• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
1

Editing text in all PDF files

Community Beginner ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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!

Views

39.6K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate
LEGEND ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 16, 2011 Aug 16, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sounds like the text you are looking at is not text. If you cannot highlight it or select it, that is typically the case. Since you are creating the file in the first place, I would strongly recommend making the changes in your original file and simply creating a new PDF.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Nono, I've been trying to say that I CAN high-light it. I can high-light any text in there, select it for commentating, do the strike-out notes on it. I can even do ctrl+F and search for a word that's within the document and it will find that word. There is no "original" PDF because that IS the original.

I can do everything else to the text except actually edit it (basically deleting or changing the words).

This is frustrating because other files that people send me that are generated via an automated system are editable, but my own PDF files are not, and I want to know what that difference is and how I can change it so that I can edit my own PDF files.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It would help if you could post a sample document somewhere (e.g., Acrobat.com) so we can take a look. It should be easy to tell what's wrong if we have a sample to look at. A single page will be OK.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Here is the link that I uploaded onto Acrobat.com:

https://acrobat.com/#d=8MWbH32gvhxOfazbAqmbPg

Hope you can help!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It worked!! You're a hero! Thank you!!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Aug 17, 2011 Aug 17, 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

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.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Feb 04, 2021 Feb 04, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

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

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines