Batch fill pdf form from Excel, csv, tsv

Question

I know that I can fill the pdf form, from tsv by using More form options > Import data in acrobat pro. But this fills out only one form with only one row of information. I want to batch fill and save the pdf form from all rows of tsv at once. How can I automate this? I also know that it can be done in word by using mail merge feature. But I have different type of pdf forms which is daunting to change to word format every time I stumble upon new pdf form. How can I do it?

Answer 1

Maybe my open source tool BulkPDF could do what you want.

What is BulkPDF?

BulkPDF is a free and easy to use freeware software (Open Source), which allows to automatically fill an existing PDF form with different values. Only a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel 2007/2010/2013, LibreOffice or OpenOffice Calc) with the desired values is required.

How does it work?

BulkPDF automatically recognizes the values in the selected table. Then the column names must be manually assigned to the form fields. After the fill progress have started, BulkPDF will go through line by line and write the cell value into the form.

Functions

• Supports text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, combo boxes, and list boxes
• Individual configuration for each form field
• Filename freely configurable with automatic value
• Setable write protection for individual form fields as well as for the entire document
• Save and load the configuration
• Configuration manually adjustable (XML)
• Relative paths in the configuration file possible
• Command line tool available
• Compatible with Acroform and XFA

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Answer 2

I believe InDesign has a feature to mail merge spreadsheets and PDF forms. There are also paid 3rd party plugins and VBA scripts to do a mail merge from inside Acrobat itself.

Coding a solution is not too difficult - in the past I have used Python to code quick, custom solutions. In the code, you'll need to read each row of the spreadsheet and create an FDF file for the pdf form. Once you have the FDF, you can use PDFTK to merge the original PDF form and the FDF file and create a filled-in version of the PDF form.

If coding isn't your thing, I built a free site where you can mail merge a spreadsheet and a pdf form at pdfzero.com. You can upload a pdf form and a spreadsheet, click on the pdf fields you want to fill in, and select the column you want to use for that field. You can also specify a filename using column data to keep things organized. Once the files are processed, it will return a zip file with all of the merged PDFs.

DISCLAIMER - I wrote Pdfzero