PDF Editor

[piperclap]

Here's my situation:

I'm applying for teaching jobs at the moment (usually 5 or 6 applications a day). Most school districts have some sort of application form to download, print, and send via mail with all your other credentials. Usually this is in PDF.

My problem is that I live in Mexico, and to apply for jobs I do all the work and email to my sister in the US who then prints and mails for me (the mail here is unreliable at best-criminally incompetent at worst).

What this means is when there is a PDF application, I have to download it, print it out, go to a copy shop and have it scanned, then email it to have it printed again. As you can see, this is just a waste of my time. I've tried inserting the PDF as an image in Microsoft word and typing over the top, but thats not very elegant.

Is there a solution for editing these files? They commonly aren't the form-editable sort (like those from the IRS). I don't want to shell out for acrobat. I tried PDF pen, but the price seemed kind of out of line with its usefulness.

Thanks for your help

 

[dswoodley]

Adobe Acrobat or Illustrator should work.

 

[dops7107]

I've tried inserting the PDF as an image in Microsoft word and typing over the top, but thats not very elegant.

Sorry to say I can't think of a way of editing the pdf without shelling out cash. And even then, Acrobat is pretty poor at editing pdfs - it's much easier to go to the source application, which of course you don't have.

Anyway, I don't how typing over it in Word is any less elegant than printing it out, writing on it, scanning it in and then having it printed again by your sister. That way it goes through three conversions (print, scan and print) rather than just one (print by your sister) - it will look worse in the end. How high a resolution is the image of the pdf? This might help it look better.

 

[dops7107]

Adobe Acrobat or Illustrator should work.

The problem with Illustrator is that if he doesn't have the fonts installed on his system the form will look all wrong. It could be done in Photoshop by rasterising at high res, and then typing over and exporting as (perhaps) a PDF to be printed out by his/her sister.

 

[piperclap]

Sorry to say I can't think of a way of editing the pdf without shelling out cash. And even then, Acrobat is pretty poor at editing pdfs - it's much easier to go to the source application, which of course you don't have.

Anyway, I don't how typing over it in Word is any less elegant than printing it out, writing on it, scanning it in and then having it printed again by your sister. That way it goes through three conversions (print, scan and print) rather than just one (print by your sister) - it will look worse in the end. How high a resolution is the image of the pdf? This might help it look better.

Its not that writing is elegant. Both are a severe pain in the rear. Typing over in word involves a lot of aligning with spaces and returns and praying it works out alright.

Actually, the "annotate" feature in preview.app is close to what would be useful, if it didn't put that yellow behind the text when you used it.

 

[piperclap]

Adobe Acrobat or Illustrator should work.

Yeah. $50 dollars for PDF pen is more than this functionality is worth. $300 for Acrobat is definately ridiculous.

Maybe not ridiculous. But unreasonable for a poor teacher in a developing country

 

[rick6502]

My solution. Not the for the budget minded.

When I run across this, what I do is place the PDF into InDesign and type over the required spots. It's not the fastest method but if you've seen my handwriting you'd say it's the right decision. If it's a PDF designed to be filled out like the IRS ones, you can fill the info in Acrobat Reader. You can't save from reader, but you could print to a new PDF on OS X and then add information as you went along. It would suck if you needed to change anything.

 

[piperclap]

When I run across this, what I do is place the PDF into InDesign and type over the required spots. It's not the fastest method but if you've seen my handwriting you'd say it's the right decision. If it's a PDF designed to be filled out like the IRS ones, you can fill the info in Acrobat Reader. You can't save from reader, but you could print to a new PDF on OS X and then add information as you went along. It would suck if you needed to change anything.

Meh. If applying for a job is this much work, I'm going to imagine working there will be tedious as well. I guess I'll just have "online application" as one of my requirements for a job.

 

[dswoodley]

Yeah. $50 dollars for PDF pen is more than this functionality is worth. $300 for Acrobat is definately ridiculous.

Maybe not ridiculous. But unreasonable for a poor teacher in a developing country

Demo versions? Good for 30 days each.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Here's a work-around: Open the job application pdf in Preview, save each separate page as a png and then insert those images in your favourite word processor (just tested this with the free AbiWord) and write your answers in text boxes (with transparent background and no border). Use Print to save the finished document as pdf and e-mail that...

 

[IJ Reilly]

Your actually talking about PDF markup, not PDF editing.

The cheapest solution is Formulate. The interface isn't very elegant, but it's free.

 

[piperclap]

Your actually talking about PDF markup, not PDF editing.

The cheapest solution is Formulate. The interface isn't very elegant, but it's free.

Winner!

Free, and while a little bit of work it still doesn't involve me having to go find a scanner. Perfect.

Thanks to all who had input!

 

[cazlar]

GraphicConverter can also edit PDFs as an image, so you can use the text tool to add stuff then resave as PDF.

 

[mrichmon]

Is there a solution for editing these files? They commonly aren't the form-editable sort (like those from the IRS). I don't want to shell out for acrobat.

Yes there is a solution!

PDF2RTFService 1.0 (scroll down the page) acts as a filter for PDF, Postscript or Encapsulated Postscript files making it possible to open and edit these files in any application that can read RTF files (Word, TextEdit, etc).