FormMaker

FormMaker: Creating a Fillable, Interactive PDF in InDesign Has Never Been Easier!

Hassle-free interactive, fillable PDF forms straight out of InDesign

With InDesign’s half-baked interactive PDF form features, any form formatting, validation, or calculation has to be done in Acrobat.

This means entering a world of pain: Every time an edit is made to the InDesign file, the form has to be reformatted, reprogrammed, and reset in Acrobat!

A small change to the layout or text of the form that should take less than a minute can take over an hour (!) for complex forms because so much has to be redone in Acrobat each time a change is made.

Cue FormMaker!

With FormMaker, you have access to all Acrobat’s form field functionality – in InDesign!

FormMaker eliminates that “extra step” you must take when creating interactive PDFs in InDesign.

This means that with FormMaker you get interactive PDFs straight from InDesign, complete with font formatting (font, size, color), text formatting (alignment, rich text), comb fields, date fields, simplified calculations, and much more.

In fact, almost anything you can do in Acrobat to a form, you can now do in InDesign with FormMaker!

Use code-free formatting options to turn the user’s input into correctly formatted numbers, dates, times, zip codes and much more.

Use easy-to-apply validations to ensure that numbers, dates, or selections are within valid limits.

Use simple calculation options to make one form field display the sum, or product, or average, etc., of other forms fields.

Additionally, you can add document-level JavaScripts to your forms, as well as JavaScripts triggered by all mouse and keyboard events that Acrobat supports, and custom keyboard, formatting, validation and calculation scripts.

As an added bonus, because no edits or workarounds are needed in Acrobat, interactive PDF form accessibility remains intact – the PDF form remains as accessible as InDesign can make it.

With FormMaker you can make a truly fully interactive, useful PDF form inside InDesign without needing to do anything in Acrobat!

The final result is a rich, interactive form experience for the end user: A standard PDF that can be opened by anyone with the free Adobe PDF Reader.

Does the end-user need to have FormMaker installed?

No! That’s the beauty of the thing! The PDFs created by FormMaker are regular, plain-vanilla PDFs. The end-user does not need to have FormMaker installed. In fact, they won’t even know that the PDF was created with FormMaker.

What Users Say

  • “When I was developing some training programs for people who are using InDesign to make forms, the process was … ready to break! I was up a creek! … I was going to say, ‘I can’t build a process for you that works.’ Interestingly enough, in my research, I found FormMaker Pro. It’s a form formatting tool for Adobe InDesign that has a really great use in the workflow … It saved the training that I did, and I can’t say enough good things about it!
    Damian Sian - Accessibility Expert

Quick Video Tutorial

Watch this short tutorial to see the power of FormMaker:

Pricing

FormMaker Free

FREE / license
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat validation, calculation and formatting for automatic calculation and updating of fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat scripts that are triggered by mouse and keyboard events
  • Limited to 1-page forms only
  • Limited to 10 fields per form

FormMagic Pro

$ 19.95 / month
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • Create forms of any length
  • Create as many form fields as needed
  • No field validation, calculation, formatting or custom JavaScripts

FormMaker Pro

$ 29.95 / month
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • Create forms of any length
  • Create as many form fields as needed
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat validation, calculation and formatting for automatic calculation and updating of fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat scripts that are triggered by mouse and keyboard events
  • … and much more. See below, in the Full Feature Comparison Table, for the full list!

FormMaker Free

FREE / license
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat validation, calculation and formatting for automatic calculation and updating of fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat scripts that are triggered by mouse and keyboard events
  • Limited to 1-page forms only
  • Limited to 10 fields per form

FormMagic Pro

$ 179 / year
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • Create forms of any length
  • Create as many form fields as needed
  • No Acrobat scripts

FormMaker Pro

$ 299 / year
  • Set font, color, alignment and more to form fields
  • Create forms of any length
  • Create as many form fields as needed
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat validation, calculation and formatting for automatic calculation and updating of fields
  • In InDesign, include Acrobat scripts that are triggered by mouse and keyboard events
  • … and much more. See below, in the Full Feature Comparison Table, for the full list!

Instant Download

FormMaker is available in 2 editions:

FormMaker Free works with single-page InDesign documents and up to 10 form fields. Fill in the form below to download FormMaker Free Edition.

FormMaker Pro works with forms of any length and has all features, including adding Acrobat validation, calculation, and formatting scripts right inside InDesign, as well as scripts triggered by mouse and keyboard events!

To subscribe, use the appropriate button above. Remember! The annual plan comes with a 25% saving compared to the monthly plan!

Your product will be available for instant download when you complete the purchase.

Full Feature Comparison Table

Feature Native InDesign FormMagic FormMaker Pro
Text alignment in form fields (left, right, center)
Comb fields
Rich text fields
Rotated fields (90°, 180°, 270°)
Use special Acro-safe fonts (Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol, Adobe Pi)
Apply a font for form fields that will be fully embedded in the PDF (end-users do not need to have it installed on their own computer)
Default text in text fields
Text field character limit
Line style (solid, dashed, beveled, inset, underlined)
Editable combo boxes
Supports file-selection fields
Real Acrobat checkbox styles (check, circle, cross, diamond, square, star)
Commit selected value immediately (combo box and list box fields)
Apply default field value
Enable spellcheck for text fields
Radios in unison
Run a Javascript triggered by a user action (mouse up, mouse down, mouse enter, mouse exit, focus, blur)
Format fields with predefined Acrobat formatting (number, currency, percent, date, time, zip codes, phone, social security, arbitrary mask)
Code-free negative number style (parentheses, red text)
Add custom keystroke and format scripts
Code-free field validation ("Field is in the range between...")
Custom validation scripts
Code-free field calculations (+, ×, average, minimum, maximum)
Simplified field calculations
Custom calculation scripts
Add and edit custom document Javascripts
Create a date-picker field
Easily create an "Add an image" field

Buy FormMaker Pro

FormMaker Pro: $29.95/month

FormMaker Pro: $299/year (save $60/year)

System Requirements

System Requirements

  • All recent versions of InDesign (including the latest)
  • Acrobat X or higher
  • Works with Windows or macOS

Download Free Edition

Fill in the form below to download the free version of FormMaker.

Name:
Email:

 

Video: Introducing FormMaker

Watch a short video to learn about FormMaker

User Guide

To browse the full product documentation, click here.

Download the Free Edition of FormMaker

Fill in the form below to download FormMaker Free Edition and give it a test drive.

The Free Edition is identical to the Pro edition, except that it is limited to a single-page form, and up to 10 form fields only.

Name:
Email:

Installation Instructions

In the download package of FormMaker you will find separate installation instructions (PDF) for macOS or Windows. Follow these instructions carefully. They will tell you how to install FormMaker on your computer.

If you need help installing FormMaker on your computer, please contact us.

If you have installed the two FormMaker scripts correctly, by copying them to the correct folders on your computer, you will see a new entry in your InDesign scripts panel called FormMaker, and in Acrobat you will see a new entry at the bottom of the Edit menu called “FormMaker”.

Important note for all users of the latest version of Acrobat: If you are using the latest version of Acrobat, you must disable the new UI. See the installation instructions PDF for more information.

Still Have Questions?

Get in touch by email  or phone (+972 8 9799850) and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Money-back Guarantee

If you are not satisfied with FormMaker for any reason, simply let us know within 30 days of initial subscription for a full refund. After that, you may cancel your subscription at any time.

“FormMaker … I can't say enough good things about it!”

Damian Sian, Accessibility Expert

Article Comments

  1. Leo

    September 18, 2024 11:19 am Reply

    Try to download form maker to try but get the message Captcha Verification failed! Please try again. Even if it passed the capcha test with a green marker. Is there another wat to download?

    • Ariel

      September 18, 2024 3:16 pm Reply

      Hi Leo,
      I sent a link to you via email.

  2. L

    April 28, 2024 12:01 pm Reply

    Hello,

    I’m a bit confused as this two statements seems contradictory:

    1)
    “ With FormMaker, you have access to all Acrobat’s form field functionality – in InDesign!”

    2)
    “In fact, almost anything you can do in Acrobat to a form, you can now do in InDesign with FormMaker!”

    What exactly it cannot do?

    • Ariel

      April 30, 2024 12:13 am Reply

      Hi Lucas,
      I suppose that sentence (1) should properly say: “You have access to all Acrobat’s *scriptable* form field functionality.”
      The idea is that FormMaker should support everything relating to form fields that is listed here: https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsapiref/index.html, i.e., anything relating to form fields that Adobe has exposed to scripting in Acrobat.
      I recommend downloading the free version of FormMaker to see whether the particular features you need are available. The free version is identical to the full version except for the limitation of document length.
      If there is something missing that you need, post back (better here: https://id-extras.com/forum/index.php) and I’ll be happy to confirm that it is not available or explain how to do it if possible.
      Thanks,
      Ariel

  3. Luc Naets

    April 6, 2023 11:54 am Reply

    There’s no Options tab in the FormMaker Dialog!
    Why can’t I change the Options of a form from within FormMaker?
    Is there something I’m missing?
    For instance a checkbox, change it’s Options Check Box Style to cross…

    • Ariel

      April 25, 2023 5:01 pm Reply

      Hi Luc,
      You are correct that there is currently no Options tab in FormMaker. We hope to add that soon.
      I’m pleased to say that the Appearance tab and Options tab have been added, and are now available in FormMaker Pro 4.0!
      So you can now apply any of the available Acrobat styles to checkboxes and radio buttons, as well as much more!

  4. Albert Pedrero Coderch

    April 20, 2022 2:22 pm Reply

    Hi Ariel,

    I’m trying the FormMagic Trial for embed a font in a PDF with a form. After doing all the steps, it appears on the document properties that it’s already embeded, but when I try it on another computer without the font installed it doesn’t show the font I chose, and the font still remains embed as I checked on the properties.

    Do I need to try with de FormMaker or there is some limitations for the Trial versions?

    Let me know please, thanks in advance.

    Albert.

    • Ariel

      April 20, 2022 3:50 pm Reply

      Hi Albert,
      It should work with FormMagic, no need to try FormMaker. And there’s no limitation with regard embedding in the trial version, so if it’s not working in the trial, it won’t work with the full product either.
      The question is, does this font support embedding? Some do not. A simple way to make sure is to open the form in Acrobat, and then manually apply this font to a form field. If the font can’t be embedded, Acrobat will display a message.
      Ariel

  5. Adrian Hanbury

    August 5, 2021 3:19 pm Reply

    I work in a team of 10 people, so would we need a license each or is there a discount for purchasing multiple licenses ?

    • Ariel

      August 5, 2021 3:34 pm Reply

      Hi Adrian,
      Thanks for getting in touch. I have replied to you by email.
      Ariel

      • Amara Amzal

        April 11, 2022 1:33 pm Reply

        Hi,

        I would like to know how the license works exactly.

        If we buy the plug-in 299€ for one year, is it for one user only?

        What if we have 5, 10 or 20 users in our agency?

        Many thanks

        Amara Amzal

        • Ariel

          April 11, 2022 1:55 pm Reply

          Hi Amara,
          FormMaker is $299 US (not euros) per seat, per year.
          The license is connected to the user’s Adobe CC account, and Adobe usually allows installation on 2 computers (belonging to the same user), so FormMaker would be usable on both those computer.
          For multiple licenses, we offer discounts. There’s a basic discount calculator here: https://www.id-extras.com/bulk-discounts/
          … but get in touch for a quote once you’re sure you know how many licenses are needed.
          Thanks,
          Ariel

  6. Clinton

    March 3, 2021 5:30 pm Reply

    Hi Ariel,
    I recently downloaded FormMaker Pro. It’s truly a timesaver! I’m wondering if there’s a way to select multiple text fields at once and apply the same formatting? I’ve tried several times, but FormMaker only assigns the formatting to one text field in the group selection, not all?? Am I doing something wrong?
    Sincerely,
    Clinton.

    • Ariel

      March 3, 2021 9:47 pm Reply

      Hi Clinton,
      It depends what you mean by “formatting.” If you’re talking about text formatting, it is possible to apply formatting to multiple fields with InDesign’s standard tools (including using paragraph styles).
      But if you’re talking about applying formatting scripts (to create a number field, or date field, etc.) then you’re right. For now, you have to apply the formatting one field at a time. But FormMaker does remember the last-used settings, so that helps a little.
      Ariel

  7. MATHIEU

    November 26, 2020 3:52 pm Reply

    BONJOUR, je souhaite essayer la version d’essai, effectivement je fais de plus en plus de pdf personnalisable, je voudrais essayer avant d’acheter pour voir si cela correspond à mes besoins. Mais malheureusement quand je clic cela ne télécharge pas. avez vous une solution.
    Je vous remercie
    Audrey MAthieu

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