Why does editing tend to scramble up my text ?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 27, 2019
2 replies
7257 views

When editing Pictures and texts, it often happens, that I find parts of my texts messed up.

Letters missing and whitespace added randomly.
This is most annoying esp. when going unnoticed, as I sell ebooks.
When I reedit to correct the mixing up, I can never be certain, it does not mix up somewhere else.

Good advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Edit and convert PDFs

Correct answer try67

My advice is: Don't edit your PDF files.

They were not meant to be edited directly, and doing so is dangerous and tricky.

Go back to the original file format used to create the PDFs (Word, InDesign, FrameMaker, whatever), edit it there and then create a new PDF file from it.

conklinjohn

Participant

Double check how you receive your PDF files. I had a major issue most likely due to the PDFs I am trying to combine and I know some of them originate from international sources (our business partners) who haven't purchased the OS and the software apps they are using. I had to use the suggestion found here to help me get back on track: Topic is: "Scrambled Text when viewing PDF documents in Acrobat Standard XI"
URL is:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/scrambled-text-when-viewing-pdf-documents-in-acrobat-standard-xi/td-p/9521671?page=4

try67

Correct answer

Community Expert

My advice is: Don't edit your PDF files.

They were not meant to be edited directly, and doing so is dangerous and tricky.

Go back to the original file format used to create the PDFs (Word, InDesign, FrameMaker, whatever), edit it there and then create a new PDF file from it.

james1017

Participating Frequently

What do you mean that's the whole reason I have Adobe so I can edit files. I use it to write remodeling proposals so I will piggyback off existing files and change a few things around like measurements Etc it's mandatory I'm able to edit it. It worked for 15 years now all the sudden it doesn't work. I don't think it has to do with the recent adobe update because the update happened a day or two before the incident started. I know it's Adobe on my desk top (the origin) because the scrambling is happening on my cell phone and my IPad when in Adobe.

james1017

Participating Frequently

Hello @james1017!

I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.

I can understand how frustrating this must be, especially since you've relied on Adobe Acrobat for years to edit your proposals without issue.

From what you’ve described — that the text gets scrambled or reformatted incorrectly across devices (desktop, iPad, and phone) — this could be caused by font compatibility, file corruption.

Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20474 (Win) | 25.001.20476 (Mac), Apr 28, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

Let us know if this still happens with the latest version of Acrobat.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Hi. Thanx for your kind message. So....what happened is is what usually happens > over time it gets fixed. I've noticed with that Adobe. I'll have a problem and it just corrects itself over time and no it has nothing to do with turning the computer on and off again (i.e. rebooting). This problem was by far the worst one and it took 2-3 weeks to "fix itself". It's working normal again (on my tablet). The problem was not on my desktop only cell phone and tablet which was how I knew it was not my tablet as the problem was also on my cell phone.

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