preview won't delete pages in a pdf

Question

Level 1

38 points

preview won't delete pages in a pdf

I have a pdf instruction manual and I want to delete all the non-English pages. I've done this a million times in other pdf files but I can't for this one. I've cconfirmed that I have read-write permissions and there is nothing shown on the preview window indicating the file is protected in some way. If I select a page then the delete menu item in the Edit menu is grayed out. This is frustrating - any ideas?

MacBook Pro (17-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.4), 8GB RAM

Posted on Apr 6, 2013 1:20 PM

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Answer 1

Mick_M Author

Level 1

38 points

Apr 6, 2013 1:37 PM in response to Mick_M

Quick addendum - I already know about printing the pages I want to a separate pdf file, but when I try that the pdf option is grayed out - only the postscript option is available and trying that yields an error. All the evidence points to the file being "special" in some way, but you'd reckon preview would provide a visual cue to sorry so...

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Apr 6, 2013 1:45 PM in response to Mick_M

Maybe this will help. If you monitor the "More Like This" box (top right), other threads appear. Opening them usually displays other threads.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4152092

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Answer 3

Mick_M Author

Level 1

38 points

Apr 6, 2013 2:02 PM in response to Eric Root

I did all that before my post and couldn't find an answer. The particular discussion you reference doesn't offer anything at all for my issue.

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Answer 4

Mick_M Author

Level 1

38 points

Apr 6, 2013 2:12 PM in response to Mick_M

In case it helps, the 2.7MB user manual I'm trying to edit in Preview is located here:

https://customer.honeywell.com/resources/techlit/TechLitDocuments/69-0000s/69-19 21EFS.pdf

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Answer 5

Mick_M Author

Level 1

38 points

Apr 7, 2013 3:48 AM in response to Mick_M

Answering my own question - it looks like it was something odd with the original file. The solution was to export the pdf file to a pdf file (under the File menu) and then the exported pdf file was editable. Go figure...

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Answer 6

lilskye

Level 1

76 points

Aug 27, 2014 6:48 AM in response to Mick_M

Thank you for posting your resolution to this, as I was suddenly having this same issue and it was driving me crazy. Exporting it back to the desktop as a PDF solved the issue. Thanks!

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