Awesome Free Tips for PDF Editing

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Traditionally we'll have to turn a PDF into a Word document before we can edit it, which costs us much inconvenience. What if you can directly do the editing on a PDF file?

Today we'll show you 21 awesome tips and tricks for PDF Editing, without converting PDF to Word at first. You'll learn how to quickly edit PDF pages, texts, and images, how to insert images, links, charts, comments, watermarks, etc. Most importantly, all the editing tips we demonstrate here are free.

1. Add, Delete, and Reorder PDF Pages

Tool: iLovePDF Organizer

Select a PDF file to upload to the server. On the operation interface, all PDF pages will be displayed as a preview thumbnail.

*Add pages: Click the plus sign button on the upper right to add more PDF pages.

*Delete pages: There's a cross sign button on top of each preview thumbnail, click on it to delete a page.

iLovePDF PDF Organizer

Bonus Tip: Another easy way to delete multiple pages is to split a PDF into several files, and the split PDF can be combined with another one using a PDF Merger.

*Reorder pages: Drag the page you to reorder and put it to the right place.

iLovePDF PDF Organizer Page Orders

2. Add TEXT to PDF

Tool: Sejda PDF Editor

Click on the "Text" tab of the toolbar, a text typing area will be added on the page. Type your text on the editing box, you can use the text editing tool on top to customized your words. To re-position the text box, put your mouse on it and move to anywhere you like. When you finish, click the "Apply changes" button at the bottom.

Sejda Add Text to PDF

3. Edit Text on PDF

Tool: Sejda PDF Editor

This tool only fits for minor changes in the text. On the top toolbar, select the "Text" tool. Put your mouse on any line of texts you want to edit. When a blue dotted box appears around that line, you can start editing the text. Remember to click "Apply changes" to save your changes.

Sejda Edit Text on PDF

4. Insert A Paragraph to PDF

Tool: Google Docs

Open your PDF with Google Docs, put your mouse between the 2 paragraphs you want to insert texts. Press the "Enter" button on the keyboard, and types any texts to edit your new paragraph.

Google Docs Insert Paragraph to PDF

5. Insert Image to A PDF

Tools: Google Docs

Put your mouse on a blank space that you would like to insert a picture. On the top toolbar, click the "Insert" tab, choose "Image" on the drop-down list, then select a resource of your image. It can be from your computer, online drive, or an image URL that you copy from a website.

Google Docs Insert Image to PDF

6. Edit Image on PDF

Tool: Google Docs

Using Google Docs you can accomplish these image editing on a PDF:

*Crop images and readjust image size.

*Set image position. Click on the image and the position setting box will show up at the bottom.

Google Docs Edit Image Position

*Set image options. Click on an image, then choose "Image Options" on the editing menu. On the "Image Options" box, you can recolor the picture and adjust its transparency, brightness, and contrast.

Google Docs Image Options

*Replace the chosen image. Click on any photo you want to replace, and select "Replace Image" on the editing toolbar.

Bonus Tip: For further image editing on professional photo editors like Photoshop, you can extract all images from a PDF using PDF to Image Converter.

7. Insert forms to PDF

Tool: Google Docs

Go to the top toolbar, click "Insert" and choose "Table". Select the number of rows and columns of your table. You can also insert or delete them on the table you create.

Google Docs Insert Forms to PDF

8. Insert A Chart to PDF

Tools: Google Docs

There are 4 chart models that Google Docs offers to add on a PDF, which is a bar, column, line, and pie. To add a chart, click "Insert", choose "Chart", and choose a chart model.

Google Docs Insert Charts to PDF

When a chart is inserted, click “Edit in Sheets” to open a new Excel editing window to edit detail data.

Google Docs Edit a Sheet

9. Insert Links on PDF

Tools: Google Docs

Choose the texts you want to insert a link in with your mouse, and select "Link" on the drop-down "Insert" menu. Put the link address on the typing box and click "Apply". Or you can insert links on a blank space.

Google Docs Insert A Link to PDF

10. Strike Out Texts on PDF

Tools: Sejda PDF Editor

"Strikeout" means to cross out some unnecessary texts, as a remark for correcting advice. It's normally used by teachers or superiors to check and approve the paperwork.

On Sejda PDF Editor, choose "Annotate" on the toolbar. Click on a "Strikeout" color, and strike on any text.

Sejda Strikeout Text on PDF

11. Highlight Texts on PDF

Tools: Sejda PDF Editor

We can emphasize some important texts by highlighting them. On the toolbar of the editor, click "Annotate" and choose a highlight color. Then click on the texts that need to be highlighted with the mouse.

Sejda Highlight Text on PDF

12. Underline Texts on PDF

Tools: Sejda PDF Editor

Another way to highlight some important messages is to underline them. Go to the toolbar and click "Annotate" and choose a color for underlining. Now select the texts needed to be underlined using your mouse.

Sejda Underline Text on PDF

13. Draw On Your PDF

Tools: Sejda PDF Editor

We can draw in different colors on the PDF document with Sejda PDF Editor. This is another interesting way to do some remarks on paperwork or an article. You won't change any format or text of the original PDF file yet express your opinion vividly.

Go to "Annotate", select a color, then start drawing on anywhere of the PDF.

Sejda Draw on PDF

14. Add a Signature to PDF

Tools: EasePDF eSign Tool

With EasePDF eSign Tool, you can create a signature in 2 ways. Firstly, click "Add a signature" on the toolbar, choose "Create a signature" from the pop-up box.

EasePDF Add A Signature

A signature creating window will show up. You can choose to draw a signature with your mouse or to add a signature image from your computer.

EasePDF Create Signature

15. Add Shapes in PDF

Tools: Sejda PDF Editor

Sometimes we need to add shapes to highlight some texts, Sejda can help us. Click "Shapes" and choose ellipse or rectangle to add.

Sejda Add Shapes on PDF

16. Whiteout on PDF

Tool: Sejda PDF Editor

"Whiteout" is a tool that can make some texts covered by a white blank. Choose "Whiteout" on the toolbar, and drag your mouse across the texts you want to hide.

Sejda Whiteout Text on PDF

17. Find & Replace Words on PDF

Tool: Google Docs

This is an awesome function of Google Docs, which allows you to find certain words and replace them with other words. For example, when we repeatedly wrote the same word in wrong terms, it’ll take a lot of time If we correct these wrong words one by one. But with this "Find & Replace" tool, we can correct them at one time.

Step 1. Got to "Edit" on the top menu, select "Find & Replace".

Step 2. On the newly open window, type the word needed to be replaced on the "Find" box, the server will automatically search for this word from the whole document. Type the word you want to replace with on the second row "Replace with". Then choose "Replace" to replace the word currently highlighted in the text. Or choose "Replace all" to replace every word that matches.

Google Docs Find and Replace

18. Add Watermark to PDF

Tool: iLovePDF

What is the best way to protect a PDF document that contains exclusive content? Adding a watermark to the PDF is a more useful solution than password protection. Because watermark is a way of ownership declaration.

iLovePDF watermark tool allows you to add watermark with text or image. You can choose either way on the "Watermark Options" window.

iLovePDF Add Watermark

*Text Watermark: Click "Place Text" and enter your text on the "TEXT" box and set the text format below.

*Image Watermark: Choose "Place image" and click "ADD IMAGE" to upload a picture.

*Watermark Position: Click on the Sudoku to select a position of your watermark on the PDF page. When you tick on the "Mosaic" tab, you choose to place the watermark on all 9 blocks.

*Transparency: You can choose transparency of the watermark from 25%, 50%, 75% or no transparency.

*Rotation: Select a degree to rotate your watermark.

*Pages: You can choose to add watermark to all pages or certain pages you select.

*Layer: In this section, you can choose if the watermark is placed over or below the PDF content.

19. Add Page Number to PDF

Tool: Google Docs

On Google Docs toolbar, click "Insert" and select "Header & page number". Choose "Page number" on the next list. Choose a position for your page numbers.

Google Docs Add Page Number

20. Add Comments to PDF

Tool: Google Docs

Choose the section you want to comment, and click "Comment" on the "Insert" column. Type your words on the typing box and click "Comment". You can add more than one comment to a PDF.

Google Docs Add A Comment

21. Add Table of Content to PDF

Tool: Google Docs

A PDF that contains many pages could be difficult to read. Adding a table of content to show the abstracts will make it much easier for readers.

Click "Table of contents" on the "Insert" section. There are 2 types of tables. You can choose a table "with page numbers" which shows you which page the content starts with, or choose a table "with blue links" which allows you to go directly to the content by clicking the links.

Google Docs Add Table of Content

Above are 21 easy tips for PDF editing we gathered for you. For advanced editing, we recommend using professional PDF editors like Adobe Acrobat, PDFelement, EasePDF Editor, etc. Please let us know if you have more tricks or tips for PDF editing by writing a comment.

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