Create a form from a PDF

Use the Nintex PDF Converter to convert your digitized paper forms into Nintex Forms, which you can then publish and use to capture data, start a workflow, or to send to someone as a task. After importing the PDF you can select the content you want to convert to Nintex Forms and add them to form controls as required. You have the option of converting all the content in the PDF or select only the content you want to convert from the PDF as described in the steps below.

After the conversion to Nintex Forms is completed, you can configure controls and change the form layout and add styles and rules as required before you publish it.

The Nintex PDF Converter is available when the feature is selected in the AI features for the tenant.

Convert a PDF

Follow the steps below to convert a PDF. The Nintex PDF Converter fields, buttons, settings and selections table describes all the fields, buttons, and selections in the Nintex PDF Converter.

1. Open the Nintex PDF Converter

  1. Open the Forms designer.

  2. On the toolbar, click Start with PDF.

2. Select a PDF to convert

  1. In the toolbar of the Nintex PDF Converter, click Import PDF.

  2. Select the PDF that you want to convert and open it.

    The PDF uploaded and analyzed to identify the fields and data types that can be converted to Nintex Forms controls. After the analyzing is complete a PDF preview of the prepared PDF is displayed on the left side of the screen. The Nintex Forms preview is displayed on the right side of the screen.

Note: The selected PDF must be less than 50MB and less than 20 pages.

3. Select content from the form to convert

After the PDF is prepared you can start selecting content to add to Nintex Forms. You can choose to insert all the content in the current page of the form or select sections of content to insert.

  1. On the toolbar open the Content drop-down and select one of the following options:

    • Include Selection: Allows you to select the parts of the PDF you want to add to your form from the PDF preview.

    • Convert page: Converts and adds all the content in the current page of the PDF to your form. The converted content is displayed in the Nintex Forms preview.

  1. If you selected Include Selection, do one of the following:

    • To add content one by one: Click on the PDF preview on the left to add what you want to the form.

    • To add a section of content at once: Click and drag on the PDF to select the PDF content you want to add to your form .

    Content you add from the PDF preview to the form is displayed in a form control on the Nintex Form preview.

  1. After you finish adding content from the current page to your form, click at the bottom of the page to move to the next page. Repeat the process till you add all the content you want from the PDF to your form.

4. Remove content from the form

  • If you want to want to remove any controls from the form, open the Content drop-down on the toolbar and select one of the following options:

    • Exclude Selection: On the PDF preview on the left, click on the content you want to remove from the form. The selected content is removed from the Nintex Forms preview.

    • Remove page: Removes all the content of the current page of the PDF from the form preview.

5. Change control type

If the PDF content that you add to your form hasn't converted as expected and if you want to change the control it is converted to, you can change the control type.

  1. On the toolbar, click Change content to and select the control you want to change the content to.

  2. Select the content you want to change in the PDF preview on the left-hand side. You can click and drag on the PDF to select the content.

6. Locate content

You can use the Locate option to find content. This is useful when you have a form with a lot of information and you want to find where specific content from the PDF is included in your form.

  1. On the toolbar open the Content drop-down and select Locate.

  2. Click on the content you want to find in the PDF preview on the left-hand side. The content is highlighted in the form preview.

7. Open in form designer

After you finish adding the content you want from the PDF to the form, you can open the form in the Nintex Forms designer.

Important: When you click Open in Form designer and the form designer opens, the Nintex PDF Converter is closed and the PDF preview is discarded. If you want to add any more content from the PDF you will have to restart the process.

  • On the toolbar, click Finish in Form designer. The Nintex PDF Converter is closed and the form is displayed in the form designer.

Nintex PDF Converter fields, buttons, settings and selections

Field or selection Description
PDF preview Preview of the imported PDF you want to convert to Nintex Forms.
Nintex Forms preview Preview of the form. The Nintex Forms preview will be empty till you add content from the PDF.
Import PDF Opens file explorer to select the PDF you want to convert.
Content

Drop-down options to select the content you want to add to the form from the PDF preview. Includes the following options:

  • Include Selection: Allows you to select the parts of the PDF you want to add to your from.

  • Convert page: Converts and adds all the content in the current page of the PDF to your form.

  • Exclude Selection: Select content you want to remove from the PDF preview on the left. The selected content is removed from the form preview.

  • Remove page: Removes all the content of the current page of the PDF from the form preview.

  • Locate: Finds where specific content from the PDF is added to in the form.

Change content to

Changes the control type of the content added to the form.

If the PDF content that you add to your form hasn't converted as expected and if you want to change the control it is converted to, you can change the control type.

Undo Erases the last action done.
Redo Reapplies or redoes an action you have erased using the Undo option.
Finish in Form designer

Opens the form in the Nintex Forms designer. You can configure controls and change the form layout, add styles, and rules as required.

Important: When you click Open in Form designer and the form designer opens, the Nintex PDF Converter is closed and the PDF preview is discarded. If you want to add any more content from the PDF you will have to restart the process.
Opens the next page of the PDF.
Opens the previous page of the PDF.