Working with PDFs has become as common as working with Word docs,
but to get the full editing capabilities in Adobe Acrobat you must shell
out $449 for the desktop Pro 2017 version, or almost $180 per year for a
Pro DC subscription. While there are plenty of alternative PDF editors,
the simplest solution might be a tool you already use: Microsoft Word
2016.
While
previous versions of Word let you save a document as a PDF, Word 2016
allows you to open an Adobe formatted file, modify it and then re-save
it back to the PDF format without using Acrobat. Microsoft calls this
new feature PDF Re flow, and here we’ll show how it works with a file
containing text and an image.
Import, export, and edit PDFs in Microsoft Word
Modify PDFs in Word
Save or export a Word document to PDF
Repairing PDF errors in Word
Export PDFs from Acrobat to Word
Import, export, and edit PDFs in Microsoft Word
1. Open Word 2016. Select File > Open, then Browse to the folder that contains your PDFs. Select a file and click the Open
button. Notice the selected file appears in the View window on the
right. For this example, select a file with text and graphics.
Select a pdf file and click open 2. Once you click Open, the following dialog box appears:
Convert to Word Dialog Box NOTE:
The message warns that large files take longer to load, and the layout
in Word may not look exactly like the original PDF. That’s because
margins, columns, tables, page breaks, footnotes, end notes, frames,
track changes, and special format options such as font effects (among
other things) may differ between the original software used to create
the PDF file (such as In Design or Microsoft Publisher) and Word.
Microsoft
suggests that text documents transfer and re flow better than documents
heavily laden with charts and graphics, tags, bookmarks, footnotes,
and/or track changes. These additional text blocks often land in the
middle of paragraphs or tagged on to the end. Be aware of these
limitations so you can plan for the outcome and make adjustments as
needed.
Many of the layout attributes, however, are compatible and
transfer from the PDF directly into Word with no problems. For example,
the following image is a copy of the original PDF we opened in Word
2016.
Original PDF file in Adobe Acrobat
Modify PDFs in Word
You
can easily add new paragraphs and edit and delete data, and the
document reformats automatically as you type. You can even remove,
replace, or reposition the graphics, and the text-wrap feature re-wraps
the paragraphs around the image at its new location. You can also change
the page size, the margins, the line spacing, the font and font size
plus all the font attributes, and much more.
In the “edited”
version of this document, the font and font size in the title, subtitle,
first, and last paragraphs were all changed. In addition, the yellow
paragraph was added and the image was moved from top right to bottom
left, all without any problems.
Edit and modify the Adobe pdf in Word
In fact, Word 2016’s PDF compatibility is so good, you can
right-click the image and view an entire list of editable graphic
options including cropping, sizing, formatting, positioning, adding
captions, and even attaching hyperlinks.
Graphic options available including wrap text
With all these new features, you can now use Word 2016 as a
desktop publisher, save the finished product as a compiled/condensed
PDF, then ship it directly to the printer for mass production. This is a
real plus for small offices and home businesses who can’t afford to
purchase another software program for every special function that
occurs.
The real benefit for everyone else is the convenience of
copying data from one document to another that previously originated
within incompatible file formats. PDFs are smaller, easier to email, and
much more efficient for printing because the format is portable,
therefore, all the necessary elements to produce the finished product
are collected into a single file.
The
downside of Word’s Re flow feature is that some companies use the PDF
format to ensure some measure of copyright protection on the documents
they distribute. There is a solution for these groups as well.
Password-protect the document in Acrobat for Read Only, so the file
cannot be copied or converted.
Save or export a Word document to PDF
1. Once the document is altered to your satisfaction, choose File > Save As, navigate to the appropriate folder, then choose PDF from the Save as Type drop down list.
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide
Re-save the modified pdf docx file back to a pdf
2. Immediately, the system displays the following PDF file type screen. Choose: Optimize for Standard (publishing online and printing) and check the box for Open File After Publishing, then click Save.
Publish pdf as a standard online and/or print file
3. Another option for saving or re-saving a document as a PDF file is to export it. Choose File > Export, select Create PDF/XPS Document in the left column, then click the button with the same name.
Additional option to save as a pdf is to export to a pdf
4. Again, the system displays the following PDF file type screen. Choose : Optimize for Standard (publishing online and printing) and check the box for Open File After Publishing if you want the PDF to open after it’s saved. Then click the Publish button and your new PDF is created.
Publish the exported pdf file
Repairing PDF errors in Word
If
you find errors in the republished/re-saved PDF documents, you may have
to go back and reformat the pages. Text will likely re-flow with no
problems, but the graphics using text-wrap may disrupt the text flow. If
that happens, break up the paragraphs so that one text box ends before
the image, then another, new text box begins again after the image. Once
that’s accomplished, hard-code the position of the graphic box.
1. Right click the image, choose Wrap Text > More Layout Options, and the following screen appears:
Choose an absolute or a relative-position
If your text is moved and rearranged in your new PDF, you
may want to choose a Relative horizontal and vertical position. This
allows the image to move with the text. If you want the image to remain
absolutely at the bottom-left side of page one, then choose an Absolute
horizontal and vertical position. You don’t have to locate or guess the
position, just move the image and the new position coordinates appear in
the above box. All you have to do is click Absolute or Relative, then
click OK.
Once these decisions are settled, repeat the steps above to re-save or re-export the file to a new PDF.
Export PDFs from Acrobat to Word
1. Open the new Adobe Acrobat DC (Document Cloud), and sign in.
2. Open a PDF file. In this case, we opened the file called Tea.pdf
Open Acrobat and a pdf file
3. Select File > Export To > Microsoft Word > Word Document (or Word 97-2003 document), if applicable.
4. On the Save As PDF screen, name your file (or use the same name), choose the Word extension (docx for 2007 through 2016 documents), and click Save.
Export pdf for a Word document
NOTE: The first time, it takes a few
seconds to a minute while the Conversion Engine gets started. But,
generally, after the first one, they convert fairly fast
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide
It's good
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