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

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

FormMaker is the big brother of FormMagic.

This means you get everything that comes with FormMagic: Interactive PDFs straight from InDesign, complete with font formatting (font, size, color), text formatting (alignment, rich text), and PDF comb fields (one character per cell).

But what if, apart from the way the form looks, you also need to control what the form does?

Until now, any formatting, validation, or calculation of form fields could only be done in Acrobat.

This, of course, means entering a world of pain. Because any time a change has to be made to the form in InDesign, all the hard work of programming the form and setting the properties of the fields would have to be redone in Acrobat!

Cue FormMaker!

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

Use ready-made 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.

For instance (just one of endless possibilities), if you need certain fields to appear or become disabled or disappear depending on the user’s input, you can do this easily with FormMaker, in InDesign.

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

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.

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. The end user will not need anything beyond the free Adobe Reader (that they probably already have installed on their computer) to view and interact with your rich PDF forms. Even fonts you have chosen will be available to users to fill-in the form with, even if they don’t have those fonts installed on their computer.

Quick Video Tutorial

Watch this short tutorial to see the power of FormMaker:

New: The FormMaker Dialog Box

Version 3.0 of FormMaker offers a completely upgraded user experience!

FormMaker now essentially brings Acrobat’s “Properties” dialog box into InDesign. With all the familiar options, it becomes as easy in InDesign as it was in Acrobat to add validation, calculation, formatting, and even document Javascripts to your interactive PDF forms!

And the best bit? Because the layout and functionality is identical to the Acrobat Properties window, you’ll be up and running in no time, without needing to write a single line of Javscript code!

With FormMaker, you can format fields to accept only numbers (specifying the number of decimal places you want), or dates (in any format), or time, currency, percent, zip codes, telephone numbers, social security numbers or any custom mask. You can validate fields to make sure that they fall within a predefined range. You can calculate the sum, product, average, minimum or maximum of other fields and place the result in a new field. All in InDesign. All without writing a single line of code!

Here’s a screenshot of the FormMaker dialog box:

User Guide

To browse the full product documentation, click here. Remember that FormMaker includes all the features of FormMagic.

Download the Free Edition of FormMaker

Click here 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.

Installation Instructions

In the download package of FormMaker you will find a text file called “Installation Instructions.” 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”.

What formatting is restored by FormMaker?

Just like FormMagic, FormMaker restores the font, size, color, alignment, and default text to the form fields in your interactive PDF. For rich text fields, it also restores superscript, subscript, strikethrough and underline formatting.

It can be used with rich text fields, regular text fields, combo boxes and list boxes, buttons and radio buttons.

Additionally, you can create combs in InDesign with FormMaker. What is a comb? It’s a type of form field where each character is separated by a vertical line, and you can type only one character per box, like this:

|D|D|M|M|Y|Y|Y|

To create a comb in InDesign, create a form text field and separate the text inside the field with the vertical bar character (it looks like this: |). It will be converted to a comb field in Acrobat when you run FormMaker!

With FormMaker, You Can Add Interactivity to Your Fillable PDFs without Leaving InDesign!

FormMaker Pro includes everything that comes with FormMagic. But if you need to add validation, calculation, or formatting to your form fields, or need to add document-level scripts, or scripts triggered by keyboard or mouse events to your PDF form, FormMaker Pro allows you to add it all directly in InDesign, again avoiding the crazy round-trip between Acrobat and InDesign whenever edits are made.

Subscribe to the yearly plan of FormMaker Pro and receive FREE assistance with writing the basic Javascripts needed for your interactive PDF forms! (Terms and conditions apply, please inquire.)

Click here to see an example of how FormMaker was used to add an Acroscript in InDesign that converts a user’s input into all-capital letters (just one of limitless possibilities).

Missing Features? Customization?

Is there something you do with PDF forms that can’t be done with FormMaker in InDesign?

If you find there is a feature missing, tell us about it! We are very open to improving and extending FormMaker‘s capabilities, and need user feedback to get a sense of what is needed. New features can often be added quickly and easily, so don’t be disheartened that it will take months to see your requested feature! It might only take a day or two!

Feature Comparison

Instant Download

FormMaker is available in 2 editions:

FormMaker Free works with single-page InDesign documents and up to 10 form fields. Click here 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.

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.