[Solved] Editing PDF file

[lucy]

I downloaded open office to be able to edit a pdf file that i scanned. I need to change the prefix (mrs. to ms.) in a letter. the prefix is in the letter about 4 times. I would think that this would be simple, but it is proving a bit difficult. This is my question. Is there a way to just change parts of the letter and leave the rest of the letter intact. I ask because when I open the file on office, the document has changed the signature line and it looks wacky along with a few other words. I found where to find and replace, but since its changed other text the doc is useless. Also, i opened a different letter to see if it would have the same issues and it opened without any weirdness. I don't understand it. I still have the original pdf file and I have the original letter that I scanned. Does anyone have a suggestion? This is my first time using office and I am at a loss. Help!

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

First PDF is not a format to be edited, it's a digital print.

With a scanned image, either use an OCR application but the result may vary, or use a picture editor like The Gimp.

An Office suite is definitively not the best tool to do such modification.

Please add '[Solved]' at the beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[TheGurkha]

PDF isn't designed to be a dynamic file type. It is best considered as an 'electronic printed page'. They were never intended to be edited in the way that, say, a word processor file can be re-edited again and again. Much better to edit the original source document and create a new PDF when required.

However, having said that, OOo does provide some limited PDF editing through the use of the Sun PDF Extension, but that extension is provided to correct typos and make tiny adjustments, not for full scale edits.

If the PDF is opening and looking weird, then I suppose it means that the internal layout of the document as scanned is more than the PDF extension can cope with.

[RoryOF]

With the extension installed your pdf fle should open in Draw. There it ought be simple to put" ms. " over each occurrence of "mrs." - you'll need the trailing space to make it cover the longer text. As far as I know you cannot use Find and Replace to search the text while doing this, as it is strictly not text but an image.