Fillable PDF forms allow you to streamline data gathering in your organization to help eliminate the need for physical documents. It also provides a consistent experience for your new hires and allows them to complete a form wherever they have access to a computer. 

To help you get started, we have provided the basic steps to create the PDF form with Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat. While you may be able to use alternative applications, we will not be able to guide you on their usage. This resource is a courtesy to help you create and set up a basic PDF form and may not cover every situation, but should serve as a starting point. If you need further assistance setting up and using Microsoft Word or Adobe software, please consult Microsoft Office/Adobe support or your IT professional.

While creating your PDF form, you can also refer to our best practices here to help with your PDF form creation.

We also offer a video training for this topic on Arcoro Learning.

Creating a PDF Form

1. Create the document in Microsoft Word that you want to turn into a form. While creating the form, you can prepopulate any parts of the form with expected data so it does not need to be filled in every time (e.g., a specific supervisor's name, dates, etc)
2. Close the document.
3. Click Create, then Create a PDF in Adobe Acrobat. 
   
4. Click Select a file and select the document you created. Click Create. It can take a few minutes to create the PDF. 
   
5. Click View More to show additional options and click Prepare a Form. 
    
6. Enable "This document requires signatures" and click Create Form. 
   
7. A message will appear to save a copy of the PDF first. Save the PDF with a distinct name or add a prefix/suffix so it is easier to identify (e.g., prepared.2025form.pdf).
8. Acrobat will show your form with field boxes that it automatically generated. The field boxes may not match initially, but they can be corrected. 
   
9. Click the text field to be corrected and resize it by clicking and dragging the anchor points along the sides. You can move the text field by clicking and dragging it. 
   
10. To the right-hand side in the "Fields" section, right-click the field name and click Rename to give it the appropriate label. 
    
11. For any fields missing a text field, click Text field under the "Add Form Components" section on the left-hand side.  
    
12. Place the field box on the form. Do not worry if the size does not match initially, as you can adjust it after placing it. You can also place multiple text fields to save time. After placing the text fields, press ESC twice on your keyboard. 
    
13. Adjust the new text fields to match the form and other text fields.  
    
14. Rename the text fields in the "Fields" section and drag them into the correct order. 
    
15. Repeat steps 9-14 to correct and add text fields to your form as necessary.
16. If any text fields have duplicate field names, rename them to make them distinct (e.g., if you have two "State" fields, clarify what each "State" field is for).
17. If the incorrect field was generated by Acrobat, such as a text field in the signature line, delete the text field by clicking it and pressing Delete on your keyboard. 
    
18. Click E-signature field under the "Add Form Components" section on the left-hand side.  You must select the "E-signature field" and not the "Digital signature" option, as they are not interchangeable.
    • You can have one signature field for the employee and one signature field for the hiring/onboarding manager.
      
19. Place the signature field on the form. Press ESC twice on your keyboard when satisfied. Resize the signature field based on the previous steps. 
    
20. It may also help to right-click the signature field and change the font so it better reflects a handwritten signature instead of typed text.
    
21. If there are two fields for the employee to sign within the document(s), such as in a multi-page document, the naming convention for both signature fields should match, as the system will only recognize/read one signature field. If there are multiple signatures on the page, the "click to sign" can enter the employee's signature in each field if the field names match.
22. If date fields are mapped to the signature fields to indicate when the signature was entered, the date fields should be appropriately labeled for the employee/manager signature, and if there are multiple employee/manager date fields for multiple signatures, they have matching field names (e.g., "Employee Date" and "Manager Date").
23. After confirming the placement of the text/signature fields, the name of the fields, and their order, save the PDF form to your computer. 
    
24. When saving the PDF, use a distinct name or add a prefix/suffix so it is easier to identify (e.g., finalized.2025form.pdf).
25. With the PDF Form created, you can refer to the following article on how to upload your form(s) into Onboarding and specify the locations/jobs the form should appear.
26. After you have uploaded the PDF form into Onboarding, double-check the form activation settings to ensure they appear for the appropriate locations and/or jobs when completing their new hire paperwork.