How can I edit a PDF document

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Level 1

4 points

How can I edit a PDF document

I’ve used Websnapper to download a web page (recipe) from the New York Times. The resulting pdf looks good. What I want to do is remove some advertising, etc. Ideally, I’d like to simply use the mouse to drag a box around the band of advertising that’s across the middle of the page and remove it—and then have the resulting separate sections join up again by closing the gap. Other output formats are available from Websnapper, but I’d like to stick with pdf, if possible.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Apr 14, 2024 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2024 12:19 PM in response to 19jac

PDFs are final format documents intended for printing. They are not editable documents unless you pay money for a proper PDF Editor. Apple's Preview and Adobe's Acrobat Reader are not PDF editors.

That said, the Firefox (124.*) web browser also claims one can edit PDFs in it. Haven't tested that. You can also open a PDF in the free LibreOffice Draw, select and remove content, and then export as PDF again. That I just did. It should allow you to select the image in the middle of your PDF and remove it before exporting again as PDF.

If you happen to have Microsoft Word v16.31 or later, you can open the PDF in it and Word will automatically convert it to DOCX. I just did that and the images in the PDF land in the DOCX pretty much where they were in the PDF. Then remove the image and from the Word File > Save As… panel, output back to PDF. That also works.

Affinity Designer 2.4 (click Buy Now to get at free trial download link) can also open a PDF and allow you to select and remove images, before exporting back to PDF. Did that too.

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Answer 2

19jac Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 16, 2024 9:00 AM in response to VikingOSX

I’m sure I can remove the ad (graphic), but what I’d like is for the document to eliminate the now empty space by closing up. For example, if my document's printable image area is 15 inches long (2-pages printed) and I delete a band in the middle that is 3 inches tall—I would want that area to close up and the printable image to be only 12 inches—in other words, no empty gap in the middle. (It would be like deleting a row in Excel.)

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Answer 3

Apr 16, 2024 9:00 AM in response to 19jac

Try using some of my suggested approaches and attempt to close up that spacing left by the removed image. As a result, if that doesn't close up the space, then you may actually need a true PDF editor to rearrange the PDF content.

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How can I edit a PDF document

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