If you’ve ever been given a pdf file that you want to edit, or a pdf form that you need to complete and return electronically, you’ll realise that it’s not obvious how to edit a pdf file in OS X. You can make simple changes to a pdf file using the free built-in Preview App that comes free with OS X. Here’s how.
I test in 16.19 version of Word, Mac version 10.14.1, no issue when saving a document as PDF via File menuSave asselect PDF for File FormatBest for electronic distribution and accessibility or Best for printing. Are you using the latest version 16.19 of Word? If not, we suggest you update Office via Help menuCheck for Updates.
If you double-click on any pdf file in OS X it will open in an application called Preview. Preview has a hidden “Annotations Toolbar’ that will allow you to edit the pdf file. You can’t change what’s already in the pdf document. But you can do minor changed like adding your own text and graphics, so this method will allow you to complete a form or make minor additions.
For full pdf editing capabilities (for example adding paragraphs of text, moving pictures around on a page etc) you need to get some fully blown pdf editing software like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Acrobat Professional. But these cost hundreds of dollars. The good news is that ‘Preview’, the built-in OS X pdf reader app, has some basic pdf editing abilities built-in.
Here’s how to use the Annotations Toolbar.
Go up to the View menu and select the menu item called ‘Show Annotations Toolbar. This will give you a toolbar along the bottom of your preview window to help you edit the pdf file.
Note: In Yosemite and El Capitan the ‘Annotations Toolbar’ has been Renamed to ‘Markup Toolbar’ so that it looks like this:
After you select the ‘View: Show Annotations Toolbar’ menu you will see a toolbar across the bottom of the preview window that looks like this:
These buttons will allow you to edit the pdf file. The left three buttons make an arrow, a circle or a rectangle. The fourth button along allows you to add text to the pdf.
If you click on the text box button – the 4th button across, you can then go up to your document and add in a text box like this:
If you click on the text button you can add a text box to the pdf document like this.This is a very easy way to fill in pdf files that are forms.
If you highlight the newly added text you can change the font by pressing Apple-T and the font window will appear.
You can’t delete what’s already in a document, but you can draw a rectangle over it to hide it and type something new over the top.
You can cover over existing text using a rectangle with a white border like this.You’ll notice you can’t change the rectangle color from being black, but you can put a very fat white border around it so it looks like a white rectangle!
Please note, this is more of a hack than a proper way to edit. The original information that you have edited will still be there. It is just covered over. If someone deletes the box they will see the original document.
This is what led the the recent scandal in Australian Politics when all the private phone numbers of Australian politicians were accidentally leaked. The deleted the phone numbers from public documents by changing the colour from black to white. But they didn’t realise someone could still get the numbers out of the documents.
If you want to totally change the images and text on an existing pdf file you will need an application like Adobe Illustrator that can actually edit the content of pdf files. But if you only want to make small changes, the built-in preview app will do the job!
If you’d like to sign a PDF document with your handwritten signature I have a separate article on how to do that.
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How to combine multiple pdf files with OS X Mavericks 10.9How to merge and edit PDF documents in macOS SierraHow to merge 2 pdf files in OS X 10.14 MojaveHow to sign a PDF document in OS X.HELP! Anyone found a good iPad PDF ebook reader?« Older CommentsYarinsays:August 1, 2017 at 3:21 amThis solution may help you
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17954754#17954754
ReplyNyasia Randellsays:September 7, 2017 at 3:39 amPreview is great app to make minor changes in the PDF file. And, it is free too. If you need more advanced features to to create, edit, convert and sign your PDFs, then you may consider tools like Nitro, Skim, PDFpen, etc. The one recommended here is pretty good too https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/193228
ReplyMersssays:September 15, 2017 at 9:51 pmPDFelement for Mac is a simple PDF Editor for Mac, acting as best alternative to PDF Expert.
ReplyWaynesays:September 18, 2017 at 5:15 pmThanks Merss but it would be a better endorsement if you didn’t work for the company!
ReplyAbhaysays:December 10, 2017 at 5:58 pmnice article !! but i found that microsoft world itself can edit pdfs and all changes can be made in it !!
ReplyWaynesays:December 18, 2017 at 2:09 amTrue – but this is a free solution.
ReplyJudisays:December 18, 2017 at 5:59 amWayne, what is the free solution for editing a pdf doc?
mike tuellsays:December 10, 2018 at 5:49 pmMy Mac X, El Capitan is 10.11.4 doesn’t have the same menu as your posting begins with. No, “PDF Display”, no “Automatically resize”, no “sidebar”. I’m looking for help after opening a few times a PDF document (w/ 77 pages), and once I’d hidden the sidebar, I can not longer get it to show again. I go to “View”, scroll down to “Show Toolbar”, and a menu bar appears top-of-page; I then click on the “view menu”, and “Hide Sidebar” is at the top of the list and is checked. I have tried clicking on it and the sidebar never reappears. I only could try to close and reopen that PDF document, AND a copy of it, but cannot access the sidebar management options at all.
Replymike tuellsays:December 10, 2018 at 5:59 pmMy Q seemed not to have loaded, so I’m trying to post my question again.
My El Capitan 10.11.4 has a different Preview menudropping down from “View”. But I am able to click on “show [or hide] toolbar”. Then I see, up top, a toolbar with “view menu”. The list that drops down begins with the problem. I lists “Hide Sidebar”as checked, but try as I may, I cannot UN-check it and see the sidebar as I had in viewing the PDF document just minutes before.
Apple have re-named it. It is now called ‘Markup Toolbar’ not ‘Annotations Toolbar’. So you need to click ‘Show Markup Toolbar.’ Does that work?
ReplyJohn ROLTsays:March 5, 2019 at 5:49 amHI all . I’m trying to edit a large .pdf document, with 257 scanned B&W pages of music. The original comes in at 14MB – quite reasonable considering. My reduced copy is working out at 2MB per page! and lower res as well; I’m guessing that it’s creating the new document with full colour or something so each page is a much bigger piece of data. Seems to be the same whether I copy the original and cut it down, or create an empty .pdf and add pages from the original using drag and drop. Anyone else found this problem or suggest a solution? I’m happy to try another app as long as it won’t suffer the same issue!
Thanks . John
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PDF editing is a very needed feature but not every app out there provides that functionality. Not only that, the ones that enable PDF editing are very costly. For instance, take the case of – that costs you $74.95 for the full version. Adobe’s propriety can cause a huge dent in your pocket: about $200 for the editors.Although PDF editors are costly, not everyone wants to edit PDF documents per se. More or less, it’s only to annotate, highlight or certain other research-oriented purposes.
Much of this can be achieved through a variety of software that’s less costly or free such as. It’s completely free to use. We’ll take a look at the options available for Mac users.
Best PDF Editors for Mac #1. PDFelementis all about giving businesses the efficiency they crave when it comes to the world of PDF documents.
Talk of creating, converting, editing, annotating and sharing PDF documents with the utmost professionalism. This software features all the tools you can use completely edit your PDF documents, from the simple tasks like editing text and images to even cooler stuff like signing your documents digitally. You can also convert to PDF or from PDF using virtually any document file type be it to Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Moreover, you can transform the scanned document to editable PDF using a top draw Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature.Form handling has also been made super simple with this tool keeping in mind that you can create, edit, fill, sign and protect your PDF forms without breaking a sweat. You can even extract data from your PDF interactive PDF forms and export in CSV formats. It gets even better! You can speed up the process of converting, data extraction, Bates numbering and watermarking by batch processing your PDF files.
(Free). ($59.99). ($99.99)#2. PreviewMac’s built-in solution, Preview, has become quite powerful over the years. One of the most impressive additions is the ability to annotate, highlight, adding images in a PDF file. Preview is as good as any other PDF editor out there, but it is not a full-fledged editor: you can’t edit the entire PDF file as such. You can only take to a certain level of editing where you either add or highlight sections of the PDF file.
Preview can also help you combine files. SkimSkim is a popular, open-source and free PDF reader that doubles up as a research tool with it set of features. It’s pretty much the same as Preview on Mac, but it works well for those quick annotations, comments, and highlights.You can also customize Skim to suit your needs better. The app makes navigation super easy with the table of contents or thumbnails and visual history. That’s not all, it is integrated with BibDesk and several other third-party apps and has the support for extensive AppleScript as well.Price: Free#4. JotForm PDF Editor (Online)If you don’t like to download apps on your Mac, this online PDF Editor from JotForm is perfect.
Whether it about creating a form for registration or issuing invoices to your clients; JotForm PDF Editor has got your back. You can create a regular form and share it with the recipient. The responses are saved automatically in presentable and customizable PDF files.It also offers 100+ PDF templates across multiple categories to get you started quickly. Some of the template’s categories are invoice, registration, job application, lease agreement, event planning, and many more.
If you are comfortable using the online editor, this one is the best. And yes, it is free.Price: Free#5. PDF Reader – Document ExpertTake control of your PDFs with more flexibility and manage them just the way you want! PDF Reader is pretty simple yet effective enough to let you carry out your tasks with the needed efficiency.You can create quick shortcuts to import your files and folders easily. Using TAG, you will be able to organize your PDFs ideally. Access all the needed information like bookmark, outline, thumbnails, and annotation without breaking any sweat.
Keep an eye on your entire library and also check out the last import history. And yes, you can also sync your data with iCloud to access them from across your devices.Price: FreeBest PDF Editors for iPhone/iPadNow that we’ve talked about PDF editors for the Mac, it’s also a good thing to take a look at some popular options available to do the same on iOS devices. There aren’t many popular apps or services for this, but if you’re ready to shell out some money, there are apps to help you annotate and read PDF docs on iOS devices. Good ReaderRight on top of the list is Good Reader. Sells at $4.99 and brings pretty good PDF reading and editing capability. The app has got a separate version for the iPad.Price: $4.99#2. PDF ExpertGood Reader is good enough, but you can’t fill/edit forms within the PDF file using Good Reader.
PDF Expert is costlier than Good Reader, but there are good features like scanning capabilities that make PDF Expert a little more advanced than Good Reader.Price: $9.99#3. Foxit PDF Reader & ConverterI rate Foxit very highly as it makes PDF editing plain sailing. You can view, annotate and also secure your PDF files. The app also lets you sign documents using digital certificates. It comes with the ConnectPDF feature that allows you to collaborate with your friends.Shield your PDF files with password and Microsoft Rights Management Services. Another notable feature of Foxit is the support for 12 languages like English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, etc.Price: Free#4. MaxiPDFFor editing and designing PDF files, you can’t go wrong with a neat PDF editor like MaxiPDF.
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You can easily create, modify, delete text and images. It allows you to add and save comments as well.You can upgrade to the premium ($0.99/monthly) version of the app to use it without ads. Besides, MaxiPDF supports several languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish.Price: Free#5. Adobe Acrobat ReaderIf you want to have an all-in-one PDF editing experience, pick out Adobe Acrobat Reader. There is so much to like about this app, and the first among many is the—wide range of superior editing tools. That means you have the required freedom to create eye-catching files.Take the full advantage of sticky notes and drawing tools to make comments on PDFs. Get the most out of annotating tools to highlight and mark up the text.
With the full support for Apple Pencil, it ensures you have greater precision while creating praiseworthy docs.Price: FreeThat’s all, folks!What’s your pick?I think you have found an able PDF editor for your device. Which one is it? Feel free to let us know you pick in the comments.Don’t miss:.Like this post? And stay connected with us via, and to read more such stories.