Google Docs

How to Use Google PDF Editor

February 17, 2021

The PDF file format is widely used for many reasons. Apart from being convenient, it’s also entirely secure, compact, and multi-dimensional in terms of content integration.

The format remains unchanged regardless of which device you read it on and which PDF reader you’re using. However, when you need to edit your PDF file, that’s where you run into a problem.

If, like most people, you don’t have installed PDF editor software on your computer, what are you meant to do? To edit a PDF file, you have to use a PDF converter online tool. One of the best and most efficient solutions is Google PDF editor.

In this article, we’ll show you how to convert a PDF file in Google Docs and outline your editing options. Our guide will demonstrate that this truly is an incredibly efficient way to manage PDF file format online. We’ll also review how successful Google PDF editor is and if there are some better solutions to consider. If you’re looking to combine PDF use Adobe acrobat merge tool.

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How to Use Google PDF Editor: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

One of the reasons why Google Docs is an excellent PDF editing tool is that it’s web-based. You don’t need to download any software to your computer.

It’s especially beneficial if you don’t need to edit the text in PDF very often. So, let’s take a look at what this process looks like:

Step 1

To edit a PDF document in Google Docs, you first need to make sure it’s uploaded to Google Drive. Perhaps you already have your PDF there, but if you don’t, upload it from a device.

Open Google Drive, click “New,” then “File Upload,” and select the file you want to convert. It’s best to choose Chrome as your web browser since these are all Google products to get the best experience. Once it’s uploaded, click on the file to view it.

upload files

Step 2

When you open your document in Google Drive, in order to edit it, you have to open it with Google Docs. At the top of the document, you will see the “Open With” option, right at the center of the screen. From a drop-down menu, select “Google Docs.”

This process will be automatic, and in no time, Google Drive will convert the PDF into a format you can now edit. Here is where Google Docs PDF editor immediately shows its limitations. The formatting is likely not going to be as it was in the original document.

You will still have all the font formatting such as font size, font type, line breaks, and several other font related details. On the other hand, tables, lists, footnotes, and columns won’t be registered in the document.

open file with Google docs

Step 3

Depending on how much the Google PDF editor changed the file, you will have enough of the original formatting to continue working with the file.

Google doesn’t offer a perfect online PDF editor, but it does have some excellent advantages. Not only will it retain all the existing text in the document, but it can also convert a scanned document into text.

Thanks to Google Drive’s built-in OCR capability, Google Docs will convert image files into text, albeit imperfectly. But this works best with scanned files, which can be very difficult to edit.

Step 4

When you’re done editing your PDF file in Google Docs, you can save it again. To convert it back to PDF, all you need to do is go to “File” on the main menu, select “Download,” and then choose “PDF Document.”

You can also select “Microsoft Word” if you prefer to save the file in a Word document. However, keep in mind that the newly saved PDF file won’t look the same as the original if there were significant formatting errors during conversion.

download pdf

Step 5

If you need a bit more out of your online PDF editor, you can try JotForm PDF Editor or the Sejda PDF editor. It has many options such as merging documents, rearranging pages, editing text and adding form fields, cropping and rotating pages, and a lot more.

But you can also find a perfectly usable PDF editing tool in the form of browser extensions and add-ons.

Making the Most Out of Google PDF Editor

If you’re comfortable with Google apps, you will likely find no issues learning how to use Google PDF editor. Google Docs makes this conversion super-efficient, and it works best with PDF that’s plain text and doesn’t have columns and tables.

However, when you need to edit a scanned document, Google PDF editor will do its best to deliver. You can also try third-party PDF editors to see if you can get more out of the document. The only prerequisite to using this capable tool is to having a Google account.

Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.
Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.