Is it possible to change text in a PDF document which has been sent via email? I have a client with some mispelled words and I have access to Acrobat Pro?

yes you can, if the document hasn’t been locked. i think you should just be able to highlight the text and start typing. of course you will need the same fonts that were used in the original document...

thanks for the info...I’ll try tomorrow..I hope it’s not locked to save the time of formatting in Quark.

It’s not quite as simple as that. You need to go to Tools / Advanced Editing and select the TouchUp Text Tool. Then you’ll be able to make edits.

..and you can only do single line changes or eventually everything will look like crap. Or am I wrong?

I don’t think you can do changes to the text unless you have the typeface on your system. I could be wrong about this, but it seems a client of mine tried to edit something once and he couldn’t.

I think what it all adds up to is: print pdf:s should can be altered just as metal-plates could be messed up before digital printing (with knives and swords and 5000000000 bucks a second). Why the hell would anyone alter printable pdf’s? Get your editing in line, i’d say.

Opening the pdf in Illustrator and making the changes there works, too. I have better experiences in pdf changes with Illustrator than with Acrobat pro. with Acrobat the text sometimes doesn’t quite behave like it should.

The problem with editing is line and character breaks. In AI, you often get chunks of letters in groups that make no sense. I would drag select all the text you wish to edit with the pointer tool; then switch to the text insertion tool and drag a box, then paste. You then get all the text together but usually need to add word breaks where there were line breaks. Sound like a pain in the tuchous? You bettcha. That is why it is better to make changes in the originating application unless you are in dire straights.

ChrisL

When importing from Word to Quark rather than cut and paste, if you import the text using command e, it will keep it’s formatting, and if it was created on a Mac and you have the same font it will import at the same sizes and font, however every text document will need close attention lookout for double wordspaces, incorrect quote marks and apostrophes, en dashes, tabs, ellipsis etc. The typographer’s checklist thread will give you further investigations. For the pdf justified text will occasionally alter ranging – if possible I would ask the client to provide the artwork or do the chnages and resend the document – safer in the long run.
Tim