Fillable PDFs in forms

[Steven_W]

I have some equipment inspection checklists that I am trying to move from paper to Airtable, and I was wondering if there was a way that I could convert it into a fillable PDF and put it in an Airtable form. The employees fill out these checklists when they’re at worksites, and the office is out of their way, so the forms don’t get dropped off as soon as we’d like. What I am hoping to do is have the employees fill out the PDF in the form, then have the PDF saved to the base as an attachment so that we get the forms as soon as they’re finished, and it’s easier for everyone at the worksites.

I already tried converting the checklists to Airtable forms, but there are just too many checkboxes that would each need their own field, and it would just end up being too inconvenient to fill out and sort through. I also tried using the attachment field in a form, but this would require the PDF to be filled out in a different app (or scanned), then saved, and then submitted through the form, which wouldn’t make it any easier at the worksites.

Any help or suggestions is appreciated, thanks.

[kuovonne · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

Airtable native forms are rather limited. You cannot have people directly fill in the .pdf file in the form itself.

You can use a 3rd party form service, such as JotForm to make a form with a more compact user interface and integrate that form with Airtable

If employees are filling out the forms in hardcopy, it is actually fairly easy to upload a photo of the hardcopy. When uploading an attachment, the user has the option of taking a picture. Of course, you will still have problems with blurry pictures and a human would need to,extract the information from the picture into usable data.

[Steven_W]

Thanks for the ideas, I’ll look into those.

[choices]

"so that we get the forms as soon as they’re finished"

Try: https://fillinpdf.com

We have an option to email a link to any uploaded fill in PDF form. When the recipient clicks the link the fill in PDF form appears immediately. They just fill it in and click "Save". The resulting filled in PDF form is saved to our central server, which allows you to view the saved forms as often as you like. You can combine saved forms, email them, etc.

Another advantage of this approach is that the end user does not have to install any special software. They do not even need Adobe Reader installed. It just works.

If you need integration with Airtable, please let me know the specific use case.

Dean Westover, President

Choices Software, Inc.