For many, choosing the type of the information you want to download might not seem like a big deal. However, this can have a huge impact on user experience. Whether you’re in business, government, education, or just wanting to make sure that your information is delivered as intended, it is crucial to consider sending all important material as a PDF file.
The PDF (Portable Document Format) has countless benefits, many of which might be surprising—or, at the very least, bear repeating. The first major benefit is its universality, and this is the major advantage that all the other benefits build from.
The PDF is consistent, meaning that it will appear the same to the receiver as it does to the sender. How many times have you sent a Word doc or something similar only to have someone on the other end complain about difficulties opening the file or accessing the material based on the differences in formatting. Because of its consistency, PDFs have become the standard in government and industry. In fact, many refer to the file type as “electronic paper,” because it remains compatible, dependable, and easily shareable, similar to its analogue counterpart.
Furthermore, the PDF file type has always been centered around accessibility as a founding principle. As more workplaces strive toward greater inclusion and accessibility, it’s important for companies to keep this attribute on the forefront of all communications for everyone’s benefit. Web accessibility, in particular, continues to gain traction, so all those within the marketing and communications department—or any employee, for that matter—should always be in a state of continual progress toward greater accessibility.
Making the PDF Even More Accessible
Building from the many benefits that PDF file types offer, those seeking to gain an edge and improve experience for both employees and customers are finding ways to turn PDF into fillable form.
Whether it’s converting a PDF to online form, making a PDF fillable online, or turning a PDF into fillable form, the main principle remains: accessibility as a result of PDFs being universal.
Access from Anywhere via Any Device
By making a PDF into a fillable form, users can access the material from any device and any major browser—and, most importantly, can fill out the PDF from that device. So whether a client or colleague is on their lunch break on their phone or back home at their main computer, the form is accessible and fillable with ease. Going back to the “electronic paper” analogy, by making a PDF into a fillable form, you now have a paper that’s fillable and shareable, yet consistent at any time and place.
Improvements in Workflow
Being able to improve work flow and workplace processes are essential ingredients for any organization. Enhancements in these processes are not only helpful but are increasingly urgent and necessary cornerstones of development for success. Efficiency and traceability in terms of workflow management remain imperative within the increasingly sophisticated and complex digital terrains growing commonplace throughout industry. In order to keep up with customer demand, fillable PDF forms are becoming the new standard and should therefore be a no-brainer for organizations seeking to remain competitive.
In terms of improvements in workflow, some of the many benefits of having PDFs as fillable forms include saving time, resources, and money that would otherwise be spent on printing, hardware, etc. The PDFs can even be broken up into separate steps and delivered to multiple parties at once for ultimate efficiency and traceability.
The Next Step: Completely Embeddable Forms
Since the founding principle and reason for the invention of the PDF document was to make information consistent and shareable, it was only natural that fillable PDF forms emerged in order to meet the demands for consistency, accessibility, and workflow management.
With an eye toward the future, the next step in this evolution is having forms that are completely embeddable. On the business side, completely embeddable forms make the process of uploading to nearly any website a breeze, and this can certainly cut back on the costs and time otherwise allotted for complex coding. On the customer side, having an embeddable form means that customers can access and fill out these embeddable forms from nearly any device, and this can assuredly assist in saving the effort of separate emails, links, and any other type of navigation or correspondence. As such, when looking for ways to transfer and receive important material, it’s extremely beneficial to find a fillable form software service that provides completely embeddable forms.
The Paper of Today
Hopefully, the next time you’re faced with the decision of what file type you want to save information as, you’ll quickly choose not only a PDF, but a PDF that fulfills the role of a fillable form. After all, it’s quickly becoming the paper of today.