The Easiest Way To Create A Editable Printable For Your Readers

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This post is going to show you exactly how to take any worksheet or checklist that you’ve created in your design program of choice and edit them so that they’re interactive (the checkboxes are “checkable” and the spaces for people to write and answer questions can be typed in) — use our 10 FREE lead magnet templates to create your worksheet and then use this tutorial to make it interactive WITHOUT programs like Adobe Acrobat!

I get asked ALL the time how to create a printable that someone can actually edit on their computer. The answer is super simple and completely FREE– you do NOT need Adobe Acrobat or any fancy tools to do this and the best part? It incredibly fast and easy!

So what is an editable printable?

I get a lot of people that consider creating a printable in Canva and letting their readers edit it.

There are a few problems with this.

Depending on your audience, they may not know how to use Canva or have Canva account. In fact, unless they are a blogger or online business owner- chances are they have no idea what Canva is.

So creating a chore chart that someone has to navigate Canva just to add their kids’ name is not going to super helpful.

We want your reader to simply be able to click on the document, type in what they need to customize and hit save or print.

Quick wins are the name of the game!

How to create a customizable printable the easy way

Once you have your printable created, you can download as a PDF as usual. Leave any spots that your reader would edit or customize blank.

Side note: need help creating worksheets and workbook style printables? Check out this video tutorial

Next, you’re going to head over to PDFEscape.com 

This is a free online program. You do not need to pay anything, you don’t even need to create an account.

Once you are on that website, go ahead and upload your PDF.

Once it’s uploaded, the screen is going to look like this:

*Notice the top left, that’s where you will find your tools.

The tool we will use is called “Form Field”. You will be able to select various types of forms including:

• Text
• Text paragraph
• Checkbox
• Radio
• Dropdown
• Listbox
• Reset button
• Submit button

For most printables, you wil use the “text”, “text paragraph”, and “Checkbox” fields.

Choose the one you want and use your mouse to create the area on the printable.

You will need to repeat that process for every area that you want someone to be able to type in.

You don’t have to reselect the “Form Field” button unless you change the form field type. So, for this example, the top two areas are “Text Paragraph” and then I changed the “Form Field” to “Text” and did each of the bullet points.

The areas don’t have to be perfectly sized, the green will not show up when you download the printable.

Next, I changed the “Form Field” to “Checkbox” and filled in all my checkboxes

Now we will simply click on “Save & Download” once we have filled in all of our editable sections.

Once it’s downloaded, the reader should be able to click on any section and type away! Checkboxes will simply need to be clicked on and a check will appear. Pretty cool, right?

Here’s the finished product:

So, if you have worksheets or planners you want your reader to fill in. Chore charts to edit or budgets with customizable categories– the possibilities are endless.

You can get super creative with this and your reader will be able to edit it with ease!

To further illustrate this tool, please check out the video tutorial below ⬇️

 

Want to save a ton of time creating printables? Check out our 10 free lead magnet Canva templates & 3 free worksheets in our design library!

Don’t forget to grab our 10 FREE lead magnet templates to create your worksheet and then use this tutorial to make it interactive WITHOUT programs like Adobe Acrobat! You’ll get instant access to our entire design library that also includes templates for worksheets, ebooks, and more!