PDF files are generally smaller in size and preserve the formatting same as that of the original document. Unlike Microsoft word and other programs, the size of PDF files is generally small. Also, the modification of contents of a PDF file is not so easy. There are options to prevent other users from copying the text or printing from the PDF documents. This makes a PDF document more secure and reliable.
PDF file format was initially developed by Adobe. These files come with an extension .pdf. At present, there are more than 2.5 trillion PDF file documents in the world.
There are some reasons why the PDF document format is so well liked for all sorts of articles like presentations, invoices, AutoCAD drawings and even legal forms.
You can open a PDF document on any computer, as well as recent smartphone or tablet using free programs like Adobe Acrobat reader. Google Chrome, Safari and other modern browsers also have this ability to open PDF documents without installation of any additional plugins.
Edit PDFs with Free Adobe Acrobat Alternatives
By default, the PDF documents are in read-only format. However, there are other ways to edit the content of these documents.
This can be done without spending money on any services or premium tools. If you are looking to update the content of a PDF document or even changing the structure itself like rearranging pages, refer to below listed options.
Basic Editing Tasks: Using Online PDF Editor
Sometimes you may need to make small changes in a PDF file. For eg, you may want to just hide your phone number or deleting some personal information from a PDF file before you send it to someone.
You can do this easily using one of the free and secure online tools. You will need to upload the PDF file using your browser and make those changes. Once you are done, you can go ahead and download the modified PDF file.
SmallPDF.com, PDFEscape.com are some of the examples of popular online PDF editors.
Change Metadata of PDF Files
The metadata of a PDF file consists of the information about the document for eg author’s name, copyright information, keywords etc. If you don’t want to send this information along with the PDF file, you may need to change the metadata for that PDF file.
For changing or removing the metadata of a PDF file, use a software utility called BeCy PDFMetaEdit on your PC to edit the metadata of PDF documents. You will also be able to remove passwords from a PDF file or even encrypt it using this tool.
Alternatively, use some online tools to edit the PDF file’s metadata such as PDFCandy.com, 2pdf.com etc.
How to Edit the Text inside a PDF File
If you are looking for making changes to the text inside a PDF file, you can use Microsoft Word! Yes, that’s right. Microsoft Word allows you to edit PDF files.
Launch Microsoft Word and drag and drop the PDF file onto it. It will show a dialog box that the file will be converted to Word, which is fine. You can click on OK and move ahead with editing the document.
Once you have done the changes, you can save it, go to File > Export and then choose “Create PDF/XPS Document”. The modified document will be exported in PDF format.
The only problem with this workadound is that if your document has several images, Microsoft Word might mess up with the alignments.
Alternatively, you can use one of the online PDF editors for free. Sejda is one of the free online PDF editors that you can use.
Advanced editing of PDF Files
There may be some scenarios when you may want to do advance editing of PDF files. You may want to replace images, remove or replace blocks of text, put signatures – and you may want to do everything in the same file!
If that is the case, I would recommend you to use PDF-XChange editor. It’s a free PDF viewer and editor that you can use to enter the text directly in any PDF file. Or you can put an image file or replace an existing one using this tool.
So, these were some of the methods and tools that you can use to edit your PDF files successfully. And you don’t need to spend a dime for doing that!
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