Fill out a form without printing it
Complete a form that arrived as an attachment, with no printer and no envelope.
A form arrives by email. The old way is to print it, fill it in, find a scanner and mail it — four separate jobs, one of which needs equipment you may not own.
There are two kinds of form, and telling which one you have got matters, because they are filled in differently.
Key points
- Tell a form with real boxes from a form that is only a picture.
- Fill one in on the screen, without printing anything.
- Save the filled-in copy and leave the blank original as it arrived.
What to remember
- Type, tick, sign, then Save a copy. The saving is the step people forget.
- Save a copy before you get up. Two seconds, and it turns a form into something that exists.
Try this
Next time a form arrives by email, open it and move the pointer slowly across it before doing anything else. If pale boxes light up, you can type straight in. That one look tells you which of the two jobs you have got.
Practice: Fill out a form without printing it. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.