How to turn a PDF into a reusable, fillable contract template

If you send the same NDA, service agreement, rental application or onboarding form more than a couple of times, placing signature boxes by hand every time is wasted effort, and an easy place for mistakes. A template fixes that: set the document up once, and every future send takes seconds.

What a template stores

• The document: your PDF, one or many pages.
• Roles: the kinds of people who sign, such as Client, Company, Tenant or Witness. Each role has its own color in the builder.
• Fields: what each role fills in, and exactly where.
• Rules: which fields are required, and which appear only under certain conditions.

When you send it, you only say who plays each role.

Build your first template

1. Go to Templates → New template and upload your PDF.
2. Add roles. Use names that describe the part someone plays rather than a person's name: "Client," not "Ada."
3. Drag fields onto the page for each role. Move them by dragging, resize from the corner, nudge with the arrow keys, and drag across pages if you need to.
4. Set each field's options: a label, whether it's required, and choices for dropdowns and radio buttons.
5. Add conditions where they help (see below).
6. Save. The template is ready to send.

The 13 field types

Conditional fields: one template instead of five

Conditional fields let one template handle variations that used to need separate documents. Give a field a Show only if rule based on another field: equals, not equals, checked, unchecked, filled or empty. Some examples:

• A lease shows Pet details only if I have pets is ticked.
• An onboarding form asks for a VAT number only if Business type equals "Company."
• A consent form asks for a guardian's signature only if Patient is under 18 is ticked.

Hidden fields are skipped by the guided "Next" button, are never required, and aren't stamped on the final PDF.

Tips from teams who send a lot

• Make fields required unless they're genuinely optional. It's the simplest way to avoid half-completed contracts.
• Label fields you'll reuse, such as Company or Fee, so they can be prefilled from the API by label.
• Keep one template per document version. Editing a template doesn't affect envelopes already sent, because each envelope copies the fields when it's created, but new sends use the new version immediately.
• Use private templates (Team plan) for drafts or sensitive documents you don't want every colleague to send.

Four ways to use a template

1. Send it to one person or several people in order.
2. Bulk send it to everyone in a spreadsheet.
3. Share a public link so anyone can sign their own copy.
4. Send it from your own software through the API, prefilling fields as you go.

The Free plan includes 3 templates with every field type; Solo and Team include unlimited templates. Build your first template