The most common PDF edit is also the one people find hardest: changing words that are already on the page. Here is how it works and how to get a result that looks like the original.
Why text in a PDF is tricky
A PDF stores each line as positioned text with a font. There is no flowing paragraph. So an editor changes one line at a time, and the new line has to fit the space of the old one.
Change a line in four steps
- Open your file in the WriteDroid PDF Editor.
- Choose Edit text. As you move over the page, lines that can be edited get a box around them.
- Click a line and type. The new text uses the colour and a matching size of the old one. Press Escape or click away to finish.
- Press Save PDF.
Change the same word everywhere
Press Ctrl+F (or Find in the toolbar), type the word, then choose Replace or Replace all. This is the fastest way to update a name, a year or a price that appears many times.
What happens behind the scenes
To keep the page tidy, the editor places a white patch over the old line and puts your new text on top. That looks right on screen and in print. One thing to know: the old words are still inside the file under the patch. For private data use Redact, which removes them for real. More in our redaction guide.
If it does not look right
- New text is wider. Shorten it, or lower the font size in the options bar.
- Font looks different. Pick Helvetica, Times or Courier in the options bar to get the closest match.
- Special characters. Standard PDF fonts cover Latin letters. Other scripts are saved as a picture of the text so they still show correctly.
- Scanned PDF. A scan is just a photo of a page, so there is no text to edit. Add text on top with Add text instead.
Related
New to the editor? Start with how to edit a PDF for free. Need to fill a form instead? See how to fill a PDF form online.
Common questions
Why does my PDF show no editable lines? It is probably a scan, which is a picture of text. Use Add text on top instead.
Can I change a whole paragraph? Edit it line by line, or whiteout the block and place one new text box with the full paragraph.
Does the layout of other lines move? No. Each line is separate, so nothing else shifts.