I have to complete an editable pdf that was sent to me. I can open it and type in the boxes, but if I save it, or export as a pdf, I am not able to edit the work that I did.
It is a difficult form to do and I cannot do it all in one go.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
You are editing/filling in the PDF online or in your browswer. What you can do then, as I do when I need to print such things, is to print the page but select “Save as PDF” for the destination printer.
Here’s an article reviewing free PDF editors. It’s from Lifewire, which is generally a decent website.
I can’t vouch for their info, I’ve never even used MS Word to edit PDFs (which is their top choice — but is only free in the sense of being widely available). Personally I use Affinity Publisher, an InDesign competitor, to import, edit, and export PDFs. It costs $50 - or $15 for the tablet version - but I can’t really recommend it to anyone who isn’t familiar with professional publishing software.
There are a lot of possible problems involved with importing and exporting PDFs, or any other complex files. The LifeWire article mentions many of them. You may have to substitute fonts, which can lead to different line breaks and other formatting issues.
Just leave the file open and the machine running until you’re finished.
That sounds so sensible that there MUST be a reason the OP isn’t doing that.
I use PDFEscape when I need to fill in a form on an existing PDF. It works well and it’s free and online.
The obvious and logical answer, but others use the computer and the subject matter is sensitive.
I guess that is what I will have to do and rely on ‘others’ to not go nosing around.
Thanks, everyone.
Ah that’s unfortunate.
In that case, it might be worth a couple of hours going down rabbit holes to try to find something.
Another option; go through the document over time and write down the answers to each blank in a text document, email or something else. Then, when you know what you’re putting down for everything, go through the PDF and fill in the document. You can copy and paste back and forth, perhaps.
Does this always happen no matter what software you use to fill in the form? For example, do you get the same behavior using Foxit as well as Adobe Reader?
What are you using to edit and save the PDF?
On the other hand if you have an PDF document and were asked to edit it, you need a PDF editor, preferably the same one that created the PDF document in the first place.
Print it out and take a few days to complete it by hand. Once complete, sit down at the computer and take 20 minutes filling in your answers.
yes, I am using the latest version of Adobe Reader. The form came with a download link so it should work.
I will create the answers in Word and copy/paste them in. I have checked that this will work.
I consider the problem resolved thank you.
I had a similar problem with a customer’s manual - the person of questionable repute before us created a 500 page manual for the customer, but gave it to them in all PDF form. I used Adobe Acrobat Reader to take every PDF page and re-create it in Word so that the customer now has an editable manual, which is what they should have had in the first place.
If this is one of those PDFs that’s an input form, you can always open it, edit the input fields and save it. But once you’ve saved it, it’s done. That’s sort of the point of the PDF file- it’s not like a sort of word processing file that is intended to be loaded and edited, but rather it’s a platform-independent presentation format intended to be for read-only versions of final documents.
What I might do is to print the input form out, and then compose answers to the questions in something like Word or Notepad at your leisure. Then when you’re done, just copy and paste your answers into the PDF form and save it.
Something fishy here! I do this all the time, i.e. building permits, 30-40 pages of pdf forms (poorly built usually). I just save (save as PDF) it locally with a new name and open the saved file as necessary. In my case these are official pdf forms that can be filled in online.
If you can get your hands on Acrobat, you may be able to check if there is a poorly implemented security blocking you, or as bump has suggested the form was sealed.
I am sort of surprised though, pdf forms are made to be filled out, without being able to tamper with the rest of the file, if they are not to be saved, you shouldn’t be able to save them at all. I seem to remember a function that limits form submission (so a form could not be submitted several times) but that should not be active on an external request.
Checked on my system: SAVE AS PDF keeps it open, PRINT AS PDF blocks the editing and finalises the document