Omnivorous Surfer

I love having the ability to fill out a form on the computer in the same way I would have done in the "old days" with a typewriter. Unfortunately, not all pdf files are made available in an editable format, so they have to be downloaded to be filled in by hand. This happened today with a medical history form for my dentist, so I looked around to see what remedies might be available online. The best FREE site I found was PDFescape.

Inserting text is fairly primitive, as you have to click each place you want the text; you can't tab from field to field as you would be able to do in an editable pdf document. I think this is a small price to pay for a free option. Each text entry is placed in a text box which can be moved around and the text within it edited. Checkmarks, circles, rectangles, arrows, lines, links, sticky notes, and form fields can also be added to the document.

Important to note: To download a copy of the edited document to your computer, you need to use the site's File menu to Save and Download; saving only saves your current edit on the site. Though you can print the document from the website, you will probably want to download and print from your computer unless you are comfortable changing page setup options in your browser to eliminate the standard text which is added to Internet printouts.

Registration is available but not required. Documents of unregistered users are available for editing only until the web browser is closed; I have exited the site, then opened it in another window and was able to "View My Previously Opened PDF Documents" to continue editing. With free registration, however, documents can be stored on the site; these files will be deleted after 15 days of no use. Registration also allows multiple users to collaborate and edit documents. Additional features for paid subscriptions are described on the site.