How to Create a Questionnaire PDF: Step-by-step Guide & Templates.

Searching for answers? Questionnaires are the perfect way to get the responses you’re looking for in a way that’s easy to collate and compare. They’re a tool for collecting and recording information on a specific subject or issue – and you don’t need to be a computer whiz to make one.

Read on and learn how to create a questionnaire PDF with Adobe Acrobat to get the information you need.

Because of their many use cases, questionnaires come in all shapes and sizes. Think short multiple-choice questionnaires, rating scales, or more open-ended forms. Whether you’re assessing customer satisfaction, design decisions, or strengths and difficulties, a PDF questionnaire is easy to share and set up.

What you’ll learn.

Key takeaways.

Questionnaire PDFs provide a structured, shareable, and cost-effective way to collect consistent data.
When creating your questionnaire template or PDF, make sure to clearly define the purpose and align questions with your data goals.
Keep readability front of mind by prioritising logical flow and clear headings – and always test your questionnaire before distribution.

What is a questionnaire PDF?

Think of a questionnaire PDF as a tool to collect data for research, only in the PDF format. It’s a set of questions that allows you to gather and record information from your chosen respondents. While simple in theory, choosing the right format and questionnaire style is important.

There are many ways to write a questionnaire – you could use programs like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. But creating a questionnaire PDF offers a range of benefits, including:

Structured questions. Each respondent gets the same questions, in the same format, ensuring analysis and comparison are easy. This also helps to avoid bias.
Fixed format (PDF). PDFs are a fixed format, meaning they appear the same on any device or printed paper, ensuring uniformity.
Printable and shareable. Questionnaires in PDF format are designed to be shared and retain their formatting even when printed, making it easy to deliver to your respondents.
Anonymity. With a questionnaire PDF, you can encourage honesty, as they can be submitted anonymously. This is ideal for sensitive, private, or controversial subjects.
Cost-effective. PDFs are inexpensive, especially compared to specialised services or printing reams of paper.

How to make a questionnaire PDF: Step-by-step.

Ready to design your own questionnaire PDF? Follow this easy step-by-step:

1. Define your purpose.

Before you begin, you need to determine the purpose of your questionnaire. There are many reasons why might want to write a questionnaire PDF. Here’s some questionnaire examples to spark inspiration:

Strengths and difficulties questionnaire PDF.
Customer satisfaction questionnaire PDF.
Board effectiveness review questionnaire PDF.
Logo, brand or website design questionnaire PDF.
Employee engagement scale questionnaire PDF.
Customer loyalty survey/questionnaire PDF.
Client onboarding questionnaire PDF.

Once you’ve chosen the purpose of your questionnaire, you can answer some questions to get a better idea of the intent. For example, ask yourself:

Who is the audience?
What data do you need?
How will the results be used?

These answers should act as both a starting point and a north star to steer you during the questionnaire creation process.

2. Choose the right questions.

The type of questions you ask in a questionnaire can vary, and some may be more suitable for a situation than others, depending on your goals. For example, if you want concise answers, steer away from open-ended questions. You can add a mix of question types or choose to stick to one.

Different question types include:

Multiple choice. These are pre-generated answers that people can choose from – for example, “What’s your favourite colour out of the following three?”, with the answers, “Red, Yellow, Blue”. This is ideal if you’re looking to rapidly assess large quantities of data, test broad knowledge, or get a sense of product popularity.
Open-ended. An open-ended question will give you more context but deliver wordier, less uniform answers. Using the above example, “What’s your favourite colour and why?” could be a strong open-ended question to get more detail, discover unexpected reasons, and gather nuanced information.
Rating scales (1–5, 1–10). Rating scales offer a user-friendly method for quantifying and comparing feelings, such as attitudes, frequency, opinions, or satisfaction. This could read as, “How satisfied are you with the colour red?”
Closed-ended questions. These are questions that provide fixed opinions, such as a “yes/no” or “agree/disagree” question. Rating scales and multiple-choice questions could fall into this category, alongside rankings, or anything else with a “fixed” answer.
Likert scale. The Likert scale is a closed-ended question that aims to capture how much a respondent agrees or disagrees with a statement on a 5, 7, or 10-point scale. For example, “The colour red is better than the colour yellow”, with answers ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with a neutral answer in the middle.

3. Design your questionnaire.

You may have the best questions, but if your questionnaire template or PDF isn’t user-friendly, then you may not get the results you need. Layout and user experience (UX) are important tools to ensure your questionnaire PDF is legible, easy to navigate, and engaging.

Try to consider the following:

Section grouping. Questionnaire section groupings can sort your survey questions into blocks. For example, if you’re looking for responses from specific demographics, early questions could direct certain age groups to a designated part of the questionnaire based on your needs.
White space and readability. White space directly impacts questionnaire readability. While it may sound technical, it’s the practice of leaving enough space to break up patches of dense text and aid clarity. It can also make a survey appear less daunting.
Font size recommendations. Font-sizing (and fonts themselves) aren’t just about aesthetics – they can have a noticeable impact on readability. Aim for 12pt – 14pt font on printed surveys, and 10pt – 12pt on digital ones. For older adults, you may want to consider 14pt as standard. Aim for clear, sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Calibri for better readability. Adequate line spacing (1.5) also makes chunks of text easier to digest.
Branding (logo, colours). You can add colours, logos, and fonts to increase trust and add your brand imagery to your questionnaire. However, it’s important not to overwhelm your questionnaire PDF to the point it becomes illegible. If you apply branding, ensure it’s consistent, recognisable, and not distracting.

Here are some key points that can serve as a checklist to help ensure your checklist is, at a baseline, legible:

Clear headings. Headings should be easily identifiable, stand out from questions or answer text, and denote what each section will focus on. Aim to make them informative, concise, and unbiased.
Consistent spacing. Ensure that the kerning (the space between letters), line spacing, and white space between paragraphs, sections, or headings are consistent.
Logical flow. If a questionnaire sends people back and forth, or if the questions seem thrown in a nonsensical order, it can cause additional cognitive load for the reader. This could reduce completion rates or confuse your respondents.

For more insights on accessible PDF design, explore our WCAG checklist for formatting PDFs and documents.

4. Create your questionnaire.

Once you’ve done your research, chosen the right questions, and defined your questionnaire's purpose, you can start creating. Designing a professional-grade questionnaire can be daunting, but with Adobe Acrobat, it’s easy.

Launch Adobe Acrobat, then select “Prepare Form” from the “Tools” menu.
Alternatively, use the Adobe Acrobat fill & sign tool online for free.
Open a blank page, select a file (including one from other sources like Word), or scan a document.
Select “Auto-detect form field” for automatic form field detection. Then, add or edit fields as required for interactive elements like check boxes. You can right-click a field and select “Properties” to customise it.
Once you’re happy, save the document and click “Distribute” to share your questionnaire.

Alternatively, try Adobe Express for another way to create a questionnaire:

Visit Adobe Express, and choose from a range of helpful, fully customisable questionnaire PDF templates.
Use the in-depth customisation options to add your logo, colours, and fonts to ensure your questionnaire PDF stays on brand.
Add your questions, answers, and headings to the questionnaire. You can amend fonts, spacing, and colour as needed.
Add any visual elements you want to include, from design aspects to data visualisation.
Save and share your survey or download it ready for printing.

5. Test and distribute.

Questionnaire PDFs can be a lot of work, and you may be tempted to hit share as soon as you’re finished. But before you send your questionnaire off into the wild, you should test it on different devices, browsers, and in print. You should also proofread it to ensure everything is clear and there are no confusing typos or sentences.

You could consider getting a friend or colleague to fill it in, and note any mistakes they come across, or any points of friction they encounter.

If you can get a subject matter expert to look through it, too, you can ensure your questions are sensible and likely to provide the data you expect.

Questionnaire PDF use cases.

Questionnaires are a convenient tool for gathering data from market analysis to scientific data or even for customer satisfaction results. They’re a cost-effective way to gather large amounts of relevant information, and a standardised method of data collection.

Here are some of the different types of questionnaires you might use, and the type of questions you may include with them:

Customer questionnaires.

Customer questionnaires are an essential tool for gathering relevant customer feedback for a variety of reasons. These could include:

Post-purchase surveys. E.g., “How satisfied are you with the service we provided?”, on a rating scale.
Customer support evaluations. E.g., “How well did our customer service team resolve your issue?”, on a rating scale, or through a multiple-choice question.
Product feedback. E.g., “If there is anything you could change about the product, what would it be and why?”, as an open-ended question.
Website experience/UX analysis. E.g., “Were you able to find what you were looking for on our online store?”, including a “yes/no” selection, with room to expand.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys. E.g., “Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?”, with a scale going from “wouldn’t recommend” to “would recommend”.

HR and employee questionnaires.

HR and employee questionnaire PDFs are great tools for collating data on either workplace culture, operations and efficiency, or engagement. Examples include:

Employee engagement/satisfaction questionnaires. E.g., “Do you feel recognised for your work at [Company]?”, with a Likert scale or rating system.
Pulse questionnaires. E.g., a sliding scale on employees' feelings about things like work-life balance, stress, and so on.
Exit questionnaires. E.g., “What are your reasons for leaving?”, with an answer box.
Onboarding questionnaires. E.g., “The orientation process prepared me for my job role well…”, with a Likert scale.

Business and team effectiveness questionnaires.

Business and team effectiveness questionnaires help your employees to set goals, share pain points, give feedback on the direction of the business, or share any day-to-day issues.

Goal-setting questionnaires (SMART goals). E.g., “What do I want to accomplish?” “How will I know I have met my goal?”, using a range of suitable answers.
Process pain points questionnaires. E.g., “I find it difficult to do my job day to day…”, with a scale, and an option to expand.
Goal-setting behaviour questionnaires. E.g., “I focus on my own improvement, rather than comparing myself to others,” with a Likert scale.
Team effectiveness questionnaires. E.g., “Do you feel comfortable sharing your ideas with your team?”, with either multiple choice or sliding scale answers.
Management effectiveness questionnaires. E.g., “Does your manager give you constructive and actionable feedback?”, with a multiple-choice answer.

Creative and project-based questionnaires.

Creative and project-based questionnaire PDFs can help employees or creative partners to trigger creative thinking, generate engagement, or reflect on their work for future projects.

Creative project briefing questionnaire. E.g., “What are three words you would hope clients use to describe the final output of this project?”, with an open-ended answer box.
Project reflection and evaluation questionnaire. E.g., “What was the most rewarding, and most frustrating, moment of this project?”, with an open-ended answer box.
Interactive/visual questionnaires. E.g., “Choose three images that represent the vibe you want from the new office space…”, with a multiple-choice answer, and the ability to expand on that answer.

Research questionnaires.

Research questionnaire PDFs are useful for gathering data with a range of questions, depending on your goals. You could use this type of questionnaire to gather either quantitative or qualitative data on a variety of subjects.

Market research questionnaire. E.g., “Which of the following brands have you heard about before?”, with multiple choices, including “none.”
Demographic research. E.g., “How old are you?”, with a scale or multiple choices labelled for different demographics.
Academic research questionnaire. E.g., “How often do you use social media apps each day?”, with a multiple-choice answer for a set of ranges related to your study, or a sliding scale.

FAQs.

How do I create a questionnaire PDF for free?

To make a questionnaire PDF for free, you can make an existing questionnaire fillable using Adobe Acrobat’s fill & sign tool, or create a questionnaire from scratch or a template online with Adobe Express.

What is the best format for a questionnaire (PDF or online form)?

Both PDF and online formats for questionnaires can be useful, depending on your intent. PDFs retain their formatting across devices, are secure, easy to share, and don’t require constant internet access. They’re also print-ready and suitable for legal forms that require exact formatting. Online forms can be convenient to access, mobile-friendly, and easier to distribute.

What should be included in a professional questionnaire PDF?

Professional questionnaire PDFs should be formatted consistently, retain any brand imagery, follow a logical structure and be free of errors. This should help improve data accuracy, increase response rates and trust, and simplify analysis. Ensure the purpose of the survey is clear and provide an estimated completion time. If you have any specific instructions, these should be clearly signposted.

More resources.

Useful PDF tools.

Design engaging PDF questionnaires and surveys for use in personal and professional life. Make an impact with Adobe Acrobat today.