Steps for Successfully Completing Screen Fillable Forms

Please take the time to read and pay attention to these important steps for successfully completing screen fillable forms on the City of New Philadelphia Web Site. The City of New Philadelphia is in the process of making our forms “fillable” on your computer. This means that you can conveniently complete such forms right on your computer by simply typing information into a form’s displayed fields. You can then print your completed form, sign it as required and submit the form to the administering agency as you normally would via regular mail or in person.

User Responsibility for Completeness and Accuracy

As with all official City of New Philadelphia forms and documents, you are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of all information that you provide on your screen-fillable form. The software that you will use provides no computation, validation or verification of the information you enter on the form, and you are responsible for entering all required information. At this time, all signatures, where required, must be hand written on forms.

Software required to view and complete Screen Fillable PDF forms

To access, view, download, complete and print fillable forms you will need to use Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or newer. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free and can be downloaded from the following web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

Please Note: The free Acrobat Reader does not allow you to save a completed, or a partially completed form on your computer. If you wish to electronically save a completed form, or retain your work on a partially completed form, you must purchase additional software - Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (or later) or Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.0. For more information about these products, please see the web page: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

For more information about Adobe products, including installation of the free Acrobat reader software, please visit the vendor’s web site at: http://www.adobe.com

Downloading and Saving Blank PDF screen-fillable forms from the City of New Philadelphia's web site at http://www.newphilaoh.com

Go to the City web site and find the detail page for the particular license that you desire. From the licensing detail page, there are two options to save the form to your computer’s hard drive:

Save the Form Without Viewing: right-click on the hyperlinked form title found in “Application Form” field on the detail page, select “Save Target As” (Internet explorer) or “Save Link As” (Netscape) and save the blank form to the computer directory or folder of your choice.

View the Form, then Save: double-click on the hyperlinked form title found in “Application Form” field on the detail page. With Acrobat Reader installed on your computer (or a purchased Adobe Acrobat product), the form will open within your browser displayed by the Acrobat Reader software. To save the form to your computer, click on the small disk icon that appears in the upper left hand corner of the Adobe Reader frame and again select the directory or folder of your choice.

Once saved, you may access the form at your convenience on your computer using Acrobat Reader (or a purchased Adobe Acrobat product).

Complete Forms Offline in the Adobe Reader. Avoid Completing Forms Online within your Browser.

Please Note: Although you can fill in a form while it is displayed within your browser, we strongly recommend that you not do so. You will lose all entered form data if you browse to other web pages in the same browser window that you are using to display the screen fillable form. You run the risk of accidentally deleting all of your entered form data by inadvertently clicking on the “back or “forward” buttons on your browser. Clicking either of these buttons will close the form and delete of all your information. We recommend that you open the Acrobat Reader program, click on file/open and locate the form saved on your computer hard drive. Then fill out the form in Acrobat Reader independently from your browser or your Internet connection.

Signing and Submitting Filled-in Forms. Retaining Copies for Your Records.

After completing a screen fillable form, you must first print and later sign the form. At this time, all signatures, where required, must be hand written on the form. Signature blocks are not fillable via your keyboard.

After printing and signing the form, submit the form to the administering agency as you normally would - via regular mail or in person.

Please Note: Since form data cannot be saved when using Adobe Reader, we strongly recommend that you print two copies of the filled-out form: (1) one copy to submit to the administering agency and (2) one copy for your personal records. (Alternately, you may make a photocopy of the completed form.) In order to save a form with your entered data intact, you must purchase additional software - Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (or later) or Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.0. For more information about these products, please see the web page: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Helpful Hints and Tips for Navigating Screen-Fillable PDF Forms

One you have located and downloaded a desired form to your PC, you are now ready to begin filling out the form. The fillable forms available on this web site have been created using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software. The majority of the forms make use of the most fundamental form fields, such as simple text fields, radio buttons and check boxes.

Once again, please remember: We recommend that you work offline within the Adobe Acrobat Reader or other Adobe Acrobat software products to (a) prevent the loss of data through inadvertent use of your browser while completing the form and (b) to minimize the confusion of layered menu bars that occurs when working online within your browser frame.

Acrobat Reader does not allow you to save a completed, or a partially completed form to a disk on your computer. If you wish to save a completed form, or retain your work on a partially completed form, you must purchase additional software - Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (or later) or Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.0.

You are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of all data provided on your form.

Useful Tips:

1. Navigating a PDF form

To begin filling in a “screen-fillable form: Select the hand tool from the Acrobat toolbar. Position the hand pointer inside a form field and click. The I-beam pointer allows you to type text. The arrow pointer allows you to select a field, a check box, a radio button, or an item from a list To accept the field change and go to the next field, press [TAB] or use your mouse to click on the next form field. To accept the field change and go to the previous field, press [Shift] + [TAB] or use your mouse to click on the previous form field.

2. Magnifying the form to make it easier to read and fill-in.

You can increase the magnification of the form to make it easier to view, read and complete. Changing the magnification on the screen will not change the size of the printed form itself. On the tool bar, there is a box that contains the number: 100%. This box can be changed with user-supplied “zoom” levels: 150%, 200%, 300% etc. After the new value is entered into the field, hit the “enter” to increase (or decrease) the magnification. In addition, there is both a “zoom-in” (+) and “zoom-out” (-) button on either side of the magnification box. Clicking either of these buttons increases or decreases the magnification in preset increments.

3. Moving from one form field to the next

Most forms have an applied Tab Order sequence so that forms can navigated and completed in a logical order. Use the “TAB” key to move from one field to the next. This procedure will also help you avoid accidentally skipping over any form fields.

4. Text boxes (single line or multi-line)

Text boxes are straightforward fillable fields where you can type text or numeric data onto the form. Single-line text boxes allow you to enter text on a single line within the specific confines of the box. The text begins and ends within the box provided. Multi-line text boxes allow you to enter multiple lines of text depending on the size of the box or space provided. Generally, the text will “wrap” (as with most word processors) within multi-line text boxes. You may also hit ”ENTER” at the end of a line to move to the next line of text. To begin entering text, click on the Hand tool, place the blinking “I-beam” within the text box and begin typing.

5. Form Fields with a limited number of characters

Some form fields have been configured to accept a maximum number of characters. Generally such form fields tend to be phone numbers (area code, prefix, suffix), dates, social security numbers or similar items. Where these multi-part fields may be separated by a hyphen or a dash, use the “TAB” key to move to the next part of the form field.

6. Check Boxes

Check boxes are used on forms for lists of items in which more than one item can be selected. They may also be used for items like “Check here if you wish to add an additional page of information, etc.” Place your cursor over the box in which you wish to place a check. When the cursor changes from the hand tool to the hand pointer, click your left mouse button to check the box. To undo the selection, left-click your mouse button again and the check mark will be removed.

7. Signatures

At this time, all signatures, where required, must be hand written on the form. Signature blocks are not fillable via your keyboard. These forms cannot be submitted electronically.

8. Printing Forms

Once you have completed filling in a form, select [File] and then [Print] from the Acrobat menu toolbar or click the small printer icon on the toolbar. This brings you to the print dialog box which you may configure as necessary.

Please note: Before printing your form - use your mouse to select an area of the form that is not inside a form field or hit the [TAB] key after completing the entry of your last box. If a form field is active (e.g. contains the blinking bar) the contents of that block will not print.

Please note: If the fillable form is displayed within your browser’s window, be sure to use the printer button on the Acrobat toolbar menu to print the form instead of your web browser’s print function.

Since form data cannot be saved when using Adobe Reader, we strongly recommend that you print two copies of the filled-out form: (1) one copy to submit to the administering agency and (2) one copy for your personal records. (Alternately, you may make a photocopy of the completed form for your records or save an electronic copy on your own computer if you are using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (or later) or Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.0).

9. Submitting Forms

Submit the form to the administering agency as you normally would - via regular mail or in person. Most forms include instructions about where to send the completed paper copy.