Collaboration, Requests and Signing
Create and edit a form from a PDF with fillable fields
How to set up a form for respondents based on a PDF with fillable form fields.
Turn a PDF with fillable fields into a Form
With the DekkoCORE Forms feature, you can take a PDF that already contains fillable fields and turn it into a form that others can complete and send back to you. All answers come back signed, one submission per person, while you keep your original PDF unchanged. Respondents cannot see anyone else's answers.
Before you start
To use DekkoCORE Forms, you need a PDF file uploaded to DekkoCORE.
To create a form, you need Full Permissions on the PDF file. You have this if you uploaded the PDF yourself, which grants Full Permissions automatically, or if someone has shared Full Permissions with you.
You must share the form with users in the Hub to get responses (minimum Download only permission).
When you choose the PDF and click Create Form, DekkoCORE builds a new folder named after the PDF and places the form inside it. The original PDF stays exactly where it was and is never modified.
1. Create the form
- Select the PDF in the file list.
- Open the ...More menu in the toolbar and choose Create form.
- Wait for the conversion to finish.
2. Label and edit the fields
- The form opens in the DekkoCORE form builder, which tells you what it found. A pop-up appears at the top showing the number of fields identified, for example as shown below 25 fields found in the PDF. Check them before sharing the form.
- In the form builder, review and edit the fields DekkoCORE has identified. Because your PDF is a genuine fillable form, its existing fields are mapped to DekkoCORE form fields automatically. Check each one and adjust it if DekkoCORE missed a field or assigned a field type that does not match what the respondent is meant to enter.
- When identifying fields, DekkoCORE will generically label each field with:
F1,F2,F3etc. The labels will be used for the first row within the responses table and CSV export of answers. It’s recommended to update the labels with relevant questions or statements suitable for the situation.
In case DekkoCORE hasn’t recognised your fields or a field is missing you will have to add this yourself. Drag what you need from the options in the left. Ten field types are available which include text, boxes, paragraph, number, date, checkbox, choice, dropdown, signature, and label. For each field you can also fill in the following:
- its label (the question)
- a placeholder which is what the respondent reads
- set the field as required
- for dropdown and choice fields, set the response options
When the fields and wording is right, choose Save & close.
3. Check it the way a respondent will see it
Open the form and use the Preview & fill tab. That is the same filler your recipients get, so it is the fastest way to catch a question that reads oddly or a required field you did not mean to mark as required.
4. Share it
A form appears just like any other files in DekkoCORE. You can share, move, rename, and delete it just like other files.
User that needs to respond to the form require a minimum of download only permission.
Limits worth knowing before you build
People without a DekkoSecure account cannot fill in a form. Guest links are not available: with no account there is no key, so a submission could carry a picture of a signature but nothing proving who sent it.
Answers are not written back into the original PDF. The original field names are kept so this stays possible later.
There are no server-side reports or charts. Answers are encrypted in the browser and the server never sees them, so any totals are worked out in your browser - at the cost of one download per submission.
Moving a submission can drop it out of the Responses view. Responses looks in three places: your own vault, the form's folder as it is now, and the folder the form was built in. A submission moved anywhere else disappears from that view, though it is still in the vault.