how do you fill in a form in pdf??

[MummyAnnabella]

need to fill out job application and form is .pdf and it wont let me write on the form.
any thoughts??

Ummm... you can't. The whole point of a pdf is that it 'photographs' the file therefore stops people from changing it.

Are you sure you're not meant to just print it out and fill it in by hand?

Also, do they offer an alternative downloadable file such as in Word format?

you can do it in Photoshop

but really they expect you to print & fill in by hand

no alternative for one of the 2 jobs i need to do. other has word option.

so i just have to hand write - wont that look a mess???

how do you do it in photoshop and what is photoshop??

Photoshop is a big piece of image editing software - costs a bomb so unless you have it already do not worry about it.
Basically it can convert the PDF into a picture, lets you edit it, and then converts it back to a PDF again.

Print it out and fill in neatly with a black biro.

There are some software products around (eg Foxit at US$ 99) but the thing about PDFs is that they can be 'protected' from edits so even if you pay 40 to 70 quid, there's no guarantee you'll be able to do what you want.

Have not had chance to test it myself (should get to bed) but here's a link to
Foxit

I can think of another way - copy screen image into image editor like MS Paint (or Photofiltre) and then add the text as an overlay.

It would be really fiddly and time consuming but could achieve integration of your input going onto the form. Explaining it would be another matter though...

See if the Foxit Editor allows you to display the form and add your own text - I suggest before starting you copy the PDFs to a new folder or a USB stick, so you can test making edits without affecting the originals.

If the Foxit software allows you to do what you need on screen but marks 'test' or something over it, if you try to print, then the photo method might be viable (but you'd have done the fiddly bit of typing the text into the form).

How close to deadlines are they ?
(right, must go to bed now!)

PDFs can have fields into which you can enter text, however some versions of some PDF readers don't support them.

You could try updating to the latest version of Adobe's own PDF reader (get.adobe.com/reader/) and that might allow you to enter text into the form and save or print it.

I had the same problem with a form that my company sent around a couple of months ago, I updated the version of Reader I had and I could then fill it in and just email it back.

However it does depend on how they made the document...