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E
Endelaus
Participant
April 5, 2017
Question

Making fully editable PDF for client who does not have Acrobat Pro?

  • April 5, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3512 views

So, I'm freelancing for a company who's about to deliver a PDF to a client that want to be able to edit all text in said PDF. I've tried making the PDF into a Word document but they're telling me the text jumps around too much (probably due to significant layouting made in Indesign...). Is there a way to do this without asking the client to shell out for Acrobat Pro? Or will Adobe Acrobat Standard 10.0 (Windows) be sufficient if I prep the document the correct way?

Grateful for any response, I'm losing it over here.

I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro 2015 on Mac OS Sierra.

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1 reply

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
April 5, 2017

What kind of editing? Is your client aware that PDF files are not suitable for extensive editing?

E
EndelausAuthor
Participant
April 5, 2017

I assume it's light editing of text. Thing is, the project is nearly finished and the clients just now said the editing they do in Word mess up the layout. The people I'm freelancing for are really stressed out about it so the direct communication between me and the client has been pretty limited.

I told them if their IT guy could install a program for editing PDF's, that would be a lot easier. Just now I was told they were given Adobe Acrobat Standard which I don't think supports editing, so basically I'm sitting here waiting for a backlash and want to be prepared for it.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
April 5, 2017

Dear client, we understand you wish to be able to edit the final PDF. Acrobat can edit PDF text in a very limited way, if you own the same fonts, but this is really only suitable for changing very simple things like phone numbers or prices, and it does not work with every PDF. It is also likely to mess up the layout which you have commissioned and lead to problems with revision (as your PDF changes cannot be put back into the original design).

We've been advised that there is really no such thing as an editable PDF, in the sense a Word document can be edited. We've been advised that if people want to collaborate in editing the only viable option is to use the same app. We used Adobe InDesign, in order to make the best professional layout, so you would need InDesign too if you want to edit these files. As InDesign is a professional tool, we've been advised to tell you that extensive training is recommended for this task.

Another possibility is that we remake the files in Word, with a much simpler layout, so you can take over editing. We estimate the labour time to do this as (...) days at a cost of (...).

The usual process for text changes is that they go back to the designer for action. Our charge for this service is (...) and our timescale are (...).

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