that I should name all fillable fields, but at the same time how do I make it dynamic in size?

I would ultimately like to fill this form template out using an excel sheet.

Many thanks for the help, tips and direction towards my goal.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

What exactly do you mean by a form template? Do you mean just a standard PDF form that can be filled out? Or something else?

PDFs are not dynamic in the sense that page text can't be moved or reflowed to make room for other objects, such as new form fields. But there are options. For example, if you have a form with a table of fields, and there is a need to add extra lines to the table, then the solution is to create a "Page Template" that is a single page of the table lines. So the dynamic part is adding a whole page of extra table lines, not adding single lines that grow the original table. This model is the same one used for paper forms, which is the whole point behind PDF (it's electronic paper).

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

N

nippazAuthor

Participating Frequently

@S. S Thank you for that link, I'll take a good hard look at that.

@Thom ParkerI have these labels I frequently have to fill out. I've created a template in Excel and it was somewhat working for me in having these labels printed out. But across different machines the output of the excel --> labels changes. I then read PDF's are always the same format across machines.

So I'm researching on how to make basically a PDF with fillable fields so it doesn't change across machines. The number of fields is never the same and is never set hence I was trying to make it dynamic in size.

Hope this clarifies it, thank you both.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

A sample (screenshot) wold be helpful, but, since a label is a limited area, there are things that can be done to make it dynamic. Basically the PDF page has to be built with dynamic elements, i.e., form fields and drawing annotations. And dynamic behavior requires a lot of custom scripting.

I'd start by separating out the static bits from the ones that need to be dynamic. Then make a Word doc with the static bits and convert it to PDF. This is the starting point. Then add drawing annotation and form fields to build out the rest.

For example, if the label has a border, then use a rectangle annotation.

Add controls on the same page for setting the dynamic features, such as the number of lines that are needed. Put them outside of the label area. And include text in the word file for these controls.

You can probably see that this is not a trivial task. I can provide (for a fee) training and consulting if you need it.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often