How to co-edit PDF forms in ONLYOFFICE: an easy guide

The previous updates have significantly improved the functionality of ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor and have brought a lot of useful features, including the ability to save edits to the original PDF file without saving a separate copy and real-time PDF collaboration. These updates have also made it easier to co-edit PDF forms. In this guide, you will learn to create PDF forms and collaborate on them in real time with ease.

What you need to get started

The easiest way to get started with ONLYOFFICE PDF forms is to create a free ONLYOFFICE DocSpace account and get access to a personalized document management platform in the cloud. If you seek more security and the privacy of your data means a lot to you, you can deploy DocSpace on your Linux or Windows server:

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Alternatively, you can co-edit PDF forms within the platform you already use if you integrate ONLYOFFICE Docs. Currently, there are more than 40 available integrations, such as Netxcloud, ownCloud, Redmine, WordPress, Alfresco, Confluence, Odoo and more. You can get a ready-to-use connector for your platform from our website or integrate the ONLYOFFICE suite via API or WOPI if there is no integration app yet.

Now let’s go through the process of online collaboration and find out how to co-edit PDF forms on the example of ONLYOFFICE DocSpace.

Step 1. Create a PDF form

Since ONLYOFFICE DocSpace is a room-based collaborative platform, you need to create a room first where you will collaborate on your PDF forms and invite other users for collaborative work. To do so, go to the Rooms section and click the + icon in the upper left corner.

After that, you need to choose the required room type. For collaborative purposes, the ideal type is collaboration rooms. To create one, enter its name, add a tag or a picture if necessary and click Create.

When your collaboration room is created, it’s time to create a PDF form. You can either upload a file from your device or create a new one if you click the + icon in the upper left corner and choose PDF form. If you go for the latter option, you will be offered to create a new blank PDF form, turn one if the already existing DOCX files into a form or select a ready-to-use form templates in the built-in library.

The ONLYOFFICE library contains plenty of ready-made PDF template for various business purposes, from legal contracts and agreements to CVs and to-do-lists. If you like one of the available templates, right-click it and choose Create from the context menu.

No matter which option you choose to create your PDF form, you will have to enter its name and click the Create button. Congratulations! You have just created your first PDF form and can proceed with the next step.

Step 2. Invite others to collaborate with you

Now that your PDF form is ready, you need to invite other people to your collaboration room. When invited, your co-authors will get access to all files stored in your room and be able to perform actions depending on their role.

To invite someone, click the three dots icon in the upper left corner and select Invite users from the context menu. In the new window, you can either invite people via a self-authorization link or invite them manually by entering their name (if they already belong to your DocSpace) or email if they are not registered yet.

In both cases, it’s necessary to define a role for each invited person. In DocSpace, there are a lot of roles:

• Room admins can manage their rooms, invite new users and assign roles;
• Power users can create new files in their room but they have no permission to manage users;
• Editors can perform all editing operations in the already existing files but can’t create new ones;
• Viewers can only view documents.

Please note that some roles are available on a paid basis. To learn more about DocSpace roles, refer to this guide in our Help Center or watch the video below:

After you invite all the required people and define their access permissions, you can start the co-editing process.

Step 3. Edit your PDF form

With ONLYOFFICE PDF Editor, you are allowed to edit your PDF form as a simple text document. You can use various editing and styling tools to make your form look the way you like. You can apply different fonts and change their size, choose from styling presets, insert tables, images, shapes and other objects, configure margins, add tables of contents and cross-references, and more.

Importantly, the ONLYOFFICE form creation tool makes it possible to work with various field types. When working on your form, you can choose from the following types available on the Forms tab:

• Text fields;
• Combo boxes;
• Drop-down lists;
• Checkboxes;
• Radio buttons;
• Images;
• Email addresses;
• Phone numbers;
• Date & Time;
• ZIP codes;
• Credit cards;
• Complex fields.

Moreover, version 8.2 comes with a new field type, Signature Field, which allows you to sign PDF forms with an image.

Each field has some properties, such as Placeholder or Tip, designed to make it easier to fill out our ready forms. Another useful feature is the ability to assign recipient roles. This means that you can specify who needs to fill out this or that field in your PDF forms. Each recipient role is marked with a colour, so users can visually identify all the fields they need to fill out.

Step 4. Use the ONLYOFFICE collaborative features

When editing your form with other people, you can use various collaboration features available on the Collaboration tab to make the co-editing process more convenient. Here is what you can do in ONLYOFFICE:

1. Switch between two co-editing modes. You can co-author forms online in real-time using the Fast mode, which displays all changes right after they are made, or work privately in the Strict mode and make your edits visible to others after you click the Save button.

2. Leave and manage comments. When collaborating, you can leave comments to discuss something and mention other users in comments using @. You can also manage comments, sort them or delete them.

3. Communicate with other co-authors. Communication is the corner stone of successful collaboration so ONLYOFFICE allows you to chat with your teammates right in your form by exchanging text messages in the integrated chat. Additionally, you can enable the Jitsi or Rainbow plugins for real-time videoconferencing.

4. Track changes in real time. With the Track Changes feature, you can review changes made by other collaborators. Accept or reject their changes one by one or all at once.

5. Manage all versions of your PDF. With the Version History feature, you can easily check who created each version of the file and when it was done. If necessary, you can recover one of the previous versions.

Step 5. Send your form to a form-filling room

Now that your PDF form is ready, you can copy it to one of the form-filling rooms in your DocSpace. This room type was introduced with ONLYOFFICE DocSpace v2.6 to make it easier to work with fillable forms. Such rooms allow users to upload or copy PDF forms and submit them for completion. When working with forms in form-filling rooms, you can only fill out the fields and send the completed form for analysis. All results and collected responses are automatically compiled in a separate spreadsheet. This feature is useful for organizing and managing form-based tasks.

To copy your form to a form-filling room, you just need to click the Share & Collect button in the upper right corner. Create a new room or select one that already exists, then click Copy there.

To learn more about form-filling rooms in ONLYOFFICE DocSpace and how they work, please read this article in our blog.

How to co-edit PDF forms in other integrations

ONLYOFFICE DocSpace is not the only way to collaborate on PDF forms. If you have an ONLYOFFICE Docs instance combined with a business platform via the corresponding connector, you can also do that but in a slightly different way.

To start the collaboration process, you just need to create a PDF form and share it with other people using the platform’s sharing settings. For example, the ONLYOFFICE Docs and ownCloud integration allows you to create a blank PDF form or open a DOCX file and turn it into a PDF form. When a PDF form is created, you can co-edit it in real time with other ownCloud users using the collaborative features provided by the ONLYOFFICE editor.

Version 8.2: what’s new

Curious to know what else the latest version of ONLYOFFICE Docs brings to you? Read this article or watch the video below to satisfy your curiosity: