As offices become paperless and more form-centered, we receive more and more PDF files in our inboxes. And the more PDF files we receive, the more headaches we experience.
If you’re not interested in buying an expensive license for Adobe software but you’d still like to edit PDFs, here are a few tips that will quickly make you the office MacGyver at converting, editing and mastering this popular file type.
Edit PDF files
Have a PDF with text on it that you need to edit?
Happy news: you don’t have to retype the content on a separate document to be able to change it.
Who’s got time for that? Do yourself a favor and convert the PDF to Word, so you can edit the text in a Word document before resaving it as a PDF. You can do this by uploading to Google Docs, which is a fast, free and fairly painless option for converting PDFs to a .doc or .docx file.
Sign a PDF
Need to add a signature to a PDF?
The old school method was to print out the PDF, sign it, rescan it and send it back. Unfortunately, that’s not cost or even resource efficient. With so much paperwork being sent and completed over email or file-sharing services, you don’t want to delay finalizing a business transaction or filing important legal or financial paperwork, all for want of a printer. Save trees and time by adding your signature electronically.
To add your John Hancock to a PDF, you can use a paid service like Docusign which is good to consider if you need to do this in a professional capacity. You can also check out this How-To Geek article with free options.
See Also: The Freelancer’s Guide to PDF Management
Turn a PDF into an image
If you’re frequently sharing image files or you’re a web developer working with PDF images, you may have already run into problems using PDFs. While PDFs offer sharp and high resolution, they can be heavier to send by email than a standard image file. This can make them difficult to open and view on mobile devices.
For website developers, using a PDF on a website requires that visitors have an external plugin installed. This can cause additional document download time and could prevent thousands of visitors from viewing the content.
Alternatively, you can skip the headaches and convert PDF to JPG format. While the image resolution will be visibly lower, as long as the file doesn’t need to be printed or enlarged, converting to a JPG file is a solution that works for nearly everyone. JPG files are easy to open, save and access on mobile phones and tablets. Most office applications are better equipped at handling image files rather than PDFs, too.
Another option for converting PDFs to images is a PDF to PNG converter. This is an especially useful feature for graphic designers who frequently need to edit logos or images with text.
Merge PDFs
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a trick you’d need to use often, but it’s much more useful than it appears at first glance. The ability to merge PDF’s relates to how you can make impressive and comprehensive presentations to impress the management, your colleagues and even your clients. If you’ve ever wondered how to merge Excel spreadsheets, pie charts, graphic imagery and text into a document – and make it easy to share – this is the tip for you.
To merge multiple files, you’ll need to convert each file to a PDF first. Ideally, you’ll want to find a PDF editor that not only provides converter tools for the most popular file formats but also supports file merge so you don’t have to shuffle between different sites and tools.
Erase Existing Text
The ability to erase existing text and add new content is useful if you’re frequently filling out e-forms. It’s also important if you need to redact or mask sensitive information on a document before sharing.
Some PDF editors, like PDFfiller, offer editing tools that add shapes and images, in addition to customizable text. For example, if you’d like to highlight a particular section on the PDF, you could use an arrow or draw a box around it for visual reference.
Conclusion: Becoming a PDF Master
Today’s cloud-based PDF editing services offer a wealth of tools and information to help you manage and customize a variety of online PDF documents. Plus, many of the options featured here allow you to create your own account. This gives you the freedom to sign in and access your files on any device.
Working with PDFs isn’t just good for efficiency, saving you the time, cost and hassle of printing, annotating and rescanning documents, it’s also great for the environment. Whether you need to work with PDFs on a daily basis or rarely, you’ve now got the skills and know-how to master this popular file format.
See Also: 55 Bulletproof Productivity Hacks
The post PDF Like MacGyver: 5 Ways To Work With PDFs That Save Time, Money And Paper appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Sig Nordal 