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[Solved] Looking to create editable PDFs in Open Office

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 2:49 pm
by KerrFarr58
Hello:
I'm new to this forum, and I was wondering if there was a method for creating an editable PDF document from an .odt text document in Open Office? I'm currently using Open Office Ver. 4.1.14.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks very much.

Kind Regards,
Kerry

Re: Looking to create editable PDFs in Open Office

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:26 pm
by LastUnicorn
Welcome to the forum!

I can't comment on OpenOffice as I no longer use it. I use LibreOffice and in LibreOffice there is the option to create what gets referred to as a 'Hybrid PDF'. This kind of PDF has the .odt file text stored inside the PDF itself. So if you open the resultant PDF file in Writer then Writer will display the underlying ODF text. You can edit that text then resave (Export As) the file as a Hybrid PDF again and, obviously, all your editing/changes will be incorporated into the (new) PDF file. (I do not know if this functionality exists in OpenOffice but someone else will likely comment anyway.)

As you are using OpenOffice on a Windows 11 system, and as you are, it seems, just starting out with OpenOffice then you might be better advised to switch from using OpenOffice to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons to make this switch some of which are detailed here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

Re: Looking to create editable PDFs in Open Office

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 6:22 pm
by Bill
To export a hybrid PDF/ODF file in OpenOffice, check the "Embed this document inside the PDF" option on the PDF Options dialog when exporting the PDF. To import PDF files, install the PDF Import Extension for Apache OpenOffice 0.1.1. The extension opens hybrid PDF/ODF files as editable ODF files.

Re: Looking to create editable PDFs in Open Office

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 6:41 pm
by LastUnicorn
The extension Bill mentions for OpenOffice is here: https://www.arielch.org/aoo/aoo-pdf-import/

You don't need that extension in LibreOffice, it would seem the facility is built-in to LibreOffice out-of-the-box.

Re: Looking to create editable PDFs in Open Office

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 7:39 pm
by John_Ha
See the tutorial on PDFs. If you want to do anything but trivial edits on a PDF you must buy Adobe Acrobat.

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