Participating Frequently

Answered

Editing text in PDF - driving me crazy!

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
December 15, 2023
2 replies
3693 views

Hi there,

I was "gifted" a few PDFs that are originally IRS forms that I have to make some changes on. Originally, these forms were templates that someone could easily fill in the info. But now, these PDFs that I am trying to modify the data, when I go to Edit (and I have tried this in 1,000 ways) it selects TOO much of the area (it becomes a blue box with the handle on top). So when I try to type anything, even if I just select the word I want to change, everything inside the blue box disappears. It's driving me nuts. I know that it would be much better to start from the original template and re-create this, but I really really want to learn how to do this so that it will be easier to deal with next time. Thank you please send help!!! 🙂

Correct answer try67

Hi there Try67,

Thank you so much for your reply. When you copy the box to another file, what kind of file do you mean? I just want to be clear what this other "file" looks like so I'm doing it right (or do as well as I can 🙂 - I appreciate your help!! 🙂

Rachel

Just another, blank PDF file.

Randy Hagan

Community Expert

Unless you need entered data from those IRS forms, I'd suggest that you just download them again from the irs.gov website.

The federal government has put a lot of effort to design consistent fillable forms that you can download directly from them. Why mess with something that's designed to be easy to fill out, sign digitally and sent/distributed to IRS specification?

Jus' sayin' ...

Randy

W

Wrigley_1060Author

Participating Frequently

By the way, I'd even settle for a quickie solution, like putting a text box or something OVER the words I want to replace. I wish I could just delete the few letters I need to delete and just type over the thing that I want to type, but it's apparently in some mode that won't let me do this. Ahhhh!! 🙂

Thom Parker

Community Expert

If they were from the IRS, then it is possible they are static XFA forms. In this case you'd need the AEM forms tool to edit them.

Can you post one of the forms?

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

Abambo

Community Expert

Hi there Thom,

Thank you for your very detailed reply. This is my first time looking at the code "behind the scenes" part of Adobe. I was able to open the console (Ctrl+J) and typed in xfa in the botttom box of that javascript debugger - this is what it says:

xfa
ReferenceError: xfa is not defined
1:Console:Exec
undefined

It seems like a lot more work than I have time for (and beyond my experience) - it could be that I may just start from scratch (use a template that already has the proper places to enter info) and then take a workshop on the ins & outs on Adobe. I think I really need to learn a heck of a lot more on how this works, especially since I am the person that tends to fix other people's mistakes. I really appreciate your time! 🙂

Modifying PDF files is always tricky, as that is a task that was not initially foreseen when the format was developed. That's the reason you sometimes fail in that quest. A PDF structure is such that it is visually correct, but not necessarily easy to modify. Therefore, the easiest approach is always to go back to the original file, and re-enter there whatever data is required. If the data is not protected, there will be no problem to replacing pages in the document.

And I can assure you: today's possibilities are hell better than what we had initially. That does not help you, however, when you are in the urgent need. It just explains, why it's not straightforward.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded