How to edit PDFs on Mac

How to edit PDFs on Mac

Instructions How to edit PDFs on Mac

Instructions How to edit PDFs on Mac

PDF is a universal format for documents that will work on Windows, macOS, Android or iOS and look the same on whichever platform you open it on. For that reason it's very popular. But, when faced with pages and pages of PDF forms, the idea of printing it out and filling in the details using a pen is unlikely to appeal (especially if your handwriting is rather messy).

Luckily it is easy to fill in a PDF on your Mac, and you don't have to buy expensive software to do so. MacOS has built-in features that make filling in and even signing a PDF easy. With the Preview app you can highlight, underline and strikethrough text, rotate pages, add and remove pages, add text, arrows and other shapes, and add notes and comments to PDFs. It's also really simple to add your signature as we explain here: .

But if you'd like to have a bit more flexibility when it comes to editing a PDF including changing the existing text there are a number of dedicated apps that can take your PDF editing to the next level. We look at some of them here: .

In this article we show you how to edit PDFs on your Mac for free though. You might think that Preview is just there to take a quick look at photos that you don't want to add to the Photos app, but there is far more on offer from this handy utility. (For proof of this read .) Once you have the PDF document open in Preview, try clicking in the space where the PDF indicates you should enter some data. It is possible you will be able to type there sometimes PDFs have been set up in such a way that Preview can tell where text should be entered. If that is the case adding text is a simple case of clicking in the correct area and typing.

 If the text boxes aren't set up correctly, you'll need to create a text box yourself, here's how: It's quite common for PDFs to have boxes that you are supposed to add a tick or a cross to. It's easy to add a cross just use the X key, but what if you want to add a tick? Sometimes a PDF is set up in such a way that the tick sign appears automatically (sometimes you need to click twice), but if it doesn't here's how to put a tick in the box: There are times when you'll want to copy text from one document into another, but this can be awkward in PDFs.

Preview has an easy solution, though. The first icon in the toolbar, which has a lower and uppercase A, enables the text selection option. Another useful feature found in the toolbar of Preview is Notes. This allows you to select an area on the document text containing errors, say and highlight it to alert your colleagues, or leave a reminder for yourself.

Preview also includes the ability to create shapes where you can highlight certain areas that you want to standout. If the PDF you are editing has multiple pages or if you want to add more pages to it this can be easily done in Preview, here's how: If you are trying to email a PDF to someone and the file size is a little on the large side you might like to reduce the size. This is a good idea if you were thinking of texting the PDF to someone too. You may want to sign the document, and this too can be done in Preview.

We have a more detailed tutorial about , but the steps are as follows: Preview is an excellent solution for quickly making changes to PDFs, but if you want to take things up to a professional level then you might consider a dedicated package. We have looked at a few . , for example, has been purpose-built to create, edit and annotate PDFs.

It can automatically reflow text and use OCR to turn paper documents or digital scans into editable PDFs; plus there's the ability to create interactive forms out of Microsoft Word docs, and a whole host of other features. If you frequently use or create PDFs then it's certainly worth a look. There's a free trial version of the software available where you can explore its capabilities, and if it meets your requirements then the prices start at 69.97 / $59.95 for a single-user license, you can download the .

Instructions How to edit PDFs on Mac