Thursday, September 16, 2010

Are You Struggling To Edit PDFs?



PDFs are used all around the world, especially within businesses environments as they provide a clear “picture perfect” finished representation of a document.
PDFs are very different from other file formats such as Word or OpenOffice where the data involved is a set of objects which can then is changed and edited as required. In the case of PDFs this is not the case and editing is not possible. The PDF file format was designed for on-screen viewing only and this can often leave people with a lot of problems, especially if the original version of the text is not available.
Adobe Acrobat
Underneath a PDF document there are very few structures so it can be extremely difficult to edit PDFs. Adobe Acrobat, the computer software which PDFs work within is essentially showing the user the content, rather than providing the content itself.
It can be relatively easy to manipulate a PDF in certain ways. For example separating a PDF into a number of different pages or drawing on top of a PDF. It is also relatively easy to change one image for another if it is the same size. However, where it becomes more tricky is when the user wants to change the actual content on the page. This is because the structure of the document i.e. the paragraphs and words no longer exist and it becomes very difficult to alter the text. Remember, in PDF form it becomes more like a snapshot of the text rather than the text itself.
The Right Software
Remember though it is very difficult to do so, it is not impossible to edit PDFs if you have the right software. There are a number of websites online that offer PDF editing software in order for you to edit and alter your documents once they become PDF files. This may be particularly useful if you want to edit PDF files on a regular basis. This type of software usually has a very intuitive interface which not unlike a word processing program and it makes editing PDFs very easy.
A number of websites also offer free online editing software and in order to use their services you will firstly upload your PDF file to the website's server. You then edit the text in your browser with the online editing software when this is complete; you export it in a PDF and download it back to your computer. This can be helpful but because you are uploading your document to an unknown server this probably isn't wise for rather sensitive documents.
PDFs are extremely popular and are used in a global capacity but the huge drawback to some users is the inability to edit PDFs without specialist software. However there is a great deal of software out there on the market – it would be useful to search online for the best deals and the most affordable prices on PDF editing software. If you're planning to edit PDFs on a regular basis then probably a smart move to invest in a quality editing software package.

No comments:

Post a Comment