The Pdf format resists dying. It is one of the longest and most versatile. That is why he is still there, offering the possibility of share bills, delivery notes, reports or manuals to consult, print or edit. And it is that although edit pdf It’s not that easy, nowadays there are many ways to add and remove pages, change their order, etc. For example, from Dropbox.
Some time ago, Dropbox incorporated the possibility of create PDF files from a text document in Word or Google format. Without leaving Dropbox and directly from your web browser. From your PC or Mac, tablet or smartphone. Even if you have a free Dropbox account. And not long ago, in addition to displaying PDF documents, allows editing.
Before launching the bells on the fly, these are the functions that, for the moment, it offers drop box to edit PDF: add new pages, rotate a page to the right or left, delete pages and change the page order. That is, at the moment we cannot edit the content of a page to remove or add images, videos or text. However, combining Dropbox’s capabilities to create text documents and to edit PDF, problem solved.
Edit a PDF from Dropbox
To edit a PDF document from Dropbox we just have to upload it to our Dropbox space. The limit is 111 MB per file and it is not password protected. Once uploaded to Dropbox, we can do it with it the same as with other files. And if we open it, by default we will see it from the Dropbox PDF viewer. From there you can download it (Discharge), save it in PNG or JPG image format (Save as…) or share it (Share).
For editing functions, you will need to click on Edit and the PDF file will open in the Dropbox editor. If you just want to add a signature to the document, click workflows and then in self signature. Through third party service hellosign, you can sign the document online. Of course, the first time, Dropbox will help you create an account in hellosign.
The Dropbox PDF editor displays page thumbnails and then each page at actual or approximate size. As I mentioned before, the editing tasks available for now are: add a new page in PDF that you have hosted in Dropbox (insert page), remove pages (delete the page), rotate the pages if they are facing the wrong way (rotate right, rotate left) and finally, move page to change the page order of the open PDF file.
When you finish editing the PDF, you can save it directly and replace the original PDF or save a copy. You will find both options in the drop-down button Done in the upper-right corner of the Dropbox editor. And if you prefer to leave it be, clicking on Cancel or closing the tab or window, you will be asked if you want to discard the changes.
Edit a PDF from Dropbox with other apps
If the Dropbox PDF editor doesn’t work for you, you can use third-party editors. Directly from Dropbox. Specifically, it is possible to use, at the moment, four editors to choose from: SmallPDF, Nitro, airSlate PDFfiller Y soda pdf editor.
To use them you must select the PDF document from Dropbox, click on the drop-down button open in and then in connect apps. A list will appear with the four editors mentioned above. Choose one of them and the selected PDF document will open in a new window or tab. That of the chosen editor.
Once you have finished editing the PDF document with the applications or external editors, you will have the possibility to save a copy to Dropbox or on your device. That or share it directly through different channels. It will depend on each publisher.
Create a PDF from Dropbox
One of the features you may be missing from the Dropbox PDF editor is probably be able to work directly with the content of the PDF. That is, delete text fragments, rewrite them, delete an image… Unfortunately, it is not possible to do that for now, but you can solve it in another way. Creating the PDF pages with the content as you want and then adding them to the PDF from the Dropbox editor.
To create new pages or new PDF documents, Dropbox integrates the option to create text documents, spreadsheets or presentations. In Microsoft format (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or Google format. In both cases, Google and Microsoft office automation tools are integrated in Dropbox so you can use them without leaving it. Thus, you can create a new document from your Dropbox space and include the content you want.
When finished, you only have to go to File > Print. By default, the document will be converted to a PDF that you can open in your web browser and then save to your device. Then we upload it to Dropbox and, from the Dropbox PDF editor, we add it to the previous PDF. Another way of convert documents to PDF is directly from the main Dropbox screen, selecting the file and/or from the document preview and then clicking on Save as…
It is not as practical a system but it is just as fast to edit PDF if you only have to turn a few pages. In addition, Microsoft and Google editors allow you to add all kinds of content to the document, such as tables, images, links, emojis, symbols…