How to Mark Up a Form in ALIS

Use the in-app Form Markup tool to add ALIS fields to your compliance form PDFs so ALIS fills them automatically. Update an outdated compliance form, build a brand-new one, or fix a form that isn't filling correctly, all in a few minutes, right inside ALIS.

What is the Form Markup Tool?

The Form Markup Tool lets you take any PDF form and tell ALIS exactly where its data should go. Instead of retyping long field names by hand, you pick the fields you need from a searchable list and drop them right onto the form. Once a field is placed, ALIS fills it automatically with real data: resident names, contacts, healthy history, and more.

The tool works across all three compliance areas, so you can mark up your own forms for Resident Compliance, Staff Compliance, and Community Compliance. When you're done, you can save the finished form straight back to a compliance item in ALIS, or download it to use elsewhere.

Marking up a form is what makes it a Fill Online form: one ALIS can auto-populate with real data on your profiles. Preparing a form for Fill Online has traditionally meant sending your templates to the ALIS team to digitize. The Form Markup Tool puts that step in your hands, so you can place ALIS fields on a form yourself.

Before you begin

Access the Form Markup Tool

Access to use the Form Markup Tool requires a specific security role permission. If you aren't able to see the tool and need access for your role, contact your Company Administrator or the ALIS Team. 

Once the permission has been added to your role, the change takes effect at next login. Log out and back in if the tool doesn't appear right away. 

Two ways to mark up forms, and when to use each

You can open the Form Markup Tool from two places. They lead to the same three-step editor (Select Form › Markup Fields › Validate Form), but they differ in where you start and where your finished form goes.

• Option 1: Start from scratch or continue an in-progress markup session. Navigate to Settings › General Settings › Form Markup when you want to mark up a fresh form that is not tied to a compliance item yet, or if you want to continue editing a form.
• Option 2: Rework or fix an existing form: the "Markup Form" button. When you are editing a compliance item in Settings › Resident Compliance, Staff Compliance, or Community Compliance, each item has a Markup Form button. Choose this when you want to fix, update, or rework the form attached to that item. This pre-loads the form already on that compliance item (if there is one), and ties your session to that item, so you can save your changes straight back as a new version in one click.

Your work saves as you go

ALIS auto-saves a few seconds after every change, so you rarely have to think about it. You can also click Save Progress at any time to save immediately; a small timestamp indicator beside the button tells you when the last save happened.

Step 1: Select your form to mark up

When you start from Settings › General Settings › Form Markup

The Select Form page is your home base. It lists any markup sessions you've worked on recently.

To begin a new one:

1. Click Start New Form (top right).
2. In the pop-up, click Browse and choose your PDF, or drag the file into the drop area.
3. Click Continue to Markup. Your PDF loads on the Markup Fields step.

You can upload a standard PDF or a form that's already been partially marked up.

When you start from an existing compliance item 

Click Markup Form on the item. If a form is already attached, it loads automatically and you go straight to the editor. If the item has no form yet, use the folder / upload button in the toolbar to add one. 

Step 2: Add fields to the form

The Markup Fields step is split in two: the field sidebar on the left and the PDF viewer, with its editing toolbar, on the right.

Before you start dropping fields, it helps to know there are two kinds, and choosing the right one is what makes a form fill correctly:

• Preset ALIS fields: data ALIS already stores (resident name, facility, contacts, medications, insurance, and more). You add these from the sidebar, and ALIS fills them in automatically. On the validation step they count as ALIS Fields.
• Custom fields: anything ALIS doesn't store, such as a signature line, a free-text note, a form-specific checkbox, or a date someone fills in by hand. You draw these with the toolbar and name them yourself. They create a blank fillable field rather than pulling data. On Validation they count as Custom Fields.

Add a preset ALIS field (from the sidebar)

The sidebar groups every available ALIS field into categories, each with a count beside it.

1. Type into the Field Names search box (it matches both display names and field keys), or expand a category to browse.
2. Click the + icon to the right of the field. 
3. If the field needs details (e.g., a {0} or {i} placeholder, for example which person or which number in a list), a window opens. Fill those in and choose the field type (Text Box, Checkbox, Radio Button, or Signature).
4. Click Insert, then drag the field into position and resize as needed.  

To add several preset fields at once, check the box beside each field you want, click Insert Selected, fill in any shared placeholder values once, and insert them together.

How preset fields are coded

ALIS fields follow the pattern alis.<entity>.<field>, for example alis.resident.full_name or alis.facility.phone. You never type these; the sidebar inserts them for you. It just helps to recognize them on the form.

Add a custom field (from the toolbar)

When the value is not in ALIS, use the field-type tools in the toolbar above the PDF. Most commonly used options are the text box, checkbox, and signature fields. 

1. Click the tool for the field type you need.
2. Draw the field on the form where it belongs.
3. Give it a unique custom code (see How to code custom fields below).
4. Resize and position as needed. 

How to code custom fields

Every custom field needs a name (a "code") that tells ALIS it's a fillable field, not a value to auto-populate. Follow one simple pattern:

generic.<form_name>.<field_name>

• generic. Always start here. This prefix tells ALIS the field is custom, not a stored data point.
• <form_name> is a short slug for the form, kept the same on every custom field in the document (e.g. medication_error_report). This groups a form's fields and keeps them readable.
• <field_name> is a short, descriptive label that is unique to that field (e.g. nurse_sig, corrective_action, individual_responsible_name).

Example: generic.medication_error_report.nurse_name

Add a signature field

Signatures are almost always custom fields, so they're worth calling out on their own.

1. In the toolbar, choose the Signature tool (it also offers an initials option).
2. Draw the signature box on the line where the person will sign. It displays a small "Sign" tag so you can spot it on the form.
3. Name it with a unique custom code ending in _sig, for example generic.medication_error_report.nurse_sig.

Internal signature vs. external e-signature

A generic.…_sig field is a plain signature placeholder, perfect for a staff member signing inside ALIS, and it shows up in the Test Fill preview. On its own it does not make the form signable by an outside party through Dropbox Sign. 

External e-signature uses a different, party-specific naming convention and must be set up with the ALIS team. See the below What happens after you save section for more details.

Step 3: Edit fields in the form (as needed)

Double-click any field you have added, preset or custom, to open its [Field] Properties window. This is where you make changes to a field, such as correcting a textbox name or marking a field as required for form completion.

 The window has two tabs:

• General: the field's Name (its code), Tooltip, Value, and Form Field Visibility, plus toggles for Read Only, Required, Show Printing, and Multiline.
• Appearance: how the field looks, including Format (font, size, and bold / italic / underline), text alignment, Max Length, and Fill, Border, and Thickness styling.

Click OK to save your changes. Once you've placed all your fields (preset and custom), click Proceed to Validation at the bottom right.

Step 4: "Proceed to Validation" and test-fill

This step lets you double-check the form and preview how it will fill with real data, which serves as a safety net before the form goes live. 

Review the summary

At the top you'll see counts of:

• ALIS Fields: fields that match known ALIS patterns; these fill automatically.
• Custom Fields: fields you named yourself; these are filled by hand (or by a signer).
• Duplicate Fields: fields with the same code appearing more than once.

💡Tip: Duplicates usually mean a field was placed twice, or two custom fields were given the same code. Clear these up here so the form fills cleanly.

Run a test fill

Below the summary, every field is listed with a sample value.

1. Review and adjust any sample values you want to test with.
2. Click Download Test Fill. ALIS stamps your sample values into the form and generates a PDF so you can see exactly how it looks when filled

💡Tip: Always run a test fill before deploying a form. It's the quickest way to catch fields that overlap, sit in the wrong spot, or are too small, while they're still easy to fix.

Step 5: Finish and Save

How you finish depends on how you started:

• Started from a compliance item? Click Save [Compliance Item] in the upper right. Your marked-up PDF saves as a new version of the form on that item, and you're returned to Compliance Settings.
• Started from the Forms page? Click Download Form in the upper right, then upload the finished PDF wherever you need it.

What happens after you save

Once you save a marked-up form back to a compliance item, it becomes a Fill Online form on your Resident, Staff, or Community profiles. From there, your team clicks Fill Online on the item and ALIS auto-populates the fields you placed: resident name, room, contacts, and more. Every completed version is stored, and past entries (except signatures) carry forward, so recompleting a form only means updating what changed

For how filled forms are completed, versioned, and reported, see the Compliance Reference Guide.

Sending the form out for external signatures? 

If a resident's family member or another outside party needs to sign, ALIS can send the form for e-signature through Dropbox Sign. The signature, checkbox, and text fields you place here are what the signer completes. See full details in E-Sign Compliance Items.

External e-signature uses a party-specific field naming convention and requires a one-time setup with the ALIS team, plus a contract addendum with per-signature costs. Contact your Account Manager to get started.

Related Articles:

• Compliance Reference Guide
• Compliance Settings
• E-Sign Compliance Items
• Required Fields on Compliance Documents

For more assistance: 888.404.ALIS (2547) | support@go-alis.com