Editing PDF documents can often seem cumbersome or hard and somewhat surprisingly that’s by design! The PDF format is slick, portable, and looks good across devices and operating systems, it’s optimized for printing and offers a myriad of security features that are largely absent in simpler text-based documents. However, it’s not that easy to edit a PDF file and virtually no devices or operating systems include out-of-the-box software fit for the job.
Even if you have to make a seemingly small text change or even do something as trivial as adding a bookmark you will most certainly end up needing a specialized PDF Editor . There really are no working alternatives – attempting to convert the doc to Word and then convert it back to a PDF is beyond cumbersome and all but guarantees that the formatting of the original file will be lost between all of the conversions. Not to mention that the entire thing is essentially a no-go if the PDF file has been signed and password protected which is incredibly common in the world of enterprise. Another even worse alternative is trying to manually copy text out of the PDF, it has the same benefits as going through the conversion roller-coaster but it’s even slower and more nerve-racking.
So unsurprisingly a PDF editor is the proper tool for even lightweight PDF changes. PDF Extra is a commercial fully offline capable PDF editor that allows you to do anything you might think of with your PDF file.
In This Article
Editing and formatting PDF files
There is so much you can do with a feature-rich PDF editor. Broadly speaking editing text is the bread and butter of any editor, and if you’re using a great one you’re going to notice all of the subtle details. The formatting of newly added text will magically match your existing document, and the fonts and languages will nicely flow within the text. All of the features you’re used to in standard text editors like markup, notation, style, coloring, and so on will be available for use even in your PDF file!
Another indispensable feature of a PDF editor is the ability to insert images, shapes, bookmarks & content as well as hyperlinks inside your content. After all, PDF is packed with features that are not really about text and is a visually appealing format where images, shapes, and links are expected and heavily relied upon by professionals.
Creating and organizing PDF files
Another often unspoken part of editing a PDF file is the ability to create brand new PDF files and to rearrange the content of the existing file to better suit your needs. Those features also fall under the umbrella of PDF editing and have their own subtle nuances and quirks. The ability to arrange pages in any order or if need-be extract some of the pages as a new stand-alone PDF document tends to only be found in commercial PDF editors and is also part of the PDF Extra editor.
If you’re feeling extra adventurous you can even insert some pages from an existing document, your scanner or image gallery – a feature that can save hours of fiddling with content across formats and devices. Or if nothing does the trick you might just want to have a blank slate and add a blank page or even create a tabula rasa of a PDF from scratch. Those capabilities also broadly speaking can be labeled as editing a PDF and have their own niches based on the ultimate use case.
