How to Auto Fill PDF Forms on iPhone and Mac

Auto-filling PDF forms on iPhone and Mac can streamline your workflow and save you a ton of time, especially if you often find yourself filling out the same information on different documents.

However, up until now, if you had received a PDF or document, it wasn't very straightforward to fill it on your iPhone. You had to jump through hoops to fill that PDF. But with iOS 17, Apple has extended the Auto-Fill support that existed only in the Safari browser before. Filling out the information on your Mac was slightly simpler. Yet, you had to manually fill it out. Now, you can easily auto-fill PDF files and scanned documents with Enhanced AutoFill on your iPhone, just as you can on your Mac with Preview.

AutoFill PDF Forms on iPhone

To use AutoFill for PDF Forms on iPhone, you need to make sure that you have completed your contact information in 'My Card' in the Contacts app. Enhanced AutoFill can only fill in the information it finds on your Contact card. Fill your contact card completely to get the most out of Autofill.

1. Open the PDF form that you want to fill out.
2. If you get the prompt to open the document in the Files app, follow the instructions and tap on 'Save'.
3. Now, as soon as the PDF form opens, you'll get an alert on the top of the screen that "AutoFill can assist with filling in this form." Tap on the 'AutoFill Form' button on the alert.
4. If you don't get this alert, tap the 'AutoFill' button in the bottom right corner of the screen instead.

5. Then, tap a blank field.
6. You'll get the option to fill out the entire form with AutoFill in one go by tapping your name. You can also tap on 'Choose Other' to select another person from your contacts to auto-fill their information.
7. You can also fill out individual fields by tapping the field-specific AutoFill information above the keyboard.

8. You can also make changes to any information by using the on-screen keyboard after tapping that field.
9. You can also add a text form box or signature to PDFs. Tap on the floating '+' sign in the bottom-right corner of the document.
10. Then, choose whether you want to add a text form box or signature.

11. For a text form box, drag either side of the box to resize it and then drag and drop it across the screen to place it where you want. Then, tap it to type in it using the on-screen keyboard.
12. To get more options for the text form box, like cut, copy, duplicate, or delete, tap the floating three-dot menu.

13. For your signature, if you have any saved signatures, you'll be able to select it. Otherwise, you can create a new signature and use it.
14. Then, you can tap the 'Share' button to share it using AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or other apps.

15. If you were filling the form in the Mail app, you can also tap 'Done' in the top-right corner.
16. Then, you will get options to send it as a reply or a new message, save it to files, or discard the changes.

AutoFill PDF Forms on Mac

Autofilling the PDF forms is almost the same on Mac with one change: it uses the Preview app.

1. Open the PDF form or document in the Preview app.
2. Then, you might see the message "Autofill can assist with filling in this form". Click on the 'Autofill form' button next to it.

3. However, if you've previously edited the PDF, the message might not appear. In this case, click any field in the form.

4. Then, choose your contact from the pop-up that appears to autofill the information. To fill out information for another person, click on 'Choose other' and select their contact from the Contacts list.

5. The information available on your contact card will be filled. You can fill in the rest yourself. Then, click the 'Share' button to share it using any app.

6. If you opened the PDF from the Mail app, clicking the 'Close' button will give you options to reply to the original sender, send a new mail, save the PDF, or delete the file.

Whether you need to submit documents for work or school frequently, or just want to simplify completing forms while on the go, auto-fill for PDFs is a handy feature available now in the latest iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma releases.