How to Fill Out a PDF Form on Mac - 3 Easy Methods to Get it Done (macOS Sonoma Supported)

Nowadays, many of us will choose to use a PDF form instead of printing and filling out it. It will save a lot of time. So, if you are a Mac user, you need to learn how to fill out a PDF form on a Mac. This article will guide you on how to do it with three methods, and at the end of the article, you will find a detailed comparison of the three methods. So that you can know which one is better for you.

Method 1. How to Fill in PDF Form on Mac with UPDF (3 Ways)

Filling in a PDF form on Mac is pretty easy if you have a PDF editor. For this purpose, we recommend to use UPDF.

UPDF for Mac is an all-in-one PDF software that allows you to fill out a PDF form on Mac easily. If you have one fillable PDF form on Mac, you can use UPDF to fill out it directly. If your PDF forms are non-fillable, you can make them fillable in one click with the Form Field Recognition feature. Also, you can use its editing and comment feature to fill the non-fillable PDF form directly. Moreover, if you do not have one PDF form, you can create them from other formats like Word, Excel, etc, or create from scratch. You can click the below button to download it for a free trial now! In the free version, you can test all the features mentioned above.

We will show all methods you can use to fill out a PDF form on Mac here.

Way 1. Fill Out a Fillable PDF on Mac Directly in Reader Mode

If your PDF is fillable, it is easy to fill out it on Mac with UPDF. Just follow the below guide.

Step 1: Open a PDF

To fill in a PDF form, you need to open the file. Click on the "Open File" button and select the file from your device. Click the "Open" button to open the PDF file on your Mac.

Step 2: Fill in the PDF Form

Fillable forms are shown with blue boxes that you can click and enter information. Now, start to write down the information in the form. It can also select the yes or no questions in the form.

Step 3: Sign in the Form

UPDF for Mac supports you to sign the form in PDF. Just click the "Comment" icon on the left menu and then tap the "Signature" to add a signature to the form. Click the "Create Signature" button, write down your signature, and then click "Create" to create a signature, you can save it and reuse it the next time. Now you can select the signature which you create and sign in the form.

Way 2. Fill in a Nonfillable PDF Form on Mac With Form Recognition

If your PDF form is non-fillable, no worries, you can use UPDF's form recognition feature to make it fillable. Here is the guide.

Step 1. Make sure you download UPDF with the below button. Launch the UPDF and drag your PDF form into the "Open File' area to open the PDF with UPDF.

Step 2. Just click on the "Prepare Form" icon. You can find the "Form Field Recognition" after clicking the setting icon. Select it and click "Continue". Now, the PDF form will be converted into a fillable PDF form.

Step 3. Click on the "Reader' icon and you can fill out the PDF form directly now.

Way 3. Fill Out Non Fillable PDF Form on Mac By Adding Text

Although converting a non-fillable PDF form into a fillable one can be easily done with UPDF, it is not always a good way to fill out a PDF on Mac. So, we will also show you the method without converting it into a fillable one.

Steps: Open PDF with UPDF. Click on "Edit PDF" > "Text", and click on the place where you want to add the text. Enter the texts to fill in the PDF. To add a signature, you can use the image feature to insert the image signature in the "Edit PDF", create and insert a signature with a signature feature in the "Comment", or add a digital signature with the feature in the "Prepare Form".

Still do not know how to use UPDF to fill out a PDF form on Mac? Click the below button to download UPDF and follow the below video guide to learn how to use it.

Video Tutorial on How to Fill Out a PDF Form on Mac

Except for filling out a PDF form on Mac, UPDF has many other advanced features. Here are some of them.

Other Features of UPDF:

• UPDF AI: UPDF AI can work on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and the Web. With it, you can ask for a PDF or anything.

• Read PDF: You will get one of the best reading experiences. It provides different viewing modes to read PDF documents.

• Edit PDF: It allows you to edit every content present in the PDF document. From text to images, you can easily insert, delete, edit, copy, cut, and paste them.
• Convert PDF: It allows you to convert your PDF files to other formats, such as Word, Excel, PPT, image, HTML, XML, etc.
• Organize PDF Pages: You can also rotate, replace, insert, extract, split, crop, reorder, or rearrange the PDF pages by dragging and dropping the page's thumbnails.
• OCR: With Optical Character Recognition (OCR), you can convert scanned PDF documents into editable PDFs.

Well, these are some other features that you'll find in UPDF, you can purchase it to unlock more powerful features. And before purchasing, you can click the below button to test it.

Method 2. How to Fill Out an Interactive PDF Form on Mac with Preview

There's another method to fill out an interactive PDF form on your Mac device, and it's completely free. But this method has some disadvantages as well. You can't wholly rely on Mac's Preview app. It doesn't have advanced features like filling nonfillable PDF forms, OCR, and AI features that you would find on UPDF.

Steps of Filling out Forms on Mac Preview:

• Step 1: Open up the PDF form on the Preview app you want to fill.
• Step 2: Click the "Show Form Filling Toolbar" button.
• Step 3: Everything is now set for filling in the empty spaces. Check on the fields and start typing your text. After filling it out, you can save and export it to PDF format.

Using the Mac Preview app to fill out PDF forms may also come with some disadvantages.

Considering that there are no advanced features in Preview, you can switch to UPDF. UPDF offers more features, including the AI-powered OCR feature to turn scanned PDFs into searchable and editable PDFs, the smooth editing feature to let you make changes to the existing text, images, and links, the convert feature to enable you to convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Download and try it now.

Method 3. How to Fill Out a PDF Form on Mac with Adobe Acrobat

Filling out PDF forms using Adobe Acrobat is almost similar to UPDF. Here's the step-by-step guide on how to fill out PDF forms on Mac using Adobe Acrobat:

• Step 1: Open Adobe Acrobat and import the PDF document file that needs to be filled.
• Step 2: Click the "Fill & Sign" button on the right toolbar.
• Step 3: Now, select text boxes and fill the form by adding text into fields. You can also add checkmarks to fill the checkboxes or radio buttons.
• Step 4: After finalizing the forms, you can save and share the PDF with others.

As we all know Adobe Acrobat is very expensive, and you need to pay US$239.88 per year for the Pro DC version. So many people switch to an Adobe Acrobat alternative to enjoy the same feature at a much more reasonable price. UPDF is the best choice, as it is the most cost-effective one among all the competitors, and it offers a complete PDF toolkit. Give it a shot.

If you still have doubts, you can check the comparison chart among the three tools to make a wise decision.

Comparing the Three Methods to Fill out PDF on Mac

So far, you've seen how to fill out PDF on Mac using three different tools. You would be wondering which way to go. That's why we've prepared a comparison table of these tools to help you find the right one.

Every tool has its own set of features that helps users to fulfill their tasks. Similarly, every user has requirements that can only be fulfilled by a specific tool that holds the elements required to complete the job. Some people prefer to work with multiple free tools. To save money on tools, they put safety and productivity at high risk. Choosing a reliable and cost-effective PDF editor can solve most of the PDF-related problems!

Conclusion

This article on how to fill out PDF forms on Mac gives you three choices. It's up to you which way you want to go. Seeing the comparison chart closely, UPDF would be an exciting choice for filling out your PDF documents on Mac. It comes with a low price tag and has the same features as Acrobat. You can check the detailed comparison between Adobe Acrobat and UPDF. Compared with Preview, UPDF has more advanced features. What are you waiting for? Try it now.