Creating Invoices with Numbers exporting as PDF

Question

Level 1

10 points

Creating Invoices with Numbers exporting as PDF

I'm using numbers to create my invoices.

Using sheets/tables to create the Customer information section 2 columns and a few rows for their Name, Address, Email, Etc

Then I use the invoice table chart to put their products and a service charge on there as well.

It works out perfectly...however I just noticed that when I export as PDF to email my customers their invoice/receipt the PDF lines are completely editable.

Giving me a very uneasy feeling should a customer want to make adjustments and cause a concern over something that they changed on the invoice.

So it is possible to lock those fields when exporting as a PDF or is it just by default that way?

Thanks!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 3.4Ghz; SSD+2TB' 6970M 2GB; 16GB

Posted on May 15, 2012 11:29 AM

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Answer 1

May 15, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Max Stanley

How are you exporting as a pdf? How are you editing the PDF that you exported?

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Answer 2

Max Stanley Author

Level 1

10 points

May 15, 2012 12:55 PM in response to Wayne Contello

In Numbers '09 going to File > Export Selecting PDF Better quality, sheets view. done.

is there any particular way it needs to be exported?

They have been able to be edited in Acrobat, Acrobat Pro X and other basic PDF readers.

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Answer 3

May 15, 2012 1:40 PM in response to Max Stanley

Are you sure in basic PDF readers your customers can edit your content? Actually I think you can modify most any document. If your customers are really modifying the invoices you send to them I would say that makes your relationship with them very difficult.

Acrobat Pro X does allow editing.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro.html

You can embed and image which is still modifiable but more difficult to make it look good.

I don't think there is a better way to emit a pdf than what you are doing. FYI you can also use the menu item "File > Print", then select "Save as PDF…":

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Answer 4

Jeff Shenk

Level 4

3,005 points

May 16, 2012 5:35 AM in response to Max Stanley

There are a few security options in the OSX pdf generator, but I doubt if any of them would prevent the changes you are worried about:

Even if you send a paper invoice, they could use White-Out and change it, but they can't change your copy, so you can check on them, can't you?

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Answer 5

May 16, 2012 5:49 AM in response to Max Stanley

Max,

I too doubt that a "basic PDF reader" can easily edit a PDF. You could avoid sending a PDF and make alterations more difficult if you open your PDF in Preview and export it as a PNG or TIFF or other bit map file.

Jerry

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