Convert PDF to Pages document

I have converted a PDF document to Pages but I can't seem to edit it at all. How do I edit the Pages document that has been converted from a PDF?

Peter Nigos wrote:

PDF document downloaded. How do I convert to Pages document to edit ?

Others have described the issues; that PDF is a format focused on printing a document, and not on data transfer nor data importing.

One of the shoddy, sordid, vile options is to screenshot each of the PDF pages, then use the built-in OCR within Photos app to fetch the text and paste it into the Pages document.

The PDF file format is an end-stage document format and your best bet is to copy/paste the PDF content into a new Pages document. This will not preserve the formatting or attributed text present in the PDF.

If you have, or know anyone with Microsoft Word for Mac version 16.31 or later, Word can convert a PDF to Word's .docx document format. Then you open that Word document in Pages. This is a step closer to preserving the original PDF layout and attributed text.

If you know anyone with Adobe Acrobat Pro, it can convert PDF to Word documents too. So can a paid version of PDFPen/Nitro PDF Pro which is a PDF editor.

I would steer clear of any online based PDF to Pages conversion solutions as you will be left with a great deal of Pages document editing in the aftermath.

And Apple's Automator has a PDF to Rich Text (RTF) extraction action but it does not preserve formatting and is more involved than any other suggestion here.

Hi there,

See if this method works:

Step 1. Open the PDF file you want to convert with macOS Preview.

Step 2. Select and copy the PDF file content to the click board.

Step 3. Create a new Pages document and click on "Paste" to save the PDF content in the Pages file.

Step 4. Go to "File" > "Save", and your PDF file will be saved in Pages format.

With Ventura 13.5 and Pages v13.1, one can open the PDF in Apple's Preview in thumbnail view and drag and drop individual thumbnails over onto an open Pages document, where each becomes a document object.

I haven't bothered to test the first paragraph in recent older versions of macOS, Preview, and Pages, but for the OP's current implementation, it could be yet an alternative solution.

bobon66 wrote:

I have converted a PDF document to Pages but I can't seem to edit it at all. How do I edit the Pages document that has been converted from a PDF?

You’re probably looking at a PDF of some images.

Try re-converting it using the text OCR (hack) method described above.

I do have an AppleScript that I have tested on Sonoma 14.2.1 that opens a designated PDF in MS Word 16.80 and converts it to a .docx, before saving the Word document. Then the script tells Pages to open (and translate) that Word document into a Pages document that it then saves to the same location as the original PDF.

The assumption here is that if the PDF was scanned, it has been OCR'd before selected by this script so there is text to convert to Word and then Pages.

Word does convert equations and images in a PDF to .docx, and Pages translates those correctly. However, Word's PDF to DOCX conversion does for the most part maintain the PDF pagination, but does drop or alter some characters in the process. Not as good as Adobe Acrobat Pro, but far less costly in software and post-processed correction time.

Sure thing! Converting a PDF to a Pages document on your Mac is pretty straightforward, just try Preview, it's built right into macOS, so you don't need to download or install anything extra to use it. Basically, it's your go-to app for opening up photos and PDF files straight out of the box.

If your PDF has a lot of images or complex formatting, you might run into some challenges with this method since copying and pasting might not preserve everything perfectly. For more complex conversions, there are also some third-party PDF tools and online services that can do the job, but they might not be free.

Don't miss: https://www.sysgeeker.com/blog/convert-pdf-to-page-document-on-mac.html

If you're dealing with a really layout-heavy PDF, another trick is to use Preview to export the PDF pages as images and then insert those images into your Pages document. This can be a good workaround if preserving the original look is more important than being able to edit the text.

Dear Remi and all others with the same approach from Pdf2Pages. The problem is, how to edit it , say starting with an empty page, creating Titel, Chapter, subchapter, subsubchapter,.. pages. Can you or somebody else share a bit more of your experience, perhaps with screenshots or a video.