How to edit a PDF on Mac

Since joining college, you often have to deal with PDF documents and edit them by adding annotations, highlights and notes. Now that you have switched to Mac, however, you do not have the faintest idea of ​​which applications to use to perform the aforementioned operations and therefore you would like some advice on the matter. Don’t worry: if you want, I can give you some “tips” on what to do.

To find out how to edit a PDF with Mac, all you have to do is read the advice below and choose which software, among those reported, is most suitable for you. Then follow my instructions and I assure you that you will not have the slightest problem in editing PDFs from your Apple-branded computer.

So, what are you waiting for? Make yourself comfortable, take your time to concentrate on reading this guide and, more importantly, try to put into practice the directions I am about to give you. There is nothing left for me to do but wish you a good reading and, above all, good work!

Index

• Edit a PDF on Mac
• Edit a PDF in Word with Mac 
• Edit a secured PDF on Mac

Edit a PDF on Mac

Editing a PDF with Mac is a very simple operation to perform. To do this, you can use an application included “standard” in macOS (I’ll tell you what it is shortly), or turn to third-party solutions. Here is all explained in detail.

Preview

If you want to edit PDFs and don’t need to use particularly advanced tools, you can use  Preview, the application included in macOS that allows you to easily view and edit both PDFs and images.

To edit a PDF with Preview, the first step you need to take is to open the document by double-clicking on it (or by right-clicking on it and selecting the Open with> Preview items from the context menu, if Preview is not the application set by default for opening PDFs) and activate the toolbar with the editing tools by clicking on the pencil icon located at the top right. In this way, you will immediately have at your fingertips many functions to process the content of the selected PDF file.

By clicking on the buttons with the geometric shapes ( rectangle and circle ) or on the arrows, you can add the latter to the document to indicate (or even disguise) texts and images. After selecting the tool to use and applying it to the PDF (using the left mouse button), you can adjust its thickness and color using, respectively, the buttons with the three horizontal lines and the color palette found in the toolbar.

The other tools available in Preview are the text box, which allows you to add custom texts within the selected document, comics and even the signature, through which you can electronically sign documents by capturing your own with the Mac webcam. a handwritten signature or drawing it using the mouse or trackpad. Obviously, this signature should not be confused with the digital signature, since the latter has full legal value: you can find more info on this procedure in my guide on how to sign a digital document.

I also point out that by selecting portions of text with the mouse and pressing the highlighter symbol (in the toolbar at the top right), you can highlight the latter using various colors. You can choose the color of the highlighter by clicking on the button (⌵) located next to the highlighter symbol and then choosing one of the colored dots in the menu that opens. The changes will be automatically saved within the PDF file.

PDFelement

Among the applications that allow you to edit PDF on Mac, it is certainly worth mentioning PDFelement by Wondershare: an all-in-one solution that allows you to view, edit and create PDFs in a very simple way. It allows you to edit text and images in PDFs, recognize texts using OCR technology and fill in forms; add annotations, highlights, signatures, backgrounds and watermarks; convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and image files; set passwords, rearrange document pages and much more.

PDFelement is available in a basic version, free, which imprints a watermark on the output documents and has several limitations (eg the inability to convert more than 3 pages per document or to save PDFs treated with OCR technology). To remove the latter, you can subscribe to the Standard version of PDFelement at a cost of 43.99 euros for 3 months or 64.99 euros for 1 year or to the Pro version of PDFelement, which costs 54 euros for 3 months or 89.99 euro for 1 year. Alternatively, you can buy PDFelement Standard for a one-time payment of 74.99 euros or PDFelement Pro for a one-time payment of 119.99 euros. Using this link you can get up to 50% discount

The Pro version of PDFelement includes all the features of the standard one with, in addition, the conversion of PDFs into various file formats; OCR recognition of scanned documents; the creation and modification of forms; creating and adding watermarked templates; creating and adding templates with multiple backgrounds; adding headers and footers and more.

If you want to download PDFelement for free on your Mac, open the Mac App Store. If the store does not open automatically, press the appropriate button. Then click on the Get / Install button and start the download and installation of PDFelement, by entering the Apple ID password or using the Touch ID.

Once the download is complete, start PDFelement and select the PDF document to edit. Choose, therefore, whether to buy one of the full versions of the program, whether to try the full version of the software for free or whether to use the free one (in the latter case, just close the box you see in the center of the screen).

The PDFelement interface is extremely intuitive. On the left are the buttons to access the main tools included in the program: Comments, with highlighter, shapes, arrows, text boxes and other tools to add elements to the PDF; Text, with the tools to modify the text present in the document; Image, to add and edit images; Link, to add and edit links; Form, with the tools to fill in and create forms; Edit, to blacken and permanently remove confidential content and Tools, to access functions such as OCR text recognition; adding / editing background, watermark and header/footer; page cropping; converting to PDF and more.

At the top are the controls for the selected tools, while on the right are the buttons to organize pages, view thumbnails, manage bookmarks, perform a search, adjust viewing mode and set zoom.

For more information on PDFelement, please consult the official website of the program, where you will find everything you need to know.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

If you want to edit PDF files on Mac using third-party solutions, you can also turn to Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, the “official” software for viewing and editing PDFs. In addition to being available for macOS, it is also usable by Windows users and is quite simple to use. It allows you to highlight and underline PDFs and also includes advanced functions to convert PDF to other formats (eg .docx), divide them and so on: these, however, are reserved for subscribers of the Pro version of the application, which requires subscription a subscription starting at 18.29 euros/month (after a free 7-day trial). More info here.

To download Adobe Reader, connect to its website and press the yellow Download button, which is located on the right. When the download is complete, open the AcroRdrDC_xxxxxxxxxx_MUI.dmg package, start the file in .pkg format contained within it, press the Continue button (twice in a row), then the Install button, type the Mac administration password and press the button Install software. Once the program is installed, press the Close and Move buttons.

After installing and launching Adobe Reader, you can finally edit your PDF files in the latter. To do this, double-click on the icon of the PDF document you want to open with the program (if it is not opened automatically with Adobe Reader, click on the Open …  item from the  File menu at the top left of the program (in the menu bar of macOS) and select the document you are interested in. Then use the tabs that make up the software interface to edit the PDF.

• Home– contains the list of recently viewed files allowing you to open them quite quickly.
• Tools– contains the complete list of program features and tools, many of which are only available in the paid version of the software. To add highlights, notes and so on, I recommend using the Comments tool.
• [Document name]tab – indicates the file currently open in Adobe Reader with all the tools necessary for its consultation. By clicking on it, you can access the toolbar containing some of the most used tools, such as the button to print the file, send it by e-mail, etc.

When you have finished editing a PDF with Adobe Reader, remember to save the changes by clicking on the floppy disk icon at the top left (or select the Save As … item from the File menu, if you want to save an edited copy of the document).

LibreOffice

If Adobe Reader seems too limited to you, you can give LibreOffice a chance: an excellent suite for free and open-source productivity which, among its many features, also includes the one that allows you to edit PDF files by alternating text, adding new ones. new, inserting annotations, images and much more.

To download LibreOffice on your Mac, connected to this page, press the Download the xxx version button and then click on the Translated user interface button, so as to download both the program installation package and the translation package of its interface.
Once the download is complete, open the LibreOffice_xx_MacOS_x86-64.dmg package, drag LibreOffice into the macOS Applications folder, right-click the program icon and select the Open item from the menu that opens twice in a row, so as to “bypass” the restrictions applied by Apple to software from non-certified developers (this is only necessary at its first start).

Now, close the program by pressing the cmd + q  keys at the same time or by selecting the Exit LibreOffice item from the LibreOffice menu at the top left. Then open the LibreOffice_xx_MacOS_x86-64_langpack_it.dmg  package you downloaded just now, right-click on the LibreOffice Language Pack executable, select the Open item from the menu that opens, press the Open and Install buttons, select the / Applications / LibreOffice item .app  from the window that opens and click again on the Install button. For more information on how to download LibreOffice, see the guide I linked to you.

After installing and starting the program, you have to import the PDF file into the program by pressing the Open file button located on the sidebar located on the left of the main LibreOffice window and you’re done. Once the PDF is open, you can edit the text, insert new text boxes, add images, etc. using the tools included in the program. To save the changes made, select the  Export to PDF  item from the  LibreOffice File menu and that’s it.

If you want to deepen the subject and get more information on how to write on PDF files, take a look at the guide that I linked to you: I am sure that this reading will also be useful for you.

PDF Toolkit

If you need to make changes to a PDF document with Mac, I recommend that you also try  PDF Toolkit +: it is an application available at a price of 2.29 euros on the Mac App Store that allows you to merge and split PDF files, extract text and images from them, compress them to reduce weight and much more. The program is fully translated into Italian and is extremely intuitive, therefore it will only take you a few minutes to fully understand how it works.

To use it, go to this page, press the View button in the Mac App Store to open the Mac App Store. Then press the blue button indicating the price of the application and the green button Buy the app  (you may be asked to confirm the purchase with the Apple ID password or using the Touch ID ).

After installing and starting PDF Toolkit +, you need to select the application tab for the function you want to use (e.g.  Concatenate to merge multiple files, Split / extract pages to split a PDF into multiple parts or extract pages, Text/images to extract texts or images from PDFs or Compress to reduce the size of documents) and drag the files to be modified with the mouse in the program window, on the left side.

Once this simple operation, you must set the parameters you want to use to merge, split or compress PDF selected, press the button through which to start processing files (eg. Extract! , Convert! , Etc.) and that’s it.

Edit a PDF in Word with Mac

Do you need to edit PDF in Word on Mac? There are various tools that can help you do this. One of the best is iLovePDF – a free online service that offers the ability to convert various types of files to and from PDF format and also includes multiple functions for editing uploaded documents.

To use iLovePDF, you simply need to connect to this page and drag the PDF document to convert to Word in the browser window you are using (eg Safari or Google Chrome ). After uploading the PDF file you intend to convert to Word, all you have to do is press the Convert to WORD button and proceed with the download of the converted file in the .docx format. Easier than that?

If you want further explanations on how to convert PDF to Word and know other solutions suitable for the purpose, I suggest reading the guide that I have just linked to you: I am sure that this reading will also be of great help.

Edit a secured PDF on Mac

If you intend to edit a protected PDF with Mac, know that this is not always an easy task to complete: if the document in question is protected by the so-called owner password, which prevents you from printing and editing an encrypted PDF, it could be relatively easy to remove. The situation changes significantly if the document is protected by the so-called user password, which prevents you from opening and viewing the PDF.

To unlock an owner password-protected document you can use iLovePDF, the service I told you about in the previous chapter. All you have to do is connect to this page of the service, drag the document into the browser window and click on the Unlock PDF button. Alternatively, you can use ad hoc software for this purpose, such as the very famous  QPDF  which I told you in depth in another guide.

In the case of documents protected with user password, however, you can try to force the opening of the same through programs of the caliber of PDF Crack, but I do not assure you anything. Given the complexity of the procedure, perhaps it is better if you take a look at the guide where I explain how to unprotect a PDF.

If you can “unlock” a PDF by discovering the owner password or even the user password that protects it, you can then modify it quite simply using specific applications, such as the ones I pointed out to you in the previous chapters of the tutorial.

Please note: Before you start editing a PDF document that was password-protected, think carefully, because if the author of the document has not given you permission to edit it, making changes against their will could be a crime. I do not take any responsibility for the actions you decide to take, as the information I have just provided you has been included in this article for informational purposes only.