Weird bolding and changing ordered lists

[sadears59@comcast.met]

I'm editing a PDF. I don't have the original Word document. My client provided me with Word documents that were converted from the PDFs. I'm inserting into the main document.  I have be 4 document that I am combining portions into my main document.  te Word documents were so messed up that I chose to edit the main PDF.

For the most part, things are going well, though much slower than if I were working in Word. I have one big issue, and a couple of smaller one.

1.  When I paste into my main document,  some letters are bold, though when I try to unbold them, they don't. Usually, it's a few letters in a paragraph.  Other times, it's most of the letters in a paragraph.

2. How to get a hanging indent on a numbered list. Or indenting an entire paragraph?

3. Changing a number or letter in a ordered list?

4. And, when converting to Word, is there a way to stop the text from being put in boxes. Even editing a PDF, everything is broken up into nonsensical boxes.

Thanks.

Stephanie

[Document Geek]

Honestly, editing a PDF in Acrobat is rather unpredictable, to put it gently. Acrobat is great at a lot of things, but precise formatting is not one of those things. I reccomend you recreate the documents from scratch in a proper program, such as Word or InDesign, that will give you control over the formatting.

But if you must just continue using Acrobat to edit the PDF, here are some things to try.

1. When getting weird bolding issues, try pasting the text first into a plain text editor. Sometimes, I even paste into the subject line of an email (as it strips out the formatting). Then I copy and paste again into whatever program I needed the text for in the first place.
2. Hanging indent: Make a separate text box for the numbered list. To indent an entire paragraph, use the Edit tool to resize the text box. It's worth noting that Acrobat doesn't treat text editing like a word processing program, where you can set precise measurements for things like indents, margins, tabs, etc., and expect to be able to use them document-wide. Think of editing in Acrobat more like each individual text box is a separate piece piece of paper, cut out and pasted onto the page. Each text box has absolutely nothing to do with the other text boxes.
3. To change a bullet or number in an ordered list: sometimes, Acrobat treats the bullet or number as a separate text box. You'll be able to edit the text in the hanging indent, but it won't move with the main body of the text. Again, this is another reason to create the document from scratch in Word or InDesign because Acrobat will never behave the way you want or expect when trying to edit ordered lists.
4. The boxes you're experiencing aren't form the document getting created in Word. That's just the way Acrobat handles text editing. It does it's best shot at figuring out which boxes go together.

My final words of advice are to think of text editing in Acrobat like using white-out on a printed copy. If the change in your text is small enough that it can be done with white-out, then its appropriate to do that change in Acrobat. If the changes will require half the document to be whited-out, then Acrobat is not the place to make those changes. Go back to the original source document. If you don't have the original document, recreate it, or at least recreate just those pages (in your word processing tool of choice) and then replace those pages in the PDF.ac

[sadears59@comcast.met]

Thanks for your help!

I knew when I started this in Acrobat that it wouldn't be a fun experience. But, time is critical. My client needs the 4 documents combined into the main document so the authors have a reference. Content is more critical than esthetics. I did try Notepad to strip the formatting. It didn't change anything. However, this morning, I tried reapplying the font (just TNR as opposed to the TNR XXXX that Adobe changes it to) and it fixed it. I know I tried this last night. Why Adobe would have to change the font beyond me. But for now, I figured it out.{sigh}

Your suggestions for the hanging indent I'll try. I thought Acrobat had an option for that in the editing mode. Must have been another Adobe program...InDesign maybe.

I love your whiteout analogy! It really is perfect. In a perfect world, I would have the Word version of the main document. Copying and pasting from a PDF would have been easier. Alas, that was not to be.  What really irritates me is that copy/pasting PDF to PDF is just as messy as from Word to PDF. 

Luckily, my client this morning confirmed that he's more concerned with having all the information in one document than how pretty it looks. I feel bad as I am his go-to person for DTP. That I can't give him a perfectly formatted document (even though that wasn't why he hired me) grates on me.

Oh, well. Such is life. Onward!

Thanks again.

Stephanie

[sadears59@comcast.met]

Is there a way to change a numbered/lettered item to follow the previous items?

A...

B.

Table

C.

When I format C to autonumber, it starts with A. I know I can do it manually, but then there is no hanging indent. 😞

Thanks

Stephanie

[Document Geek]

Not in Acrobat, sorry. It's possible in InDesign because there you have advanced list controls, like the ability to specifiy lists, continue numbering, and restart numbering. If the hangin indent is that important, you can use the redact tool to delete the existing letter. Choose a white fill and stroke, and apply the changes. Then make a new text box with the number where you want it. 

[sadears59@comcast.met]

Thankfully, the client is more concerned about the documents being combined than the format being perfect. I wouldn't have done this if the converted Word documents hadn't been so jacked up. This was actually faster than cleaning up a 110 page document as well as combining it with text from 4 other documents.  Thanks for your help.

[RuskinF]

I can help you with some questions not all.

1. Try a different practice. Enbolden the whole content and then unbolden them. This would remove boldness from all letters.

2. -

3.  You will have to change the numbering on every sentence of the ordered list manually.

4. Adobe is not good at changing the PDF document to Word properly. So what I do is I use the free online services available to convert a PDF file to word.

[sadears59@comcast.met]

Actually, Adobe changes TNR to TNR XXXX. So I highlighted the text and changed the font to strait TNR. All the weirdness went way. The autonumbering I fixed manually and stopped worrying about the hanging indent. That was the least of my concerns.