STOP MAKING THESE PDF MISTAKES
Learn how experts edit and share them
Stop using a dedicated PDF viewer
You don’t need a cumbersome PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader to open, view and print PDF files. Instead, simply use your web browser. If it isn’t already, you can set your browser as your default PDF reader in Windows. Go to Settings (press Windows key+i), Apps, ‘Default apps’ then click ‘Choose default applications by file type’ (located beneath the grey Reset button). Scroll down the list of file types to ‘.pdf’ (see screenshot below), click the current default app on the right and select your browser. Double-clicking PDF files on your PC will now open them in a new browser tab.
Don’t use a program to convert PDFS
Converting documents and images to PDF used to require a dedicated program such as Adobe Acrobat, but Windows 10 has this feature built in – as do all major browsers. Simply open a file or page in whichever program you’re using (your word processor, image editor, Edge or Chrome), press Ctrl+p to print it, then choose ‘Microsoft Print to PDF’ or ‘Save as PDF’ (or similar) from the Printer or Destination menu.
If you can’t see this option, press Windows key+r to open the Run box, type optionalfeatures.exe, then press Enter. Tick the ‘Microsoft Print to PDF’ box (see screenshot below), then click OK to enable it.
Don’t pay for online editing tools
There are plenty of online tools that let you edit PDFS for free, but there’s usually a catch: the tool may apply a watermark, limit your PDF’S size or restrict how many files you can edit per day (or even every hour, as with Sedja – www.sedja. com). Also, these services don’t typically let you change existing text in a PDF.
The best free tool for editing PDFS online is DEFTPDF ( www.deftpdf.com), which offers many useful options including highlight, whiteout and annotations, as well as the ability to edit existing text. Simply click the Text button on the toolbar and select the text you want to erase and replace. There are no limits on how many PDFS you can edit and DEFTPDF protects your privacy by automatically deleting your uploads from its servers after five hours.
If you prefer to use a tool on your PC as opposed to online, we recommend PDF24 ( https://en.pdf24.org). Launch the tool, select Edit PDF, then select the PDF you want to edit.
Don’t share massive PDFS
The PDF format makes it easy to share lengthy documents in a single file, but your recipients (and their inboxes) will thank you for stripping out unnecessary pages. You may also want to remove any pages that contain personal information.
The excellent free online tool PDF2GO
( www.pdf2go.com) lets you quickly chop pages from your PDFS. Click the Split PDF link at the top of the page and upload a PDF or import it from Google Drive, Dropbox or a specific URL. Click the scissors icon next to a page to split the PDF after that point, or click the bin icon to delete pages from the file (see screenshot below left).
PDF24 (see above) also lets you split PDFS - simply select the Split PDF option in the main menu.
Stop sending multiple PDFS
Attaching multiple PDFS to an email not only takes time, but also makes it harder for the recipient to work out what’s what. So why not combine them into a single file? PDF2GO (see above) limits you to merging three PDFS. This limit is increased to five if you register for a free account, though that comes with its own dangers (see box above right), so we’d recommend Combine PDF ( www. combinepdf.com) instead. This lets you upload up to 20 PDFS (with no size limit), drag and drop pages into your desired order, and download the merged file with a single click of the Combine button.
Again, PDF24 is the best offline option – just launch the tool, click Merge PDF, then select the PDFS you want to combine and put them in the correct order.
Don’t send sensitive information unencrypted
If a PDF you’re about to share is confidential, such as a contract or medical information, it’s a good idea to prevent unauthorised viewing by encrypting the PDF before sending it. You can passwordprotect it using the free online tool SODAPDF ( www.snipca.com/37265), which offers 256bit AES encryption. Just upload the file, choose a password and click Protect (see screenshot below). Once encrypted, enter your password to test and download the protected PDF.
You can also encrypt PDFS in Microsoft Word. When you save a document in PDF format, click Options and select ‘Encrypt the document with a password’. Similarly, the PDF Toolbox add-on for Google Drive ( www.snipca.com/37266) lets you password-protect PDFS created through Google Docs and Slides.
Don’t print PDF forms - complete them digitally instead
How many times have you printed a long PDF form, only to make a mistake half-way through and have to redo the whole thing? Save yourself time by completing PDF forms digitally using DEFTPDF ( www. deftpdf.com). Click the ‘Fill & Sign’ link at the top of the page, upload or import the PDF form and choose ‘I’m filling out’ (or ‘I want someone else to fill out’ to share an editable form). You can then type directly into the text fields, dragging words into position to keep things tidy and correcting mistakes in a flash.
To sign the form, click Sign, then select New Signature. You can type your name and choose a style or click Draw, then scrawl your signature using your mouse. Alternatively, take a photo of your signature, then select ‘image’ to upload it. Once you’ve finished, drag the signature into place, then click Apply Changes to save the completed form.
Prevent plagiarism
You can stop PDFS you share from being stolen by strangers and passed off as their own work by adding watermarks. This semi-transparent, unremovable stamp will protect your copyright and ensure your PDFS aren’t re-shared without your permission. Go to PDF4ME ( www.snipca. com/37270), select your PDFS and choose whether to watermark all or individual pages. Click the Text button, type the words to use in your watermark, and adjust the font, colour, angle and position as required. Alternatively, you can upload an image stamp. When you’ve finished, click OK, choose ‘Start adding Watermark’ and download the result.
Once again, PDF24 is the best offline alternative and works in a similar way to PDF4ME – simply select ‘Add watermark’ from the main menu.
Convert PDFS without ruining formatting
Google Drive lets you convert PDFS into editable documents (right-click a PDF, choose ‘Open with’, then Google Docs), but the resulting document won’t retain the original formatting. PDF24 does a much neater job. Select ‘Convert PDF to…’ in the main menu, then drag your PDF into the window or click ‘Choose files’ and locate it. In the Format box, select ‘Word (.docx)’ (see screenshot below), then click Convert.
Don’t use links that can’t be clicked
The best Pdf-creation tools, including ‘Microsoft Print to PDF’, automatically detect URLS in documents and make those links clickable in the converted file. If you’ve noticed that a link isn’t working, or if you want to turn specific words into a clickable link, DEFTPDF can help. Click ‘Edit’ and upload the PDF file, then click Links on the main toolbar. Highlight the relevant web address or text and enter the URL in the ‘Link properties’ box that opens. You can optionally use the Annotate tool to underline the link. Click Apply Changes to save the PDF.