External software isn’t always necessary. Thankfully, there’s a phenomenal score of websites willing to help you edit PDF files without having to download any exhaustive, third-party software. Web-based editors are by no the means the most robust, nor do they exceed desktop offerings when it comes to sheer convenience, but they do provide a basic solution for editing PDF files without resorting to a premium or overwhelmingly-complicated solution. Plus, they’re available wherever one has Internet access.
PDF Buddy
PDF Buddy is so easy to use, it’s almost too convenient. Although the site offers three free edits a month, unlimited access runs users $7.99 a month, with an additional pay-as-you-go option for those who don’t want to purchase a full subscription. Regardless of the plan, the utility provides quick access for annotating PDF files, add signatures and images, filling out forms, and a slew of other basic options.
Step 1: Navigate to the PDF Buddy homepage, click the yellow Select PDF to Edit button near the top-right of the window, and choose the PDF file you wish to open from either the browser window or by entering the file name in the bottom text field. Then, click the Open button in the bottom-right corner of the window.
Step 2: Select the appropriate tool with which to make your desired edits as you would normally in any popular word processor. As usual, users can access a wealth of tools from the application’s left-hand toolbar, whether they’re looking to add or alter text, images, or other commonplace elements. PDF Buddy will automatically save the PDF file when finished.
PDF Escape
PDF Escape has a similar layout and feature set to PDF Buddy, yet it remains completely free regardless of how many edits you utilize a month. The site is limited though, merely allowing users to convert and rotate files in addition to standard annotation tools for highlighting, filling out forms, and few other options for adding images and text boxes.
Step 1: Navigate to the PDF Escape homepage, click the yellow Edit Your PDF Now button near the middle of the window, and select the Upload PDF to PDFescape option from the list of options. Afterward, click the grey Choose File button in the resulting pop-up window and choose the PDF file you wish to open from either the browser window or by entering the file name in the bottom text field. Then, click the Open button in the bottom-right corner of the window.
Step 2: Select the appropriate tool with which to make your desired edits as you would normally in any popular word processor. As usual, users can access a wealth of tools from the application’s top-left toolbar, whether they’re looking to add or alter text, images, or other commonplace elements. PDF Escape will automatically save the PDF file when finished.
Option 3: Editing a PDF using file type conversion
Converting a PDF file into a word document and then back is not the quickest or easiest solution, but it is a solution. Luckily, we’ve outlined the entire conversion process, from start to finish, in our in-depth guide on how to convert a PDF file to Word. There are a ton of free converters on the market capable of converting a PDF into nearly any format desirable, such as Kingsoft Office Suite and PDFMate, and most of them require little more than the document and some time. To keep things simple, we suggest simply converting the PDF file into a Word document for editing. Once you’ve finished with your edits, all you have to do is either convert it back to a PDF or keep the file as a Word document. It’s not the most ideal way for editing PDFs given the typical formatting errors that arise during the conversion process, but hey, it does grant users complete editing access to files otherwise difficult to work with.
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