How to edit PDF files

There are many ways in which a PDF file can be edited, using a wide range of editor tools that are on the market. This page focuses on the typical editing needs in a prepress environment. The following types of changes are discussed:

  • Text manipulations: how to edit the text in a PDF.
  • Image editing: how to edit an image in a PDF file or replace it.
  • Page related changes: how to delete pages, change their order, or rotate them.
  • Altering a PDF file: how to merge pages from separate PDF files, edit password-protected files, or add bleed.
  • Color editing: how to convert a PDF from color to black&white.

At the bottom is also a small overview of PDF editing applications.

Always keep in mind that PDF files are an accurate representation of a document. They are meant for output or on-screen viewing. They are not intended to be intermediate files that can still be edited. There are programs on the market that allow you to change the content of a PDF file and there are applications or plug-ins that can extract the content of a PDF so that you can insert this data into a new document. Altering PDF files is a last resort – whenever possible the original source file should be corrected and a new PDF generated. This is especially true for documents that will be reused at a later date!

Changing text

How to edit the text in a PDF

Within a PDF file text is essentially stored as single lines. The concept of text flowing from one line to another within a column does not exist. This makes it fairly difficult to edit text unless you rely on special tools that somehow manage to intelligently predict how text flows within a document

  • Adobe Acrobat & Acrobat Professional have a TouchUp Text tool for small text modifications. When you add or delete text, it will not reflow the text in the entire column. Some releases of Acrobat have a pretty bad reputation when it comes to the TouchUp Text tool, with users reporting weird behavior of the edited or remaining text once the tool is used. Use this tool only if there is no way to edit the original source file and recreate a PDF.
  • Even though Adobe Illustrator can open a surprisingly large range of PDF files, it is a bad choice if you want to edit text. Illustrator automatically uses its own fonts instead of fonts embedded in a PDF. This can lead to text reflows even if you leave text untouched.
  • For extensive text editing, Infix PDF Editor is an interesting product. I used it to add text to a book and found the reflow capabilities of the application quite impressive.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a mechanism in PDF to store a copy of the text in its logical reading order. If you edit the text in such a so-called ‘tagged PDF’ you are only modifying the visible copy, not the hidden duplicate. That means that even after removing part of the text, it still may show up in search results!

Changing images

How to edit an image in a PDF file

There are several high-end tools on the market that are optimized for this type of task. It is however surprising how much you can already achieve with Adobe Acrobat, provided you also have applications like Photoshop and Illustrator. In the ‘Touchup’ Preferences of Acrobat you can define which image and object editor you want to use from within Acrobat. Once this has been defined, you can use the Touchup Object Tool to select an object, context-click it and select the Edit option. In the case of an image, the default application (Photoshop on my set-up) opens the image. After changing the image, it is re-embedded in the PDF file.

Acrobat touchup object tool (far right)
Acrobat 8 Touchup Object Tool (far right)

How to replace an image in a PDF file

The above procedure for editing images can also be used to replace graphics. Use the Touchup Object Tool to open an image or artwork in Photoshop or Illustrator. Replace the content with the new image or artwork that you want to insert. In the case of images, it is best to maintain the resolution of the image you originally opened. Once the content is swapped use Save to reinsert it back into the PDF. There are other ways of swapping images that get discussed in this b4print thread.

Changing pages

How to delete pages, swap or rotate them

Adobe Acrobat can do all of this but there are most likely cheaper solutions around. I never bothered to check.

How to reverse the page order

If you need to swap the order of all the pages in a PDF so that the last page becomes the first one,…. check out this thread in the Adobe forums. It discusses a script for Acrobat 9 and Acrobat X. I tried the latter version on both Mac & PC and it worked fine.

Changing color

How to convert a PDF from color to grayscale

Most recent versions of Acrobat Professional can be used to convert a PDF to greyscale. In Acrobat X Pro go to the Print Production tools in the Tools panel. In Preflight select the Convert to grayscale fixup. Click the Analyze and Fix button and the file will be converted.

Converting an RGB or CMYK color PDF file to grayscale or black-and-white

A similiar function exists in older versions of Acrobat Pro. Check my separate page on converting a color PDF to grayscale for more information. It also discusses some other tools to do this.

Another alternative that some people suggest is printing the PDF to a new PDF and selecting Black&White in the output properties tab. I’ve never tried this myself.

Changing the entire PDF file

How to merge pages from separate PDF files

There is a separate page on this site dedicated to this topic.

How to edit a password protected PDF file

The PDF standard supports an extensive set of security features to prevent users from accessing certain features of a PDF file. One of these is the ability to edit PDF files. When you get such a protected file, the correct procedure is obviously to contact its creator and ask for the password to unlock the file. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to contact that person or agency or even impossible to find out who locked the file. There are a couple of alternative solutions:

  • The ColorSync utility that was included in OS X releases before version 10.5 overwrites PDF password protection. Simply open the PDF using it and do a ‘Save As’.
  • PDFkey Pro is a commercial multi-platform tool that can remove the password protection from a PDF file. Another option for the online unlocker from Smallpdf.

How to add bleed to a PDF

Information on what bleed is, why it is needed and how it can be added to a PDF file is available on my page about bleed.

How to add, edit or remove metadata in a PDF

There is a separate page about working with metadata on this site.

PDF editing tools

Below is a short summary of the various types of software that are available on the market to edit PDF files.

  • Adobe Acrobat (Professional) can be used to both view and manipulate PDF files. Next to the basic function discussed above, it can be used to completely repurpose PDF files (add multimedia elements like sound and video, add clickable buttons,…).
  • Plug-ins can be installed in Acrobat Professional to enhance its ability to edit objects within PDF documents. The most well-known one is probably PitStop Professional from Enfocus. Another popular choice is pdfToolbox from callas software.
  • Even though Adobe carefully avoids positioning Adobe Illustrator as a PDF editor, a remarkable number of PDF files can be opened and modified in Illustrator. Its major weak spot is text handling.
  • Many high-end stand-alone PDF editor applications have vanished in recent years. Acrobat seems to dominate the market.
    • Companies who make their money processing PDF files, such as newspapers who need to be able to make small modifications to advertisements, often use the products of OneVision to edit PDF files. These are probably the most powerful editors on the market, with a matching price tag.
    • Recosoft created an interesting plug-in, named PDF2ID, which can convert a PDF file into an InDesign publication. This tool is discussed in this thread on the b4print forums.

156 thoughts on “How to edit PDF files

  1. Who can figure this one.
    I sent a company a PDF file created with Serif Pageplus X5. It was opened with Adobe Illustrator CS4, which saw a non existant image of a word made up of hollow letters. There is the same word elswhere on the page which is solid letters. When the solid word is removed and the file is made into a PDF, the hollow letters image dissapears. The hollow letter word is not on the original artwork in any layer.
    Question: Is Adobe Illustrator cabable of making a ghosted or self manufactured image on to the PDF file it opens?

  2. I’m curious about how professional proofreaders correct mistakes in a PDF file-and which of these programs are the best option for one starting out in proofreading. And also for the macbook pro 10.8 Thank you

  3. Might I ask whatever happened to my comment explaining the PDF editing capabilities of Serif PagePlus which I submitted a month or more ago? I would return here to see my submission with a note that it was awaiting moderation, then eventually it vanished altogether. Did it somehow not meet the criteria for posting? If so, I would appreciate a note as to what the problem was so I can correct it. Thanks very much. And thanks for a great site! — Bill Schuhle

  4. I just tried out pdf2dtp because of this article and IT’S SO AMAZING! I basically just cut my worktime in half or more! Thanks prepressure and Kelly for the info, literally life changing.

  5. If you are on a Windows platform (no Mac or Linux versions available), there is an inexpensive ($100) but surprisingly capable desktop publishing program called PagePlus (PP) from a British company called Serif. One of PP’s strong suits is its ability to parse PDF files into PP objects, at which point the file can be edited as if it were created in PP. It does a commendable job of translating columns of text in a PDF into flowing columns of PP text — NOT individual lines disconnected from each other. It will also do its best to do a temporary install of any fonts embedded in the PDF to facilitate text editing. (I believe this works only with PostScript Type 1, OpenType, and Windows TrueType fonts that have not been sub-setted.) Manual font substitution is available on opening a PDF file if you wish to do so. The file, once edited, can be re-exported to PDF using PP’s fairly robust “Publish as PDF” function.
    You can check out the software here:
    http://www.serif.com/pageplus/
    And the PagePlus forum is at:
    http://forums.serif.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6

  6. Someone necessarily help to make severely articles I would state. That is the very first time I frequented your web page and up to now? I amazed with the research you made to create this actual put up incredible. Great process!

  7. @Alkaline Water: The PDF Format is a great format to exchange data. PDF documents are either done to be final documents (such as an invoice from your bank) or a document to collaborate and markup (for instance article, architectural or classwork reviews and markups). Annotations, signatures, outlines, links, videos and all type of images are an integral part of the format which make PDF a very rich interactive format. PDF files can be viewed exactly the same on all platforms too. But you are right that it is not however a format that is easy to edit and it was not designed for this.

    Editing of a PDF document should be restricted to the strict minimum such as minor typos , misspell corrections or a color change before submitting the final version for publishing or printing.

    As of version 7, PDF Studio Pro can edit existing text content as well as resize and delete images and path objects inside a PDF document.

  8. Has long enjoyed the program very convenient and understandable, better to work with PDF files ненайти, recommend to all.

  9. PDF’s are a real pain in the neck, I still don’t know why we use them, but there must be a reason?

  10. im trying to edit/erase/add text to a pdf doc. i have tried everything i can think of and still no go. i have tried 9 different pdf-word coverters and it does but only in view form i still cant edit in word. what the heck am i doing wrong?

  11. Firstly, thank you very much for all good advises one can get in this notebook. I have used almost every PDF editor you mentioned here but none of them is able to perform such a simple task as lighten/darken the whole PDF.
    I’m used to deal with hundreds of PDF coming from bad scanned documents (books,magazines,plans,maps,etc)where the “moire” and too much darkness/brightness are the most frequent faults.
    There is any PDF software able to lighten/darken all pages at once, or by batches, or select a single picture even for touching up the colour balance, for instance? It’s understood without converting the PDF to another file or opening Photoshop, but just working on the PDF only.
    Thanks in advance for your reply.

    1. I have a related problem in that I have scans of old books with yellowed (almost brown) pages that I want to convert to black & white, with a white background. It’s easy to convert the PDF to grayscale but the background is gray when I want it to be white. Does anyone know how to do this?

  12. Acrobat allows you to save the original pdf file as a Word file (.docx). The file looks exactly the same in word as it did as a pdf, but you can now easily edit it. Then just republish as a pdf once the changes are made.

  13. In my opinion, the best choice for editing pdf files it to convert Pdf to Word documents.

    PDF to Word Converter is an excellent PDF to Word converter to exactly convert PDF to editable Word files. You can try it now.

  14. I use wordperfect, however when I need to rework a pdf file, I convert it to word and them pull it into wordperfect. the issue is, that word inbeds many codes within the document. sometimes as many as 5 or 6 after each word in the document that I must delete prior to saving the doc so that it will format correctly. These include Tab sets, fonts, font size, etc. Is there a way to “batch delete” them rather than individually? what a lot of work

    1. Can’t you save as a pure text file in Word and import this in Wordperfect? That should get rid of all layout or markup data. COPY-ing the text in Word and then doing a PASTE SPECIAL (or whatever it is called in WordPerfect) should also do the trick.

  15. Infix PDF Editor is the one of my favorite PDF tools. i like the easy-to-use interface and its build-in functions are also powerful as Adobe Acrobat.BTW, if you want to try some free one, PDFscape is the best option for editing pdfs online.

  16. Hi All,

    This is satish.

    I have querry.

    I have one PDF Document.

    I want to remove coloums & rows in a table for an existing pdf document.

    How to remove those existing coloum’s and row’s

    Can any one help me to resolve this issue.

    1. Hi Sathish,

      If you have Acrobat 5.0 Std, Acrobat 6,7,8,9, X pro versions, you can find a tool named Object touch up tool. Use that tool select the columns and rows you want to remove, press del. Its done.

  17. Does anyone know how to PDF a document (booklet)with leaving the last page open for editing. I have created a small booklet for my other practioners to use, but I want to leave the last page open to edit so that they can put in their location information and name of business. i want to keep the information in the book locked in pdf.

    How can I do this?? What program do I need

  18. More plugs here than at an electrical wholesaler’s – including some for the program I want to recommend.

    For me editing a PDF means being able to operate directly on the PDF file using the sort of tools I use in mainstream wordprocessors: insert, delete, cut & paste, find & replace, change font, size, colour etc. Acrobat does not enable you to do any of these things properly, nor do most of the third party editors on offer. They are faster and less resource intensive than Acrobat(hardly difficult) and present its tools more logically (again, hardly difficult) but that’s about it.

    The only exception I have found so far is the Infix Pro PDF Editor. It’s not perfect, and the price is little short of outrageous, but on the whole it allows you to wordprocess PDFs as if you were in e.g. Word. It has pretty well all the tools you would expect and tackles the reflow (or rather, lack of it) problem in an intelligent way. You can adjust the size of individual text boxes on the fly, and can link them together so that text flows between them and all your problems are confined to the last box in the chain. Clever!

    You can use the powerful search & replace tool to change the colour of all occurences of a specified font/size/colour so that invisible text in the background colour or transparent becomes visible. If you know why that might be useful you will know why Infix Pro is well worth investigating.

  19. there are total 100 page on PDF file and at top of every page a link with text has been given. by using find and replace all i can edit the text but hyperlink intact. How can I replace particular hyperlink from whole PDF instead of editing one by one?

  20. Infix PDF Editor is among the best, I can easily edit the content directly within a PDF document just like editing in a word processor. I can say that is the Acrobat alternative, 1/4 of the price and even work easier and better. Besides editing, it can also join multiple PDFs into one and support OCR, then you can edit scanned PDF without problems

  21. Wow really nothing in the below acctually tells you how to change text not a thing it tells you what happens when you changes text. not where to go in the tool bar or anything (I rate this a 0 as worthless)

    Changing text
    How to edit text in a PDF
    Within a PDF file text is essentially stored as single lines. The concept of text flowing from one line to another within a column does not exist. This makes it fairly difficult to edit text unless you rely on special tools that somehow manage to intelligently predict how text flows within a document

    Adobe Acrobat & Acrobat Professional have a TouchUp Text tool for small text modifications. When you add or delete text, it will not reflow the text in the entire column. Some releases of Acrobat have a pretty bad reputation when it comes to the TouchUp Text tool, with users reporting weird behavior of the edited or remaining text once the tool is used. Use this tool only if there is no way to edit the original source file and recreate a PDF.
    Even though Adobe Illustrator can open a surprisingly large range of PDF files, it is a bad choice if you want to edit text. Illustrator automatically uses its own fonts instead of fonts embedded in a PDF. This can lead to text reflows even if you leave text untouched.
    For extensive text editing Infix PDF Editor is an interesting product. I used it to add text to a book and found the reflow capabilities of the application quite impressive.
    One thing to keep in mind is that there is a mechanism in PDF to store a copy of the text in its logical reading order. If you edit the text in such a so-called ‘tagged PDF’ you are only modifying the visible copy, not the hidden duplicate. That means that even after removing part of the text, it still may show up in search results!

    1. There are dozens of sites on the web that cover the basics of ‘click here then do that’. There is also this thing called manuals which are pretty good at that kind of stuff. This page focusses on the applications that you can use and the limitations that you may or will run into. My apologies if that is not what you were looking for.

  22. Here’s something interesting…. I used Infix PDF editor (trial) to edit my file, saved it with the watermark and then used Touchup Object tool in Adobe Acrobat to remove the Infix watermark. It worked fine! I am planing to purchase a license for Infix editor pro anyway.

  23. Merging pages from different PDFs into a single PDF can be easily done if you are on a mac. Just open up a PDF using Preview. You can drag pages in and out from the thumbnail view

  24. InFix allowed me to save a lot of time without the original quark or indesign files for my clients. You can modify everything in the document (text, objects, pictures), just make sure you have all the fonts you need installed on your pc, as it may cause you a problem. It’s a revolution in my world, after the virtual pdf printer, it’s seriously one of the best and intuitive tools I’ve used so far!

  25. there are total 100 page on PDF file and at top of every page a link with text has been given. by using find and replace all i can edit the text but hyperlink intact. How can I replace particular hyperlink from whole PDF instead of editing one by one?

  26. A problem. I have batch of pdf files and i want to split it with its own metadata which is in exel worksheet. How can i do that.

  27. I have a problem. I have batch of pdf files and i want to split it with its own metadata which is in exel worksheet. How can i do that.

  28. I just purchased Nitro PFD Professional 6 and converted a Microsoft Publisher File to PDF. A lot of the text looks Bold when in fact it was not Bold in the original. Why doesn’t it look like original? I appreciate your help.

  29. I can’t get my highlighted text to print out. My headers and footers show up, but nothing else that i have edited with. Any ideas?

  30. hi , i just need to know how to find the font used in a particular pdf file… kindly reply..

  31. InFix allowed me to save a lot of time without the original quark or indesign files for my clients. You can modify everything in the document (text, objects, pictures), just make sure you have all the fonts you need installed on your pc, as it may cause you a problem. It’s a revolution in my world, after the virtual pdf printer, it’s seriously one of the best and intuitive tools I’ve used so far!

  32. First great tips for PDF’s, thanks
    Now I’ve a problem..I scan some tables pages and make pdf files..I need to convet these files to excel files, in order to make “the search” more easy..
    I tried diferent software but unsuccesfully cannot convert the files..Im using ACROBAT ME PROFESSIONAL 6.0
    Its like any of the software I used cannot recognize the pdf (cannot read the “text” inside).
    any ideas?
    thanks

  33. I am very happy that Infix PDF editor I am using is also stated in the article. I have used it for editing PDF files for a long period, such as add text to pdf, form filling, edit image, edit pdf security and so on. I know maybe the acobat laso master this function, but it is costy and take time to be expert.

    A tutorial about the good feature fill out pdf form with it:
    http://www.convertpdf.org/fill-out-pdf-forms.html

  34. hai im siva pradeep..
    i have a pdf file and i have 2 copy some mater to word document..so how to i copy..?

  35. I think you need Advanced PDF Converter as it is very good at preserving the formatting, with text content, page layouts, images,and text hyperlinks preserved.It also allow us to convert a lot files at the same time. I am now using it.

    http://www.advancedpdfconverter.com

  36. I use PDF Fillable forms for my clients which can not be saved. I want to send them the forms with comments. For that I have Acrobat Professional 6.0. But now when i want to save the work done on Professional 6.0 its not saved in PDF file, it comes blank. Can anyone tell me how i can save the PDF files for my clients on professional 6.0?

  37. Thanks for great review. I also find such a cool PDF editor which makes it easy to create, view and edit PDF file. The software also have more cool features of converting PDF file to Microsoft Doc and your desired image format. You can also convert Doc, XLS and PPT file to standard PDF format.

    You can free download Classic PDF Editor from http://www.classicPDF.com .

    Keep sharing and helping other. Thanks

  38. Ah…this post clear my problem on editting PDF files. Why they can’t make it like microsoft office. Easy to edit! 🙁

  39. Can anyone tell me how to get a pdf image (a map) to open in adobe illustrator normally as it just keeps opening as a black image??
    Thanks

    1. Have you tried specifying in Adobe Acrobat that Photoshop is the preferred bitmap editor and Illustrator the preferred vector editor? Open the map this way might work better than trying to open the PDF directly in Illustrator.

  40. I have had no problems using Acrobat 9, with Tools – Advanced Editing – Touchup Text Tool. It allows me to edit text in pdf files. I sometimes get a font warning, stating it is using a different font, but I can’t tell the difference.

  41. Ok I downloaded some PDF files to use on my Sony ebook and when I loaded them I noticed some of the descriptive aspects were jacked and I need to change them so my ebook will display the book title and Author. I’ve tried unlocking and i’ve tried recovering passwords, but there are none and I still can’t edit the security description for the files. Help please and please feel free to email me at [email protected].
    Thanks

  42. All the so-called open source tools for pdf editing are only meant for geeks. I have been searching for long to get a small application or ms word plugin that can help me enter some info into existing pdf document and save it again but I couldn’t find any. If you guys can point me into the right direction I will appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance.

    1. Hi lpntraining, I totally agree with you, I find most of these applications only cater for the geeks.

  43. check out http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com/ upload pdf or scanned document and download converted into its word or text within minutes.

    Get your document proof read by their operators by clicking appropriate link.

    Don’t be under any wrong impression that everytime you use an OCR or softwares mentioned in these posts are holy grail to your conversion – not one sofware on this planet can convert your documents without errors and you have to proof read your document for evry word and punctuation if you want correct outcome.

    So to make it easy click the button that will have your document proof read and corrected by the operators – this is ONLY way you can get 100% accurate document all the time

    1. If those numbers are in a table, it is usually difficult to edit the PDF while still maintaining proper formatting and alignment. Figures can be even more tricky – especially pie charts. I’d try to get hold of the source document to fix things. If that is not possible place the PDF in a layout application like InDesign and redo part of the content by covering up the outdated stuff with a blank rectangle and putting the reworked data on top of this. That is however a clumsy workaround – only to be used if there is no other option.

    1. If you recommend a site or service and then the service doesnt disclose their is a charge until you use then you are participating in their ommission, which is a lie of sorts and makes you a liar of sorts

    2. @ray: I regularly get proposals to promote this or that service and get paid for it. Up to now I’ve rejected all those affiliate marketing proposals. I’ve also removed countless fake user comments from companies who think they can spam this page. Calling me a liar is quite unfair.

  44. I have a scanned document that I processed with OCR in Acrobat Professional 9 into a “Clearcase” version. Some cruft over an image was evidently treated as “text” by the OCR, and appears on top of the image, no matter whether the image has been edited or replaced. I can select the cruft as text, but I cannot edit it or delete it with the font created by the OCR conversion! What’s up with that? Don’t letters in the font correspond to letters the OCR has recognized? Isn’t it perverse that I can’t even delete this “text”? If I buy an Adobe font to replace it, will I be able to replace the “cruft”?

  45. I just purchased a copy of Nitro PDF Professional 6 and used it to edit a PDF for a client. In order to ensure the PDF is still readable by Adobe software, I used Adobe Reader to check the appearance, layout and hypertext links. Unfortunately, I did not test the PDF using Adobe Reader’s Find function. My client did that and found that the Find results are all off. E.g. I enter the word “message” in the Find text box, and other words, even blank sections, get highlighted.

    After some investigation, it appears that Nitro PDF Pro edits only the top layer of the PDF – the visible text layer. However, there is something else beneath it that has not been edited. So, say I delete the word “message” from a page using Nitro. When I do a search for the word “message” in Adobe Reader, it still finds it, even though visible the word is no longer there! Whatever is in its place will be highlighted instead. The same thing happens with deleted *pages*. Say I delete page 4. Now I search for a word that was originally on page 4. Adobe Reader ignores the fact that page 4 was deleted, and goes to the *new* page 4, and highlights the location where the word originally was!

    Gosh, I’ve spent like 20+ hours editing this PDF before this problem was found. Anyone has any bright ideas on what I should do now? *:(

    1. Your PDF is a so-called ‘tagged PDF’ – one that contains a copy of the text in its logical reading order. This tagging is done to improve search results and also allows applications to reflow the PDF so that it can easier be read on devices with a small screen.
      When you edit a PDF you change the visible text but the tagged text remains intact. Removing the tagged text would be the best solution to your problem. An application like Adobe Acrobat has a PDF Optimizer option which can be used to remove or rework all kinds of data. It has options to remove tags but I haven’t actually tried this to see if it also gets rid of tagged text.

  46. Please can u guys tell me whether i can convert a particular word in a pdf file into a different word,Thanks

  47. I need to edit a chart that was originally done in InDesign CS4 by someone who is no longer there to ask questions. When I go to open the Indesign file, it automatically opens up as a PDF. I do not want this. I want to edit it in InDesign and then save a new PDF. How do I do this? I can’t seem to just get the orginal InDesign file to open as an InDesign file. I have only been using IndDeisgn for four days and the “boss” wants this by Tuesday so…Thank you.

  48. If you don’t want to spend the big bucks instead of buying Adobe Acrobat, you can also try:

    PDF Studio

    It’s a very powerful PDF tool that can do a lot of things: crop, merge, split, change security, preflight, measure, sign, annotate, etc…

    Unfortunately, as of version 6.40, they can not edit text or change color on documents. It’s supposed to be coming in version 7.

  49. AOA!
    i want to chang in pdf files, plz help in this respect, i have already use Foxit editor, but it create problems when i print such as u can not print becoz it is not Registerd etc

  50. There is an easy way of changing Portable Document Format into Word.
    “Into word” means into an editable format rather than just into MicroSoft Word.

    You can buy proprietary software such as Adobe.

    You can use a website to convert for you, which converts many file formats from one form to another.
    You can do a screen shot and paste the image into a word document but you won’t be able to edit it.
    You can copy using Ctrl or Cmd +C and Paste using Ctrl or Cmd +V into a word document.
    You will then have to spend some time fixing the formatting as it will not be the same between the two different software programs.

    you can also download a reliable pdf to word document such as Advanced pdf converter. With this pdf converter, you can convert total pdf conment onto word form, and then you can edit the word document at your ease. http://www.advancedpdfconverter.com/products/pdfconverter.html
    advanced PDF to Word is also recommended to hlep you get a reeditable PDF into Word document.

  51. THIS!

    You rule! Thank you so much – I found freepdfconvert thanks to your blog entry and it worked out within seconds. You saved me plenty of time – thank you so much!

    1. plzz help me how i convert pdf file to word ……………very argent work at this…. anybody help me…..i have great thank u…………

  52. And of course there’s a famous OpenOffice suite, also cross-platform, free and open source. After adding a plugin called “Sun PDF Import Extension” (also free) OpenOffice’s Draw module can open PDFs.

  53. A very good, cross-platform and free (open source) solution is the well-known vector gfx editor, Inkscape. It can import pdfs without problems, and you can later add/edit/remove anything as you wish.

  54. Looks like heading for this discussion “How To Edit PDF Online On Internet?” be more appropriate now than ‘How To Edit PDF’ as most people seem to seek quick online results now!

  55. gr8 from publishers stand point who do plenty of editing of documents in PDF. I guess we’ll let every editor know so that they can convert online from their respective stations.

  56. All these pdf creators print the url reference on the top right – is there a way to create the pdf without this?

  57. thank you, its great to find some information i can give to my pre-press students they can understand… thanks…

  58. What ever you do, DON’T get deskUNPDF Pro – it’s crap. Unfortunately I kept trying to get good quality documents out of it (converting pdf to word) using the options they suggested and that I got from the knowledge base – thinking it would be wise to give it a “fair go”. What a waste of cash.

  59. I scanned a paper as PDF file. can I modified the file?? if so can you tel me how.
    thank you

  60. I am wanting to edit a PDF by moving blocks of text up from one page to another … is this possible and if so can anyone point me to the editing tool that will let me do this. THank you

  61. i have bought Adobe Professional, would like to transfer docs into excel spreadsheet is this possible and how do i so it
    Many thanks

  62. Hey thankyou so much for this article. I was looking for a way to edit PDF’s and stumbled across this. I have no tried Infix PDF editor as you suggusted and it’s great. Very useful to edit PDF’s i receive when editing books. I find it very easy rather then copying and pasting into a word processor. This way i am able to directly change the wording on the document i am reading which is always a pdf. Honestly i didn’t think it was possible before, so greatly appreciated.

  63. I just purchased Nitro PDF Professional, which is supposed to allow you to edit anything and everything. I scanned a document using Nitro PDF, tried to convert the text to Word so that I can add text, edit and move text lines and pages down and was unable to do so. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!

  64. I read all these comments and downloaded Infix to edit pdfs for clients. It does the job for small edits and as I was editing tracked the changes in colour which is important for the client to see. However, when I saved it, the colour disappeared so the client has no way of viewing what has been changed. Is there anyway to keep those tracked changes like when editing a word doc? I ended up using post-it notes to explain everything, very time-consuming. Or do you have diff method? Would appreciate reply. K

  65. I’m trying to edit a .pdf document but I am having some problems. I’m using Infix Editor but for some reason it deletes the hyperlinks of the pdf document I have opened. Are there any other good pdf editors out there?

  66. Tweak PDF To Word 3.0 is a little program to convert PDF to editable Word for easier editing. The converter enjoys an exact conversion with the output Word retaining intact of all the original features of the PDF, including layout, image positioning, text font, graphics, hyperlinks, etc.
    Encrypted PDF files can be converted to Word, too.
    http://www.tweakpdf.com

  67. If I have a pdf with edits marked up (deletions, etc), how do I “approve them” and create a pdf with the edits made?

    1. You can’t do that within the PDF itself. The markup can act as a guide for someone who has the source document to change that document and regenerate a new PDF. PDF annotations are exactly what their name suggests: annotations.

  68. i have a problem with this pdf file i hope any one other can help me.
    i have downloaded a file to which i should fill-up and send back, because i have downloaded application form (resume) and this is my biggest problem i cant seem to edit it (fill-up) and its bugging my brain out. pls help me i need it a work.
    thank you in advance pls email me at [email protected].. thank you again.

  69. What I want to do is go into the properties and under the PDF tab I want to change the title in that screen. I add these files to my Sony PRS and that is what they display the name of the book to be and the name of the book is not always displayed there. If anyone can help I’d really appreciate it. THANKS!

  70. Hi
    All I need is to add a simple word like paid/processed and maybe a date to an existing pdf … kind of like stamping a piece of paper so at a glance I can see if I have paid it etc …
    Please help .. someone must know
    Jason

    1. Acrobat has this type of function but it is too expensive to this type of usage. I don’t have personal experience with any other tools.

    2. You can try to create a custom stamp [Paid Stamp] under the Comments/Markup in Tools>Comments & Markup>Stamps>Create Custom Stamp. Usually you can copy from MS Word stamps as save as a .pdf image and browse for file in Adobe Acrobat 9, then create & save it so it’s alway there. The one in MS Word has a box where you can add a text box and type in the date.

    1. Hi anyone,
      How to compare the layout of two pdf files.
      There is a need to compare the pdf files for the Data and Layout of the pdf file
      How can this be achieved?
      Please suggest.

    2. How do you do that. When you open the PDF file in Word, it allows you to convert to Windows style or Dos. When you do you get a bunch of unreadable code.

      Why do these forums ask for a Website now. Does it assume you have a website? You get on google and put in a subject. What does it mean by Website?

  71. Almost everyone can use MS Word, so you can try to convert the PDF files into Word format, then you can edit the text or images in the Word as you wish!
    I’m using AnyBizSoft PDF to Word converter, which can preserve the layout and images of the PDF.
    http://www.anypdftools.com/pdf-to-word.html#163
    I think that is a good way to edit PDF.

    1. Quite possibly one of THE most ridiculous things I’ve seen posted. I can only assume you’re schilling for your own software.

  72. You can open PDFs in Adobe Illustrator and edit them that way. You can only do open one page at a time though. Just press save as if it is a AI file, and it will automatically save you corrections in the original PDF.

  73. I have a copy of Acrobat Professional and I’ve been trying to edit some documents its quite possible the biggest waste of money ever spent. Im going to try out some of the free editors.

  74. I just want to highlight and annotate text as i am studying. I don’t really want to print out 100’s of pages of pdf’s to scribble notes on.
    Save the trees

  75. Thank you so much, Lauren. I’ve managed to locate the font and have done as you’ve suggested. Thanks, again!

  76. Thank you so much, Lauren. I’ve managed to located the font and have done as you’ve suggested. Thanks, again!

  77. Hi I recently purchased a PDF Nitro. I have a document that was created in In Design some time ago by a designer. I’m trying to make some changes to it. However, I find that I am unable to insert some numbers, such as 4; 6 or 9 into the document. I’m a techno geek. Would you know how I can insert the numbers? Thanks heaps!

    1. When certain characters cannot be accessed while editing a PDF, this is most likely because the font used for the text has been subsetted. Font subsetting means that not all characters are included in the PDF.
      You’ll need to have that same font installed on your own system to circumvent this restriction. Obviously switching to another font is also a work-around.

    1. I can’t believe people say this programs are FREE, don’t waste your time unless you want to pay 12.00 dollars to sign and print one page of a document.

      They act like it is free, yes you can make changes but if you want to actually use it, which is the only reason you would want their program you must pay and way over priced!

      I am so tired of sites claiming to have a FREE service then after you work on something for 20 minutes then they say enter that C.C.

      SO frustrating, do people really end up paying ever?

      I would pay twice as much to use a service that doesn’t mislead you.

    1. I tried this touchppdf.com, I could not see how to edit the file at all. I and I clicked, uploaded and all.

    1. How to compare the layout of two pdf files.
      There is a need to compare the pdf files for the Data and Layout of the pdf file
      How can this be achieved?
      Please suggest.

    2. How can I get *rid* of nitro? It did not work as advertised, crashed, and caused other programs to crash. I uninstalled it, but all my pdf files are still saving as nitro pdfs. This is a huge problem, and I highly reccomend staying as far as you can from nitro. Appreciate it if you could help.

    3. I’d recommend staying the hell away from Nitro…Its edit capabilities were horrible. I’d type text to add or replace and it would just spit out garbage characters. Use anything else but that.

  78. You mention that Enfocus offers Nitro, a stand-alone PDF editor that is a lot faster than working in Acrobat.

    The name of the actual application is Neo.

    1. In my opinion, the best choice for editing pdf files it to convert Pdf to Word documents.

      PDF to Word Converter is an excellent PDF to Word converter to exactly convert PDF to editable Word files. You can try it now.

      PDF to Word Converter

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