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Erase and replace a word in a scanned PDF in LibreOffice

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BoucOpulent98 Posted messages 26 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -  
jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   -

Hello, I’m stuck trying to simply delete and replace a word in LibreOffice Draw on a scanned document. I can place the cursor at the word and mark it in blue, but if I press delete or backspace it doesn’t work. If I type over the word to replace it, that also doesn’t work.

What can I do please. Thanks in advance, I really struggle with this software but it’s less awful than with Adobe.

could you help me please

10 answers

  1.
    jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   10 015
     

    Yes, AI is going to replace all of us, it's our fate. After all, it's the sum of all our knowledge. No more forums with attention and empathy to help someone.

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  2. jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   10 015
     

    So in the end it resembles what is indicated on <8>, without even deleting the old one, just adding a new one on top. But it’s also very close to what you were trying to do at the start. Select the text, delete it, put a new one. Except that you expected, as in a word processor, that with the mouse the text would be selected in blue, whereas being on an image, you simply select an area that contains the text, you delete it, and you add new text.

    I agree with you, all the bickering and squabbles between the participants disrupt the reading of the discussion and hinder understanding by adding annoying messages. We could delete them; as a moderator I often hesitate to do so, because it also removes messages that offer solutions. Next time this happens to one of your questions I suggest you report it so that the moderators come and clear things up.

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  3. jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   10 015
     
    Hello,

    I am not a LibreOffice user.

    A scanned PDF is generally an image. Therefore, you need to use a graphics/image tool to delete the area containing the word, and then in the same space, with the graphics software, use a text tool to add the desired word.

    We can try if the scanning software has an OCR (optical character recognition) function to create a text PDF that is easier to use in LibreOffice Writer. I also believe that when LibreOffice Writer imports a scanned image PDF, it turns it into text, thus the equivalent of an OCR function.
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  4. BoucOpulent98 Posted messages 26 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
     
    Hello Jee pee and thank you for your help, but unfortunately I don’t understand it because it’s far too technical for my old brain that never learned how computers work but which was faced with it by obligation and thus entirely self-taught.

    I’m only at the dumb and stubborn user manual stage, 1 or 2 left-clicks or right-clicks, or still keeping the mouse pressed to blue a word, and cut or paste, in short if you can guide me with explanations from A to Z. Thank you very much in advance.

    Best regards. Bouc
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    1. Pierr10 Posted messages 13864 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   5 862
       

      Hello,

      What Jee Pee explained (whom I greet) is simple.
      The result of a scan is an image.
      The printer provides a file which is generally in jpg format or pdf format.
      But, even if it’s a pdf, it remains that at the beginning it is an image.

      The consequence is that you cannot edit the text of your scan and therefore modify it with software like Acrobat or Draw.

      It is possible that the pdf viewing software automatically recognizes the text from the scanned pdf. Thus, it happens that Draw shows an overlaid image of the reconstructed text on the original scan :

      In the above example, obtained with Draw, I can delete and modify the reconstructed text by Draw. But it is impossible to edit the original scan (the first three italic words on the first line).

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      1. brucine Posted messages 25347 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 191 > Pierr10 Posted messages 13864 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention  
         

        Hello,

        I only use Word, I’m not sure about LibreOffice’s behavior.

        If it’s an image, it’s indeed dead; but when Word is able to open the PDF (without embedded images) as text, one can modify that "text" and then print back to PDF, I don’t know how it works with LibreOffice Writer.

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      2. trotte-menu Posted messages 913 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   357 > brucine Posted messages 25347 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        Hello,

        LibreOffice can, like Word, export a document as PDF and can also open a PDF with the Draw module.

        An additional option to check when exporting to (PDF hybrid, meaning the ODF document is embedded) allows the created PDF to be reopened by LibreOffice in its original module.

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      3. Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 178 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   40 > brucine Posted messages 25347 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        "I don't know what's going on with LibreOffice Writer." My mom always told me, "If you don't know, you don't say."

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      4. brucine Posted messages 25347 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 191 > Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 178 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         
        Here is a faithful translation of the provided HTML content, preserving structure and meaning:

        Here’s one who wears his nickname well for having nothing better to do with his life than this ridiculous voting ritual of which I am more particularly grateful whenever I write something.

        It is, moreover, of great arrogance since implicitly the author would hold an incontestable truth every time he writes.

        A place where a truth is hammered in is not called a forum but a lecture, and even then; when one truly knows, one admits discussion, I have observed it once in university courses.

        I know that LibreOffice opens PDFs as images in Draw, I did not claim anything, I just wondered if it might be possible in Writer as it is in Word.

        I take note that your self-proclaimed tribunal paradoxically aims to ban on a forum anything that is not an incontestable assertion by admitting that everything could be so and, of course, by your own hand.

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  6. Nain_Porte_Quoi Posted messages 178 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   40
     

    Hello,

    "pressing delete or backspace doesn't work. If I overwrite the word with the replacement, it doesn't work either." "doesn't work" isn't very indicative.

    I propose creating a text area, putting the replacement text inside and especially using a white background to mask the text (the image actually) that is underneath

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  7. BoucOpulent98 Posted messages 26 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
     
    Hello everyone, and I’m really sorry to step back into the middle of your heated remarks...

    I still need to change two words in a text, which I scanned and then downloaded to LibreOffice. so far, I hope I’m not talking nonsense.

    This morning I tried to download Word based on what was mentioned in yesterday’s posts, but my computer is old old like the hills that write to you, and under Windows 11 it doesn’t want to download. I went to Microsoft since it said that by signing into my Microsoft account I could get Word, but I land on a “copilot” and I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do!!!

    Oh, one precision I perhaps should have given earlier.... a thousand apologies... my PC is from 2005 or 2006, I’ve had quite a few problems recently, and someone installed an "iperius backup" thing! Maybe that’s blocking it because of that? well you’ve understood, I don’t understand anything, but I don’t have the means to buy a new computer, and I need to make corrections on documents to complete my retirement.

    So thank you all for your help.

    Best regards.

    Bouc
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    1. jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   10 015
       

      Do not go ahead with installing Word, which in most versions is paid and nothing guarantees it will solve your problem; it could clutter your PC.

      Have you looked at the image explanation above your message, the explanation in Draw.

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      1. brucine Posted messages 25347 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 191 > jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention  
         

        Hello,

        Except for an elaborate PDF software that allows the thing or as indicated to replace an image with another (and then we'll have the eventual issue that the background must be the same color and the font identical), it's not easy.

        There is only a free version of Word available as Microsoft 365 or Word for the Web; I don’t know if they have the required feature or if the old frump will want it.

        The Plan B if the document isn’t too large and confidentiality isn’t certain is online conversion:



        We could then (as long as we’re not dealing with image-embedded tables in the PDF) edit the Word document in LibreOffice and then convert it online in the other direction or directly via Microsoft Print to PDF since I believe it’s Windows 10.

        If we’re rejected because the file is too large and the modification only concerns page 11 of 20, we can cheat by using Microsoft Print to PDF pages 1 to 10, 12 to 20, 11 alone and submit only page 11 to the converter.

        But the subtlety will then be to reassemble everything if we need to do it:

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  8. Domy31 Posted messages 388 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   202
     
    Hello everyone,

    So let’s put things back in their place: a little lesson for our (former) beginner.

    1 - LibreOffice is a word processor, so work with text in creation or editing, etc.
    2 - a PDF document: each page can be text or images or both.
    3 - a document once scanned (Pdf or other) becomes an image, so you need to touch up the image with software designed for that, for example Paint, Gimp or PhotoFiltre (the 7 is free) etc.
    4 - #jee pee I was talking about 'OCR': OCR is transforming an image containing text into editable text by a word processor like LibreOffice. There are software programs with OCR functionality.

    So now here are the few solutions available to BoucOpulent98 to modify his document.

    a - put the image of his pdf into an image editing software, see above.
    b - retrieve the text of the document.pdf to edit it in LibreOffice, there is a solution not really OCR but it will do the job: it’s the Google translator. Follow the instructions below:

    I have placed an image with French text. See what happens:

    Now easy:

    Now:

    Reste plus qu'aller dans LibreOffice (dans un nouveau document) et faire Coller :

    Here to cross-check the text.

    Now there is another solution, call the CCmien or CCmienne of this excellent Forum, how? Easy you put your pdf here, you tell us what you want to do, and someone will do it to your liking, they will return your modified document here.

    Good luck Zatoutesss and Zatoussss
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    1. flo88 Posted messages 28540 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   5 191
       

      Hello

      I would add that with the original PDF, it would be child’s play.

      And if it’s a document from a scan, a dab of correction fluid in the right spot works miracles ;-)

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  9. BoucOpulent98 Posted messages 26 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
     
    Good evening,

    I managed to make the requested modification thanks to the AI!!!

    Best regards.
    Bouc
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    1. Domy31 Posted messages 388 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   202
       

      Good evening

      So you can mark it as resolved.

      See you soon

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  10. jee pee Posted messages 9464 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   10 015
     

    @BoucOpulent98 StatusMember for our information, did the AI explain how to do it, or did you provide the document and indicate the modification to be made and did that produce an amended document?

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  11. BoucOpulent98 Posted messages 26 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
     

    Hello Jee pee, Indeed I wanted to download Word, but it didn’t work and that’s when I asked the AI. which gave me the steps to follow with various solutions and as it blocked at some point on the solutions it proposed it had me bypass it by another method, anyway the point is I managed. I think there was a link behind the heart and finally it made me go back to LibreOffice Draw explaining how to put white on the words to change and how to write over them. and it worked.

    You know Jee pee, this isn’t the first time I’ve faced feuds between volunteers who help on the forum, but sometimes I want to find another forum because some people have overblown egos!!!!! in fact and I repeat this isn’t the first time, it blocks me from knowing if I should continue addressing CCM.

    I’m over 80 years old, I live alone, I have no one around to help me, no association or training organization, and to make things worse I only have a retirement income of 935 €... so of course the end of the month is tough and as I am totally self-taught, I have to fend for myself, which is why I probably do "stupid things" with the mouse clicking too fast or I don’t read or don’t correctly understand what is on the screen, but as nowadays we are almost obliged to use computers for everything administrative, from taxes to water or phone bills, in short there’s no choice, I have to get there.

    Nevertheless I want to thank you personally and those who took the time to help me.

    Have a good Sunday and kind regards.

    Bouc

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