Can't type on a pdf document

Beachview_2

I've an application form to fill in and send off by email. They've sent it as an Excel document for some reason. I remember filling in one of those forms years ago for the same company and it was a nightmare, it made the form stretch across the page and grow wider, and some other stuff. Well anybody who's used to Excel will have an idea of what I mean.

I downloaded the form and saved it, then I copied it and converted it into a PDF. Must say the form looks far better that way But I've got a bit of a problem, I can't type on it for some reason. Anybody have any ideas of how I can make this PDF allow me to type on it?

gobeyond

I presume you are using Adobe Reader. If you click on 'Sign' on the right-hand side, there should be an option to "Add Text".

This will put the text over the layer of the PDF, so you would need to have empty fields to fill otherwise the new text will sit in front of old text.

scheming_gypsy

Just deleted it and don't apply for the job.

Now the reasoning behind me saying that. They've sent you an application form in Excel, to you it might be a pain but to them there could be a reason behind it. If you convert it to PDF and email back there's a good chance they'll reject it as it's not in the correct electronic format that they need / want.

Try and lock the fields in the Excel document so it doesn't mess up the formatting.

agrinnall

You could prevent the Excel form from stretching in width by setting wrap text on the cells that are not otherwise big enough.

Beachview_2

agrinnall wrote: »

You could prevent the Excel form from stretching in width by setting wrap text on the cells that are not otherwise big enough.

Must go and try that now Sure I'll come back if I get stuck

Archer07

I don't think you can edit a pdf other than using the edit text or add text but it sometimes creates a mess when using the edit text option.

Beachview_2

Just tried the text wrapping and it works!

Beachview_2

Back again! I'm after putting in my phone number and it came up as numbers but when I left that box, it turned the numbers into symbols like this ####. What's that about? How do I fix that?

S0litaire

Usually if the text box is too small it changes the numbers to "####", expand the box and the numbers should show.

scheming_gypsy

Also check the formatting for that box / field.. change it from numbers to text / general or your phone number will lose the leading 0

johnmc

Put a ' in front of the number so '01234 567123 which will set the cell to text. Widen the cell to show the content.