Can I edit existing PDF files with Libre?
This is a very general question.
- Yes you can edit pdf-Files, they are opened in draw.
- The answer is NO, if you expect an interface like writer, to edit the text.
- One exception are special .pdf-Files, where during the generation of the pdf all necessary informations are embedded. (Select this, when you SaveAs from Writer). So the pdf contains also the .odt.
PDF was not designed as Format to be edited.
The main goal was an environment to provide everything to print on (nearly) any graphics printer. So it is more a collection of letters to be put at several places. The structure of the document is partly lost.
Scanned pdf files may not even contain letters at all.
they are opened in draw
or rather imported. And well, you can import PDFs into Writer - but that will not produce a text flow, but would still create zillions of separate text boxes.
I would emphasize the tiny detail that no, you can’t edit PDFs in LibreOffice - you can import them, and then export LibreOffice documents to new PDFs (which creates a PDF with completely different internal structure, so it’s just creation of a similarly-looking picture from scratch - for those who might expect true editing).