When I run LibreOffice (writer) and open an existing pdf file, I get a new window open with LibreOffice Draw at the top, followed by the file. The Draw functions on the Toolbar really aren’t appropriate for editing the file. What’s wrong?
Please edit the title so that it summarizes the topic. The title “First time user problem” tells something about you but nothing about the topic.
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Edited subject title for better understanding and findability.
PDF is not an editable document format. It is a print-out to file. Every application able to print characters lines and shapes to paper sheets can also produce PDF. A PDF contains no information about the application which printed this file. It may have been a text processor, a spreadsheet, a layout program, any kind of computer aided design. You can’t load PDF into a “normal” application like you can’t load a sheet of paper.
In LibreOffice, the Draw component deals with shapes, lines and areas of text. Loading a PDF into the Draw component is the best approximation you can get from this office suite. LibreOffice can do something amazing: You can save any text, spreadsheet, drawing or presentation in a hybrid PDF which includes the original office document together with PDF. A PDF viewer displays the PDF print-out. When you open the same hybrid file with LibreOffice, you get the editable document and when you save the modified document the containing PDF is updated as well.
You need the original document and the software able to edit the original document to produce a new PDF from the modified document.
Adobe Acrobat (15 USD per Month) is the only application able to edit arbitrary PDF files.
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I’m using FlexiPDF from Softmaker and they have a FreePDF with reduced features.
But usually I support your opinion:
PDF is not a format to be edited, if this can be avoided. It is a complex standard to describe what shall be printed or a programming language for pages.
It can be done also with draw, but should be restricted to cases where no other option is left.