I need to edit a document that is now in PDF format. How can I change it to a file I can import into Pages and edit there?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12.3)
Naturally, I am curious what extra characters would appear in a simple copy/paste exercise from PDF into Pages, or TextEdit. It is not something that I have experienced here, unless you were dealing with non-English character sets.
Then a docx can be opened with my Mac even though it's a Microsoft Word file?
Apple provides no PDF editors. Pages is no exception.
Unless you have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, or other specific PDF Editor products that are available in the Mac App Store, then it is best to edit the original document from which the PDF was made, and then regenerate the PDF from it.
So-called PDF to Word ($$$) converters leave you with more editing mess than you started with, and this will cost you considerable time and effort to resolve. Don't believe the advertising. On a recent Windows Office, you may be able to open the PDF, and save it as a Word document. Haven't done it myself, so could be a waste of time too.
You can copy/paste the text content from a PDF that allows it — into Pages, where you can edit the text, and re-export as PDF.
I think I may have to bite the bullet and just retype the twenty pages. I already tried copy and paste to a new Pages file and to Text Edit and both resulted in the text mixed in with a bunch of characters that would take a while to delete.
I first downloaded Acrobat reader thinking I could change the PDF file to something editable but I could't do it for free. Thanks for answering!
I tried to copy and paste the whole of what I got after the copy and paste but I kept getting an error message saying there were "Invalid Characters in the message" So here is just a small sample:
£Ú∆æ^zÔóˆ˝ >Ò-ˇ±ÖΩ≈ ¿;˘NÜ´¿ }HB›∞ å"ã’xå&ß!Xà√Ø qé˚¯Äx∞ :œΩ@æbî|Âãçx∂π8flÁ+Ú≠«¢(k ´
ù¡å'©€s —V\ äáD ï ≥:™@) « Ú”l,n„0`hê(˘˜É¬Ät ô0Æ£˝x9‰›· ªflÃæ2(ÆÌ{8c–\Ÿ[ û¥Üd}Ù/λ 5)"SZ òâ $l!¢~tx¯kyÅÜ%ˆÙ·≥ n ´ë)∆[Õ˘, k)éo¨Dµÿ|◊ÃÓàÕ§W;ŸL— ©D˘´Íî +Ê0º≤Å`@0w·è øπ∞∑8B†È ëë¶:—¸°ç–VňdYO{ FKƒE6ŸΩà xÏW]hÙ´V§V÷™NÈßå≤ ≈^«y b&—µvfir߸qêÅ∫0E πø.˝ı:˚ –Œ$¸í ê Ë: §.ˆ@W'$0öˆnù›Q‡ P±Ob¬]≥pÿ P.Y. ã~ ‰ Tû,ƒ¢Æ‘f㇣E⁄É}uX˜aÜ˙úm A) ¨ jT∞ˇ¶¿Ù {!CMÇØõ5á4~◊V>`∞¥ŸÄòΩ›ã §ÒÀëπ’ÿ_Æ ÃΩ‰ óãÓn8ltΩ_ 2.íTçËL©G» Úë£$£$?kHí— ~ û B '˱Jv…∏"õÖX<ÂCIö^Úa ¸˝‹„\è IÇR’ñ”Æ·NW7∑Õz±^¨ñ∞∫É≥Ÿúä≈» √цHTÿå( †üù≤tÅm´¡áŒ ˝ •™◊C†™¡TÖ[ÿI÷/=>Ú £L +£¸ÂƒŒ< √∞"°(Gë TËá
Though it is not a Word clone, Pages has had the ability to open Word documents, and export them — for years. However, you are never changing the original Word document because the open operation translates the Word content into a Pages document. An export to Word simply reverses this translation process.
There are some caveats. Clearly Word and Pages are different applications with mutually unsupported functionality. Pages requires that referenced fonts in the Word document must be physically installed on the Mac. Unlike Word, it will not create a faux font face (e.g. italic) if that specific font family member is not installed. Font substitution will occur. Word documents that are beyond a certain age, will simply not open. The layout engine in Word, is different from that in Pages, and document objects can, and will misalign.
Open the pdf in Preview where you can copy and paste the text across.
pdfs were not meant for editing, although it is possible to limited extent.
Peter
Looks to me like the pdf has been created with older, non-UniCode fonts.
That gets scrambled when you try and cut and paste.
Peter
It probably was. My brother sent me the file in 2006 and since then, it's been passed from older computer to newer one. I think that explains the gobbledegook.
Thank you; this is good for reference in the future too.
Yeah, pretty sure I've received docx files and they opened for me in pages and said something about having to change the font so I know what you mean.
Can I edit a PDF file in Pages?
