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How to check a checkbox with Firefox PDF editor

wants_to_help
wants_to_help
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When using the Firefox built-in PDF viewer/editor, is there a way to check a checkbox neatly?

When Firefox 111.0 came up today (3/16/2023) (system is Windows 11), it displayed a message that the user can edit PDFs directly in Firefox. It provided a sample document to practice on. The sample document contains checkboxes. There are tools at the right end of a toolbar above the document, but none of them seem to apply to checkboxes.

A user could select the pencil tool and draw a checkmark with the mouse, but it is hard to do this neatly.

The facility I am thinking of would correspond to going into Fill & Sign under Adobe Acrobat and selecting the checkmark tool.

Note: The article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-pdf-files-firefox-or-choose-another-viewer gives instructions for using the Firefox built-in PDF viewer and editor, but it does not mention this point.

When using the Firefox built-in PDF viewer/editor, is there a way to check a checkbox neatly? When Firefox 111.0 came up today (3/16/2023) (system is Windows 11), it displayed a message that the user can edit PDFs directly in Firefox. It provided a sample document to practice on. The sample document contains checkboxes. There are tools at the right end of a toolbar above the document, but none of them seem to apply to checkboxes. A user could select the pencil tool and draw a checkmark with the mouse, but it is hard to do this neatly. The facility I am thinking of would correspond to going into Fill & Sign under Adobe Acrobat and selecting the checkmark tool. Note: The article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-pdf-files-firefox-or-choose-another-viewer gives instructions for using the Firefox built-in PDF viewer and editor, but it does not mention this point.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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There is no need to use the new edit tools for checkboxes, merely clicking the checkbox with the mouse should be sufficient to place a tick as this is part of filling forms that got supported earlier. See "Fill out forms in PDF Viewer":

wants_to_help
wants_to_help Question owner
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This does not work (for me). If I click on a checkbox in the sample document, nothing happens. Does it work for you?

Maybe it works in documents that are set up as "fillable form" PDFs, but not in ordinary PDFs. The sample document, wnp-fx111-en.pdf , is not set up as a fillable form. (Evidence: If I save this document and open it in Adobe Acrobat, no fields are highlighted, and if I click on a checkbox, it does not receive special treatment; I have to select the checkmark tool, and then carefully position the checkmark and possibly adjust the size.)

The Help article says:

"Using Firefox's built-in PDF viewer

Fill out forms in PDF Viewer

Some PDF files have interactive fields to fill in data (such as on forms). Using Firefox's built-in PDF viewer you can fill out fields such as text, check boxes, and radio buttons."

The reference to "interactive fields to fill in data (such as on forms)" may indicate that the this feature only applies to PDFs that are set up as fillable forms.