How to Edit PDF Files

PDF files are actually intended to be the accurate and final representation of the documents and hence cannot be edited directly like a Word file. However, there are two simple ways by which a PDF file can be edited. This page how to edit PDF files explores these two ways in detail.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is now used by many companies and individuals as the standard format to transmit documents. The identity of a PDF document is that it cannot be modified easily. Though this is helpful in maintaining the integrity of the document, this has been a problem for many people who actually need to edit PDF files. Fortunately, there are a couple of methods to edit a PDF file. The first method is to edit the PDF file directly using a PDF Editor and the second method is to convert the PDF file into an editable format like Word or Excel.

This method requires a software to edit the PDF file directly. Adobe Acrobat is the well known software for editing PDF files. However, there are also other low cost alternatives such as NitroPDF and PDFill PDF Editor.

• Let's see how to edit PDF files using Adobe Acrobat, NitroPDF and PDFill PDF Edtor.

PDFill PDF Editor is a cheap PDF Editor that can be used to insert text, image, hyperlink, whiteout, highlight, comments, annotations, bookmarks, header & footer, etc. to the PDF file. But, unlike Adobe Acrobat or NitroPDF, it cannot be used to actually edit the text in a PDF document. PDFill PDF Editor also offers tools to create, edit, fill and save PDF forms. In order to edit a PDF file, select the appropriate tools from the toolbars at the top, bottom and sides as shown in the below image.

PDFill PDF Tools is a free tool which is available either as a stand-alone software or part of PDFill PDF editor and can be downloaded from pdfill.com. It can be used for page level editing such as merging, splitting & reordering PDF files, encrypting & decrypting PDF files, adding header, footer & watermark to the PDF, etc.

This method involves three steps:

• Step-1: Convert the PDF file to an editable format.
• Step-2: Edit the content.
• Step-3: Convert it back to PDF.

You can convert PDF to an editable format either by using a PDF converter (PDF to word/excel/doc/txt converter) or by using an Optical Character Recognition(OCR) software. PDF converter will be efficient if the PDF file was created from Word or Excel. If the PDF file is a scanned document or if the document is not clear, OCR software will be efficient. There are several PDF converters and OCR softwares available on the internet. The following are some of the popular among them.

1. Able2Extract
2. ABBYY FineReader

There are also a number of online tools available. The following are some of the popular online tools.

1. PDFtoWord
2. PDFtoExcelOnline

Converting the PDF using Able2Extract:

Able2Extract is one of the best PDF converters that can be used to convert PDF to various formats like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. It is available as seven day free trial and costs $99.95 to purchase. The following are the steps to convert PDF using Able2Extract.

• Step-1: Download, install and run Able2Extract.
• Step-2: Go to file menu and open the PDF file.
• Step-3: Select the text which you want to convert. If you want to convert complete document, press ctrl+A to select all.
• Step-4: Select the output format (Word, Excel, PPT, etc.).
• Step-5: Select additional options for formatting when prompted.
• Step-6: Convert and Save.

Converting the PDF using ABBYY Fine Reader:

ABBYY Fine Reader is one of the best OCR softwares in the market which can be used to extract text from scanned PDF and images. It is available as 15 days trial version and costs $199 to purchase. The following are the steps to extract text from PDF using ABBYY Fine Reader.

• Step-1: Download, Install and run ABBYY Fine Reader.
• Step-2: Click “New Task” and a pop up will appear.
• Step-3: Select the task. To convert PDF to word, select "Convert PDF/Image to Microsoft Word".
• Step-4: Open the PDF file when prompted and save the converted Word file.

Converting the PDF using PDFtoWord and PDFtoExcelOnline:

‘PDFtoWord' and ‘PDFtoExcelOnline' are free online PDF converters that can be used to convert PDF to Word and Excel respectively. The following are the steps to convert PDF using these tools.

• Step-1: Go to respective websites.
• Step-2: Click "Choose file" and choose a PDF file.
• Step-3: Select output format.
• Step-4: Enter "e-mail ID" and click convert. The converted file will be sent to your e-mail.

You can edit the content after you have converted it to an editable format like Word or Excel. Since no PDF converter can guarantee 100% accurate conversion, there may be mistakes in spelling or format. Check the complete document for errors before converting it back to PDF.

After you edit the document, convert it back to PDF by using a PDF writer like Cute PDF. The following are the steps to create the PDF using CutePDF:

1. Open the file.
2. Click print from file menu.
3. Select CutePDF when prompted to select the printer.
4. Save the file.