Word 2013 Can Edit PDF Files

21 responses to “Word 2013 Can Edit PDF Files”

1. 

   Lachlan

   August 6, 2012

   Angus,

   Cranberry juice is an excellent source of Vitamin C.

   Maybe next time you should choose a less interesting’ document for your posts! 😉

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2. 

   Kyle

   August 6, 2012

   This feature will save an amazing amount of time and resources. so many times i’ve been asked to ‘edit’ or ‘change’ a pdf file and acrobat is horrible and it doesn’t always work.

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3. 

   Lindsay

   August 6, 2012

   I think this negates one of the reasons I USE PDF – the fact that it is not easily editable.

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   1. 

      Leigh

      August 6, 2012

      That’s right. I’ve resorted to printing the document then scanning it in to really make sure (at times), but hey, it’s not like we’re supposed to be going completely paperless

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   2. 

      Alex

      August 6, 2012

      thats a bit stupid (sorry) if some one wants to edit it there are tools available for it
      and for ppl who dont care they not gone care even with word… so how is that edit prove I fail to see

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      1. 

         Lindsay

         August 6, 2012

         Because in “userland” (I work in IT support) I deal with people who think like this:

         “Look its a document, I want to edit it. I always use word to edit documents. Oh look, now I can edit it to my hearts content”

         Users will not think (or have permissions) to download and install PDF editors. Users will think, and have ready access to Word.

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         1. 

            Stove

            August 6, 2012

            Good news: this is microsoft, and they tend to understand business. I’d be very surprised if you can’t roll a GPO to disable this across your user base.

            At the moment users dont have to install software to edit pdfs, they can just do it in google docs or directly from gmail. That’s even more of an issue since they’re uploading possibly confidential files to the cloud, so this should improve some things.

            Personally, I’l be leaving this feature turned on and disable editing the traditional way – by making the files read-only to most users.

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   3. 

      Cameron

      August 6, 2012

      That seems like a rather poor assumption. You use something because of it’s limitations? Surely it would have occurred to you that these limitations would be lifted or improved over time?

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      1. 

         Sarah

         August 6, 2012

         the problem though is when you send the PDF to someone else and rely within reason that its core wording or details will remain unchained as in the case of contracts and so on only to have the recipient open it up, delete a clause or a fee and return it.

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         1. 

            Sarah

            August 6, 2012

            *unchanged

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4. 

   Alan

   August 6, 2012

   Never mind PDF – have they gotten rid of that accursed Ribbon toolbar? Or even changed it to dock on the left / right of my screen?

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   1. 

      Tim

      August 6, 2012

      Alan, do you know that you can hide the ribbon with a single click? Sorry if you do but in case you don’t: there’s a small ^ next to the ? on the top RHS of the ribbon. Click that and the ribbon is gone. Should you need it back, click the downward caret that replaces it.
      Hope that helps.
      :o)

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5. 

   mc

   August 6, 2012

   So Word will allow everyone to be able to edit PDFs in a way that breaks their formatting. This will lead to plenty of perfectly good PDFs being edited into horrible messes.

   People of the world, DO NOT EDIT PDFS! (unless they are an interactive form).

   Find the original source document and edit that!

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6. 

   Dudeface

   August 6, 2012

   This is both good and bad.
   Some people will be able to make corrections and use this properly, others will not.
   Time to make protected pdf’s or convert text to outlines.

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   1. 

      Mike

      August 7, 2012

      Unfortunately the people who will do it are the ones least likely to comprehend what a source document is.

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7. 

   Derek

   August 6, 2012

   I don’t believe it. Sorry, I just don’t. Microsoft would never be that helpful. I refuse to have Word on my computer these days, but last I heard they were still refusing to include a filter to read/edit Lotus docs, despite the fact that Wordpro has been able to read, edit and even create Word docs for well over a decade (thus removing the need for the codeblot that is Word altogether).

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   1. 

      Mike

      August 7, 2012

      Microsoft has had the technology to edit PDFs for a long time. It’s a matter of Adobe *allowing* them to include this in Word, since historically Adobe has had one rule for Microsoft and another rule for all other companies.

      As for opening Lotus files: if it’s so important who not use Lotus itself or export from Lotus to a common format? There’s very little way you can win in cross-product filters as everyone has to keep up with version changes in everyone’s format, and no one’s happy with the result.

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      1. 

         JM

         August 7, 2012

         They will be paying a license fee to Adobe, that is no doubt. So there will be no complaints from Adobe. I believe they already were paying a fee in order to save as PDF from word (but I could be wrong).

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      2. 

         Derek

         August 7, 2012

         That is what I do, it just annoys me that I have to save my files as clunky old Word docs before sending them to anyone else. I’ve sent you a file in a superior format, deal with it! And if Word won’t do it, download Open Office and give that a try. Don’t blame me because Word is useless! I don’t know about Adobe, but the Microsoft policy has been to convert only formats that are already defunct, or that they deem are not in serious competition with them. It is an anti-competitive practice, pure and simple. Should be dealt with.

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         1. 

            Derek

            August 7, 2012

            That was a reply to Mike, not JM. The site put it in the wrong place, not me. They are probably using some Microsoft product.

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8. 

   JM

   August 7, 2012

   I dont know why people are so worried. I cant begin to list the amount of times people have told me they lost their original word document, but do have a PDF version. This would be a great help and would remove the need to hunt for a PC with the full version of Acrobat on it.

   What will be just as bad as other PDF editors, is that if you dont have the exact fonts used in the PDF, the formatting will look pretty bad. If it is a document that needs to look professional, you will have to re-type it or OCR it. If it doesn’t matter that your fonts have made it look a little dodgy, use word to edit it. Just don’t have high expectations. It will be hit and miss depending on the PDF.

   To those who are upset that people can now edit their PDFs, you do realise that it is a matter of ticking one checkbox to make it protected from editing and a few more clicks to encrypt it? If you dont know this, don’t use PDFs for information you don’t want edited.

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