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katnipperz
Participating Frequently
August 16, 2011
Answered

Editing text in all PDF files

  • August 16, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 42588 views

Hello,

I am very new to Acrobat and am trying to change some text in some of my documents, but can't seem to be able to do so. I am using Acrobat X Pro and i use the "Edit Document Text" tool, but the cursor does not change to the text editing cursor. I tried opening other PDF documents and it seems that I am able to edit text in some PDF files, but not the text in others. For the one that I am trying to edit, I did the "Recognize Text" function. I can high-light the text and even search the document for certain words, but can't seem to change any of the text. I can select the text to cross out or put a comment in them, but still can't remove some words/letters & retype.

This is really frustrating, as these documents are the only reason I wanted Acrobat X - so I can edit a few words on them.

Please help!

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer George_Johnson

      That sounds good! How do I go about doing that?


      Unfortunately, it's hidden by default in Acrobat 10. To get to Preflight, click Tools and then you'll see a very small icon/button at the upper right corner of the panel. Click it and select "Print Production" from the drop-down. The Print Production panel will open and you can select Preflight. With the document opened, select the "Embed fonts" from the "PDF fixups" list and click the "Analyse and fix" button at the lower right.

      4 replies

      D
      do_reff
      New Participant
      February 4, 2021

      THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  This helped me out and solved my problem!

      Kelly McCathran
      Kelly McCathran
      Inspiring
      August 17, 2011

      One other question I didn't see asked. Is there any security on this PDF? If Security is applied you may have restrictions on editing the text.

      G
      George_Johnson
      Inspiring
      August 16, 2011

      It sounds like you're talking about a scanned page and then perform OCR. Editing the invisible text that gets added with OCR does not affect the image of the text. It is possible to use an external image editor (e.g., Photoshop) to edit the image, in which case you'd use the Edit Object tool.

      K
      katnipperzAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      August 16, 2011

      It's not a scanned page. It's a file exported directly through another program. I save it as a PDF file and try to open this file up to edit some numbers, but it doesn't allow me to do that. I can high-light the text or make other commentaries on it, but cannot change the text itself. Even if i try the Edit Object tool, I cannot select any text. Only things I can select are the bars or borders that's already on the document.

      G
      George_Johnson
      Inspiring
      August 17, 2011

      That file is interesting because it is so small for all of the text it contains. It looks like the problem is with the fonts, which are not embedded. It's not merely the fact that they're not embedded, but it looks like the font information is not sufficienty specified, so Acrobat is not allowing editing. When I attempt to export the text to a text file, it gives me a font-related error. I suspect the PDF creator is not fully compliant with the PDF spec.


      When I applied a Preflight fixup that embeds the fonts, I could then edit the text. So you might want to try this.

      B
      Bill12
      Inspiring
      August 16, 2011

      Use the text touchup tool. Do not expect great or even good results. There is an art to editing PDFs and it is not recommended. You should always go back to the original document, edit it, and create a new PDF if at all possible.

      K
      katnipperzAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      August 16, 2011

      The text touch up tool is the same as the "Edit Document Text" tool, isn't it? I tried it but can't do anything with this function for this certain PDF file.

      The PDF Files that I'm trying to edit comes directly from my work's system software. It exports the information into a PDF file, and that's the file that I want to change a few minor things in. I don't need anything fancy - I'm happy if I can just delete the text. That way, I can just create a new text box or use the Typewriter tool.

      Problem right now is that it won't even let me delete the text. I click on the "Edit Document Text" tool and nothing happens. It won't let me select anything.

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