Personal productivityOriginal Reddit post
Preview - Lock a PDF Form?
I am trying to make a PDF Form for a number pad template for Karabiner/keyboard maestro, to keep track of what I set it to do. (and easily make new ones for new set ups, thus a template) I've made the PDF, put in text fields... BUT, the whole things is unstable, easy to mess up and edit, and just tabbing thru fields doesn't work. Is there a way to "lock it" so that only the set text fields can be changed?
Collected discussion
6 collected
6collected13reported on Reddit
Yes. The key is to create real PDF form fields, rather than placing text boxes over the page in Preview. Preview can fill existing fields, but it is not a good tool for building or locking a form template. In Acrobat Pro or PDF Expert, make the key labels/static parts non-editable and leave only the fields you want to change editable. Also set the tab order while creating the fields - that should fix the issue with Tab not moving through them. For this particular layout, I would probably use a Numbers or Excel template unless the PDF needs to be printed. It may be much easier to maintain when you change your Karabiner setup.
I thouhgt of excel, but I was enammored of the idea of the graphic..whether to print or not I don't know.
The ideal fix here is to bake the keypad artwork into the base PDF layer so it's static and just your own labels are interactive form fields.
i thought I had done that, though.
in acrobat pro First. Flatten the background All the static UI—key outlines, numbers, symbols, and text—needs to be standard page content, not floating annotations or text boxes. If needed, take the bare version without fields and simply "Print to PDF." Do this before adding any form fields; otherwise, you'll bake those in too. Then i would map the fields. Open that flattened PDF, go to All Tools → Prepare a Form, and drop in your text fields. Make sure you assign a unique variable name to every field (like: key7action, key8action etc). If you duplicate names, the fields will mirror each other's input. When you're done, exit form-editing mode so the UI stops floating around. Third, I think it should be Tab order Back in Prepare a Form, go to Sort By → Tab Order and enable Show Tab Numbers. Select Order Tabs Manually and drag them into your actual keypad sequence (or let Acrobat auto-sort by row/column). and the last one is locking it down. Go to All Tools → Protect a PDF → Encrypt with Password. Turn on the editing restrictions, set "Changes Allowed" strictly to Filling in form fields and signing, set your admin password, and save. keep one master file that is unprotected for any edits and then protected one that fill out for each new revision hope that helps
preview doesn't support locking fields at all, it's pretty basic for forms. for real field protection (and to fix tab order) you'd need acrobat's "Prepare Form" tool — right click each field > properties > general tab > read only checkbox, and you can reorder tab order in the fields panel. don't need a paid license, their free online prepare-form tool covers it.