Please excuse the off topic nature, but with so may Adobe experts here, I though it the best place to ask.
I've been sent a document as a .pdf file and need to edit it in Word. Is it possible to import a .pdf file into word, or am I faced with a major typing job?
Hello Neill,
Well, I must admit to being quite amazed. My first reaction to your question was that you would probably need the full version of Acrobat, which I do have. But then I read the other replies, which prompted me to experiment. And I never realised what is possible.
The following was done on a PC running W2K, Word 2000.
I opened Acrobat Reader 5.1 and a few files, including one I'd created in Chinese. Then using the text tool I highlighted some text, copied and this pasted into Word with no problem. What amazed me about this was that it included English text in Times New Roman, Chinese Pinyin Text (the Romanized version of Chinese) and Chinese characters. And although some of the formatting was lost, all of it was editable back in Word. I'd always thought that Acrobat converted the characters to an image, but obviously not.
However, this file was originally created in Word. So then I opened a file of a complex brochure I'd created in Illustrator 7 on the Mac some time ago. It included pictures and text. The text highlighted and pasted into Word on the PC with no problem, even showing as the correct font, Helvetica, although I've not got Helvetica on the PC. Then using the graphic select tool I highlighted one of the pictures, which copied and pasted into Word. Then I used Edit, Select All and copied, then pasted the whole file into Word, though obviously as a graphic. But I never realised you could do this.
However, in conclusion, from my experience etc etc......
If the editing needed is minimal, then the full version of Acrobat does allow text editing in Acrobat itself, and I also believe that Illustrator will allow this too. But if it's a big multi-page document that needs editing, reformatting and the text re-flowing, then you will have to get the original file. As others have said, documents are not created in Acrobat, only converted to it. I had to do this with a 700 page manual that was created in Word, then put on a CD as a pdf file. But the alterations had to be done in the original Word file, then a new Acrobat file produced.
All the best, David
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