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PDF Modification: Online services and free programs

LaRedaction Posted messages 843 Registration date   Status Administrator Last intervention   -  
brucine Posted messages 24861 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -
Olga Yastremska
There are several free methods to edit a PDF file, via online services or programs to install. It is possible to reorganize the content, add comments, fill form fields, or modify text and images. However, not all modifications are always possible if the original document is not available, but there are tools to perform the most common actions. Finally, many free software and services do not allow advanced PDF editing, i.e., changing the text and images. For these functions, it is often necessary to resort to paid software or to have access to the original document. Which of these methods do you think is most suitable for you?
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3 answers

  1.
    Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 163 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   30
     

    Hello,

    by definition, a PDF should not need to be modified because it must come from a source; it is the source that should be modified and the PDF regenerated.

    Moreover, if the PDF is text that was generated from an image (a photo of a page from a book, for example), I wish good luck to those who will want to modify it :-)

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  2. JY29200 Posted messages 218 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   5
     

    Hello Nain_Porte_Quoi

    Sometimes it needs to be filled, which is equivalent to a modification.

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    1. Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 163 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   30
       

      OK, but if the PDF has been created correctly (not just printed), it contains fields to fill in directly, and in that case it becomes what it was designed for from the start: a "portable" document that only needs a browser

      Example: https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/b4e65552-f363-4968-871a-bc2516da4e55

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  3. Sylviane17 Posted messages 643 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   385
     

    With I Love PDF it’s possible. I converted a PDF to Word and was able to edit it without any problem.

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    1. brucine Posted messages 24861 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 171
       

      Hello,

      Online applications do not have a magic wand.

      If, as noted in <3>, the document is an image (photo or scanned document), they do, like local editors, only attempt to read this image by OCR with varying degrees of success.

      Furthermore, if we do not modify this PDF directly online but instead convert it for that into Word, we reinvent the wheel; Word is capable locally of opening the PDF and re-saving it as a docx under the same circumstances.

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    2. Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 163 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   30
       

      Word (in recent versions) can open (convert) a PDF, but wow, the damage to the formatting and the work to make something usable is a lot :-/

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      1. brucine Posted messages 24861 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 171 > Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 163 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        I totally agree, but aside from gadgets (comments, annotations...), whatever the article says, the real modification of a PDF by miles remains impossible except with an elaborate and paid PDF editor, and even then no one mentions the fate of an exact layout (punctuation marks, enrichments...) and, worse, the text inside tables or embedded images.

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