OpenOffice 3 is a free PDF Editor and Writer

OpenOffice 3 = Free PDF Editor + Acrobat Writer

29 jan 2008

With OpenOffice, you can import PDF files into Draw (PowerPoint), edit the contents of the PDF file and then export the changed file as a hybrid PDF meaning you can later re-edit the generated PDF files back in OpenOffice.

Though you write PDF documents without Adobe Acrobat, there aren’t many choices for manipulating or editing PDF files. Most available PDF editors are either commercial or offer very limited functionality.

All this is expected to change with Sun OpenOffice 3 which includes native PDF import and export features.

You will be able import PDF files into Draw (PowerPoint), perform the edits and then export them as hybrid PDFs meaning you can edit the PDF files back again in OpenOffice.

OpenOffice 3 will be available on Windows and Mac. It may not have all the PDF editing features of Acrobat but may still satisfy the needs of most users who only require basic editing.

Related: How to Edit PDF Files

http://www.blairclock.com drew

this is probably the best free pdf editor around i noticed. most of the other free ones are free trial which you have to pay later on.
http://www.bloggerbuster.com Amanda Fazani

Wow, thanks for posting this! I’ve been hunting for a good free PDF editor for months now, so at least I have something good to look forward to.
jackie

“OpenOffice 3 will be available on Windows and Mac” Not on GNU/Linux? You should do your research better. Open Office 3 will be available for GNU/Linux too!

Thanks
Ivan

OOo Draw is not a PowerPoint equivalent…
http://www.opensourcetutor.com/2007/09/01/open-source-pdf-editor-part-2/ Matthew Campbell

It’s great to see PDF Editing will be available in OpenOffice3. For those who can’t wait, there are already two open source PDF Editor’s available. flpsed and PDFEdit, the latter being the more functional of the two. I detailed my experiences with them on my blog.
http://www.3rdstringsafety.com Alex

This is really awesome to see. I had a client yesterday looking for the ability to edit pdf’s but they did not want to buy the software. Im going to have to download OO3 and see how it works.
Saša

I installed OpenOffice 3 – Draw, but couldn’t edit PDFs – may someone give me advice how to do it?
Guest

Openoffice “Draw” is more a open-source “Visio”, but not “Power Point” (that would be “Impress”).
Moreover The OO Beta are not suppossed to have the PDF editor feature until near release state.
Andreas Speck

You also need to install the Sun PDF Import Extension (http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/pdfimport) to be able to edit PDF files.
Hans Kloss

You forgot to mention that ooo3 will also be available for linux, bsd, and solaris… ;)
Michael

Now that OOO3 is out there’s no option to edit PDFs.
LD

Like Andreas mentioned in his post, go to http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/pdfimport

Install the extension, then Ooo3 will support PDF. It works for me.
Clive

Works perfectly with the extension – saved me lots of hassle and lots of $$$$$$, THANKS !!!
Tony

anyone know how this actually works?

I can import a pdf, but that’s it. No editing. And certainly no dialogue box like the one shown here.
Barbara

Tony, if you haven’t figured it out yet, just open draw, open the pdf, and you can edit in that. If you have 3.0 installed and the extension it works fine. Then when you want the pdf, export as pdf. easy.
Tony

ok … the document I have is a bit fiddly … need to create text boxes to insert name and address etc.

Also won’t import the logo either.

But thanks
Tavia

OMG, thank you open source and OOO3. The pdf file that I needed about 20 graphs from worked perfectly with the software update and the extension. I was even able to renumber the graphs so that I can add them to the end of a word document a paper that I was doing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Ed

This is awesome is all i got to say. Have tried like for 5 hours to convert to word and go back and even tried some expensive programs. This is truly awesome thank u openoffice,
so easy to use.
http://www.sejutawarna.com agus BR

After searched, I never find editor software that edit PDF format throught PDF file directly, so if you have it in future please contact me, Thanks!
Geoff

The ability to edit pdf documents for free is amazing! I downloaded Open Office 3 and the extension and the editing worked like a dream. Thank you to the people who posted the procedure at this forum.

Regards,
Geoff (from Australia)
Geoff

One question: I do not understand the hybrid option. I did not use it, but I am still able to open my edited pdf document again in Open Office and edit it again. Can anyone explain the hybrid function?

Regards,
Geoff
Arun

Excellent, I was able to download and use it without any problem.

Steps:
1) Download the Openoffice 3.0
2) Install the Sun PDF Import Extension (http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/pdfimport)

You can copy and paste multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document, of course, be able to edit it as well.

Excellent OOS.
Thanks.
Slate

OpenOffice 3 is great and all and you can edit (at least my experience so far has been) single page PDF files. But my company users need to edit multiple page PDF files and several mb’s in size and OpenOffice 3′s PDF editing fails to load those large multipage files. So if anyone knows a “trick” to successfully open/edit large multiple page PDF files, please share the knowledge.
Thanks
William

I installed the Sun PDF Import extension and tried to open a pdf file which contained graphics.
Is there any reason why the graphics are not showing and is there a remedy?
Geoff

Hello Slate,

After reading your posting I opened a pdf file with a graphic and it does not show for me either.

When I initially tested out Open Office the pdf file did not contain any graphics.

Regards
Grazia

Hi – editing isn’t as easy as Barbara says it is.

I’m having trouble editing – I occasionally get a text box, but very hit and miss – it’s taken me two hours to get that far.

What does happen is that chunks of text will either shift or disappear as I try to open a text box.

If I do get a box open, I can’t match the font, etc.

Is there a user guide somewher? I’ve tried the help, but it’s extraordinarily unclear – too me 45 mins to find the form design toolbar!

Thanks.

PS Yes, I am thick, so please post useful comments rather than otherwise.
LarryB

Remember that PDF isn’t a word processing format, it’s a print layout format.

What appears as a block of text in a PDF reader/viewer is actually a series of text boxes in the PDF editor. This is true whether you use Acrobat or another editor (or, at least it was true for the last version of Acrobat I used).

I agree that it is annoying and time-consuming, but so is trying to recreate a document from scratch by copying and pasting from a PDF viewer.
Wayne

When I open a pdf the text is all jumbled or overlayed. Is there a way to stop this?

Technology, Software and Internet

OpenOffice 3 = Free PDF Editor + Acrobat Writer

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