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Usage docs

Fill By Link

Publish a DullyPDF-hosted form from a saved template or open group, share the generated link, and turn stored respondent answers into PDFs when needed, with optional post-submit downloads for template respondents.

How to use this docs page

This page is meant to answer one operational stage of the DullyPDF workflow well enough that you can run a controlled test without guessing. Read the sections below, validate the behavior against one representative document, and only then move to the next linked page.

That order matters because most setup failures come from mixing detection, mapping, fill validation, and sharing into one unstructured pass. A narrower review loop keeps troubleshooting faster and makes the template easier to trust once you save it for reuse.

Web form + sign demo

Fill a PDF web form and sign it in the browser

This walkthrough shows how DullyPDF combines Fill By Link with the e-signature workflow: share a hosted web form link, let the respondent fill and sign the PDF in the browser, and collect the finished document along with an E-SIGN and UETA compliant audit trail.

Web form + sign walkthroughWatch on YouTube

Use this video when you need to validate the end-to-end hosted PDF web form and e-signature handoff before sending a real respondent link to clients, patients, tenants, or employees.

What gets published

  • Fill By Link starts from a saved template or an open group. Unsaved work cannot be published.
  • If upload-time Rename or Map is still finishing in the editor, wait for that background run to complete before saving or publishing. DullyPDF keeps those actions blocked until the template stops changing.
  • The generated link points to a DullyPDF-hosted HTML form, not the PDF file itself.
  • Template links publish one saved form. Group links publish one merged form built from every distinct respondent-facing field in the open group.
  • Changing group membership closes the current group link so the next publish reflects the updated schema.

Owner publishing flow

  1. Open the saved template or saved group you want to publish.
  2. Use Fill By Link to generate the public URL, set global defaults such as requiredness and text limits, and tune each visible question before sharing.
  3. When Require signature after submit is enabled on a template link, choose the visible question that supplies the signer's full name, choose the visible email question that receives the invite, and review the compact readiness checklist before publishing. Those mapped signer questions are automatically required while signing stays enabled, and the builder now warns that saved PDF field values can still carry into the frozen signer copy when the web form does not overwrite them.
  4. Open the generated URL yourself first to confirm question wording and mobile layout.
  5. Copy the link and send it to respondents. Their answers are stored in DullyPDF under the owner account.

What respondents see

Respondents fill a mock-form style HTML experience with the fields you chose to publish. They do not edit the live PDF directly.

This separation keeps the PDF template stable while still letting teams collect answers from phones, tablets, and desktops.

For template links only, owners can optionally expose a post-submit button that lets respondents download a PDF copy of what they just submitted.

Template builders can also add custom questions that do not exist on the PDF itself, while group links currently stay limited to the merged packet field set.

Explicit PDF radio groups publish as one single-choice web question, while PDF signature widgets stay out of the public form entirely because DullyPDF reserves signature capture for the signing workflow.

Template links can also require signature after submit. In that mode the public web form collects the respondent data first, then hands the same stored response into the signing ceremony so the signer reviews the exact filled record before adopting a signature.

Reviewing responses and generating PDFs

  1. Open the saved respondent list in the workspace.
  2. Select one submission and hand it to Search & Fill just like a local CSV/XLSX/JSON row.
  3. Generate the PDF only when you are ready to materialize that response into the active template or group.
  4. Download the output immediately or keep working with the stored respondent record later.
  5. If post-submit signing was enabled and the respondent completed it, download the signed PDF and audit receipt directly from that response row.

Limits and sharing guidance

  • Base accounts can publish links from any accessible saved template and accept up to 25 responses per month across the account.
  • Premium accounts can publish links across their saved-template library and accept up to 10,000 responses per month across the account.
  • Current plan pages at /free-features and /premium-features also summarize saved-form, API Fill, signing, and credit limits.
  • Preview the public form before you share it so required fields and labels match what respondents should submit.
  • The owner builder popup ignores outside clicks; use the red X or Escape when you intentionally want to leave and discard in-progress edits.

Continue through the docs

Move to the next closest docs page instead of skipping ahead to unrelated features. That keeps the rollout sequence easier to validate and reduces setup drift between templates.

Related workflows

These workflow pages explain the public search-intent side of the same feature area, which is useful when you need a higher-level route summary before returning to the operational docs.

Related guides

These blog posts show concrete rollout examples and comparisons for the same workflow area, which is useful when you want a narrower example before returning to the operational docs.