PDF Editing

[Bluto]

Hi everyone...

I think I'm placing this is the right category.

My professor emails PDF docs to the class, which is all fine and good. The issue I have is (if I can explain this clearly)....each page has about 4 block-windows which look as if they would be single pages in a Power Point presentation. When placed 4 at a time in a single PDF page they appear small and often diagrams are hard to see.

I'd like a way to edit the pages so I can just have one 'Power Point' block on each PDF page.

Does that make any sense?

I know I'll have more pages to print, but I'd rather see the material than worry about an extra 5-10 pages of paper.

Does anyone know of any programs out there I can use to make these kinds of changes to PDF documents?

If this helps ---- I was looking at Foxit Reader, and NITRO, but I'm not those will really do what I need either....but maybe they do and it's not apparent from what I was looking at.

Thanks!

 

[gsaldivar]

The easiest way would be to ask your professor to provide the PowerPoint files in addition to PDF. Then you can easily print one slide per page to paper or to PDF (use CutePDF).

 

[corkyg]

Can't you use the PDF reader's zoom tool?

 

[Steltek]

PDF isn't designed to be edited any more than you would edit an existing paper document. The file structure is extremely complex, plus there are multiple versions of the PDF specs (from version 1.2 up to current version which I believe is 1.7) to take into account. Also, many PDF files don't entirely comply with PDF's specifications so writing editing tools can be a nightmare.

Now, that being said, there are tools out there which can do some significant editing of the contents of PDFs. The two that come immediately to mind are Enfocus' Pitstop Professional and ArtsPDF's Aerialist X Professional plugins for Acrobat.

However, these tools tend to be very expensive (both are like $700.00, and that is on top of the full license for Adobe Acrobat you have to have to run them).

As gsaldiver says, it is much preferable to edit the source documents rather than to try to edit PDFs. It is probable that the images in the PDF files have been optimized for viewing (which means they probably won't scale up very well even if you can extract them). You might ask the professor to include the source documents as an attachement to the PDF (i.e. later spec PDF files can do this).

 

[Bluto]

Yes....I know it would be easy to ask the professor, but these folks aren't your typical university professors....long story, and I won't bore you with details. When asked, they usually say 'ok'....and we never get anything.......so, I've learned that's not an option, and if it were, I wouldn't be here, but thanks.

Zoom?.....not really the best solution.


Ok....so, from what I gather, there are no solutions to this


Thanks for making the effort....I appreciate it, I will just handle it in another way I guess.....<sigh>


Technology....yeah.....whatever....lol

 

[gsaldivar]

If the original ppt files are unavailable, the next easiest method might be to convert the PDF to an image, then cut and paste each of the pieces you want to print separately into a new document.

This is quite easy in Photoshop, but I haven't tried in other programs. There are tons of "PDF to image" tools that I found using a google search. You just need to find a free one that allows you to take a pdf and save to a high resolution file (like 300dpi, to compensate for the quality loss when you enlarge).

Once you convert to an image file, simply open it up, select and copy each individual page, then paste to Word, Paint etc, resize if needed and print your proper full size slides.

good luck