Although the Portable Document Format (PDF) has become widely used by businesses around the world, many of them do not take full advantage of PDF files. By becoming familiar with the different ways of working with these files, you can improve efficiency and productivity as well. Here are seven helpful tips to help you get started.
1. Consider using Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat CC may be a bit pricey, but it’s much more than just a tool for viewing digital documents—it’s used by leading organizations today to maximize workflow productivity. With the ability to edit, review, sign, markup, highlight, and protect PDF files, Adobe Acrobat lets you complete critical tasks from anywhere and on any device—whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
Some functions are exceptional, such as Fill & Sign. This feature allows users to convert digital files or paper documents into a form that others can complete, sign, and submit electronically. Paper forms can also be scanned with a smartphone or tablet camera and filled out digitally using Adobe Acrobat.
2. Merge multiple PDFs
If you want to create comprehensive and impressive presentations to share with co-workers or clients, you can easily merge PDF files to incorporate elements like text, graphics, and images into one file. You can do it with Adobe programs like Acrobat Pro DC or others free online.
3. Protect your PDFs
Some programs like Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office allow you to protect, restrict, encrypt and even redact PDF files. That means you can control how files are accessed, edited and viewed for whatever level of security you need.
4. Edit PDFs
You may have experienced this headache: receiving a PDF with text that needs to be edited or updated.
Not too long ago, you needed to retype the content in a new blank document in order to change it. Or print the PDF, erase the existing text, write over it, and rescan the document. Both processes take a decent amount of time. Good news: you no longer have to do this.
You can now convert a PDF to Word and edit the text in a Word document before saving it back as a PDF. You can do this by uploading them to Google Docs, which is a quick, free, and fairly easy option for converting PDF files to a .doc or .docx file. It is also possible to convert PDF file to txt with ease and be able to edit them.
5. Transform a PDF into an image
If you regularly share image files or if you’re a web developer who works with PDF images, you may have experienced problems using PDF files. While PDF files offer sharp high resolution, they can be more difficult to email than a standard image file due to their size. And with so many consumers doing more with their mobile devices, you may have trouble opening and viewing PDFs on your phone or tablet.
Alternatively, you can save yourself the trouble and convert PDF to JPG format. While the image resolution will be visibly lower, as long as you don’t need to print or enlarge the file, converting to a JPG file is a solution that works for almost everyone.
6. Take leaves
No matter how hard we try, many of us still struggle with information overload. Do you have a large contract or documentation to send to a co-worker, but really only need her feedback on a couple of pages? Use a tool that allows you to remove pages from a PDF. You’ll be able to get the right information to those who need it quickly and without much padding.
Conclusion
Today’s cloud-based PDF editing services offer useful tools and information so you can manage, personalize, and protect your PDF documents online more easily than ever. Also, some programs like Adobe allow you to create an account, so you can log in whenever you need and access your files on any device, further increasing your productivity.
The ability to work with PDF files isn’t just good for efficiency—saving you the time, cost, and hassle of printing, annotating, and rescanning documents and forms—it’s also great for the environment.
Whether you need to work with PDF files every day or just once in a while, you now have the skills and knowledge.
