How to Add a Fillable Text Box in PDF? (Offline and Online)

Many people require their PDFs to include fillable text boxes. Businesses need PDFs with fillable text boxes so that customers can fill out order forms online, while schools may need PDFs with fillable text boxes to collect important student information from parents.

No matter why you need fillable text boxes in your PDFs, it's important to understand how to add these quickly and efficiently to your PDFs. Adding fillable text boxes to your PDFs will help you save time by being able to fill out information online instead of printing PDFs, and make the user experience easier for anyone using your PDFs.

In this article, we'll learn how to add a fillable text box in PDF using several different tools. By the end of this article, you will be an expert at adding fillable text boxes to your PDFs!

Part 1. How to Add Fillable Text Box in PDF Offline with UPDF? (2 Ways)

You can use UPDF to quickly and easily add a fillable text box to a PDF on both Windows and Mac. UPDF allows you to add fillable text boxes one at a time, or if your file is a PDF form, you can add fillable text boxes to your PDF automatically. In addition to fillable text boxes, you can also add other fillable PDF form elements, such as dropdown lists, checkboxes, and more! You can also use UPDF to sign PDF forms directly.

Click the button below to download UPDF so you can follow along with the tutorials in the next section.

Way 1. How to Insert Text Fields in PDF Manually?

Inserting text fields into a PDF manually is a good option if your PDF just needs one or two fillable fields, such as a contract that requires a signature and date. For this example, you would only need two fields, so let's talk about how to add text fields manually using UPDF.

Step 1: Download UPDF and open the PDF document that you want to add a fillable form to. From the menu on the left side, select Prepare Form. This dashboard gives you options for adding fillable text boxes, check boxes, and more.

Step 2: From the top of the page, select Text Box. Then place your cursor at the corner of where you want your fillable text box to start, and drag the box to the length and height that you require. The box does not need to be perfect because you can adjust the fillable text box dimensions after you've added it.

And that's it! You can add more fillable text boxes if you'd like, and then don't forget to save a new copy of this PDF when you're done. You can then send this PDF to clients, customers, or other users to collect their information and signature.

Way 2. How to Add Fillable Text Box to PDF Form Automatically?

If you have a PDF form that requires you to fill out a lot of information, such as a purchase order or a client intake form, then it will take a long time to add fillable text boxes to the PDF manually. In this case, you will want to use UPDF to add fillable text boxes automatically, to save you time and energy. You can simply use the Form Recognition Field to add fillable text boxes automatically.

Follow the steps below to do this process quickly and efficiently.

Step 1: Open the PDF form that you want to add fillable forms to. On the left side, select Prepare Form.

Step 2: From the top menu, select the tool dropdown menu on the right side. This will open a few options, and you want to choose Form Field Recognition.

Step 3: A pop-up will appear saying that this action cannot be undone. Select Continue to automatically detect form fields.

Step 4: Review your PDF form. All of the form fields should be automatically detected and now have fillable text boxes in each one. If a form field was missed, you can then manually add a fillable text box to ensure that every form field can be filled out. When you are satisfied with your form, save a new copy of your PDF!

UPDF also has many other features that are useful for you when creating PDF forms, such as editing and annotation tools to customize your PDFs, and AI tools to help you summarize, explain, and generate content for PDF forms.

You can read this review of UPDF and watch this video tutorial to learn more.

And when you're ready to add fillable text boxes to your own PDFs, make sure to click the button below to download UPDF!

Part 2. How to Add Fillable Text Boxes in Adobe Acrobat?

If you already have Adobe Acrobat, you can also add fillable text boxes to your PDFs. However, this method is part of Adobe Acrobat's paid subscription, so if you don't already have Adobe Acrobat, you will have to subscribe in order to follow this method.

Follow the steps below to add fillable text boxes in Adobe Acrobat.

Step 1: Open Adobe Acrobat and select the Prepare Form option in the tools part. You can find this in the Forms & Signatures section.

Step 2: Choose the file that you want to add fillable text boxes to. Notice that the form field auto-detection tool is already on. This tool is on by default, but you can turn this feature off if you'd like. When you're ready, click Start.

Step 3: Adobe Acrobat will automatically analyze and detect your form fields. It will then add fillable text boxes in each field. If you want to add an additional fillable text box, just click on the Text box button at the top of the page. You can click on the "Preview" to check the result. When you're satisfied with your document, remember to select Save As and save your new PDF fillable form.

Part 3. How to Add a Fillable Text Box in PDF Free Online via Sejda?

If you need to add fillable text boxes to a PDF, but you only have access to online tools, you can use Sejda to quickly add fillable text boxes to your PDFs. This is a simple and easy to use online tool for creating fillable PDF forms.

Follow these steps to add fillable text boxes to your PDF with Sejda.

Step 1: Upload the PDF that you want to work with.

Step 2: From the options at the top, select Text Field. You can also select Text area for a larger sized fillable text box if that's what you need for your form.

Step 3: Drag and drop the fillable text box to wherever you'd like on your form.

Step 4: After your fillable text box is in place, you can change the dimensions of the text box, or edit some of the other attributes of the fillable text box.

Step 5: When you're finished adding fillable text boxes to your PDF form, click Apply Changes in order to download your finished PDF form.

Final Words

There are many different reasons why you may need to add fillable text boxes to PDFs, whether for your business, organization, school, or whatever other PDF needs you have. If you're using fillable PDFs to collect customer information, student data, or official signatures, then now you know how to add fillable text box in PDF using at least four different methods! We are confident that you will now feel like an expert the next time you need to add fillable text boxes to your PDF form document!

Click the button below to download UPDF and get started editing and customizing your PDF forms today.