I know it’s ridiculous. You go to our Staff Resources page. You click on a link to a form. You fill it out and save it. Then you email it–and it’s EMPTY?!

Unfortunately, fillable PDF forms do not work as expected when they are opened inside of a browser. Downloading from your browser always causes a PDF form to lose its answers.

There are two solutions.

#1: Use Adobe Acrobat Reader (Mac users: not “Preview” – it must be Acrobat Reader)

  1. Save the PDF file to your computer.
  2. Open the PDF file (make sure it opens in Adobe Acrobat Reader).
  3. Fill it out.
  4. Save it as a different file name.

#2: Use your browser (instructions are for Google Chrome).

  1. Open the PDF in your browser.
  2. Fill it out.
  3. Do. Not. Download. It.
  4. Click the “Print” button.
  5. Change the printer to “Save as PDF”
  6. Click “Save”
  7. Note: This will result in a PDF that does have your answers, but it will no longer be an editable form.

I apologize on behalf of all technology to any of you who have had to complete a form twice because of this problem.