SOLVED: Questions about deleting, replacing & editing text & especially graphics in old pdfs being re-edited

[ecbritz]

I have successfully filled in an old but still serviceable pdf document, a standard form, adding my signature successfully as well. I notice though that I can re-edit the text or other elements I have added to this old pdf document -- but I cannot delete or replace anything belonging to the old, original pdf document. For instance, there is a picture in the old pdf I cannot select for deletion and then replace with a new picture. Or so it seems. Is it possible to erase and replace parts of an old pdf with FlexiPDF? How?

[Jossi]

If you cannot select and delete a picture, you are probably not in Preview mode, but in Outline mode. You can change (toggle) this with Ctrl+Alt+Y, by double-clicking the word "Outline"/"Preview" in the status bar or in the "View" menu.

[ecbritz]

Thanks so much for replying. Your advice is really indispensable and highly appreciated. I attach a pdf showing what happens when I switch from Outline view to Preview view in the case of two different pdf documents. What exactly must I do, step by step, to delete the pictures from the two documents, especially the second document that contains separate text and picture "sections"? What remains after deleting a picture? a Blank space? I have tried to select a picture using the T-button, then clicking on the Object Tool, then doing a right-click, but "Delete Selection" remains grayed out. So I'm stumped.

PS. I'm also adding the "second document". Perhaps you could try to delete a picture and tell me how you did it -- although I realize that's asking a lot.

[Jossi]

The assumption in my first answer was wrong; it's not a matter of being in Outline view accidentally. It's all done in Preview view, though. (Preview view shows all objects in the PDF: text, images, graphic objects etc; Outline view gives only the sheer text, all other objects are shown as outlines only, as the name says.)

The Text tools (those with a T in the icon) are only for text editing, so they are out of the question here. For all actions, use only the Object tool.

The normal proceeding, as in the In the first document (Egypt ticket), is as follows:
1. Click a picture, then press Delete. There remains a rectangle surrounded by a thin red line.
2. Try to catch this line with a mouse click; it changes to light blue with small squares in each corner. Press Delete again.
3. Repeat Step 2, until only an empty space remains.

The explanation is: What we perceive as a single picture in a PDF can consist of several layers: the picture proper, a border, a transparent background. These are deleted one at a time; so when you delete the picture, the others may remain and must be deleted separately.

The attached file contains the ticket after I removed the pictures and pushed the text boxes up.

The second file puzzled me a lot and the solution came as a bit of a surprise: this PDF contains two text boxes and four picture objects. Each of this four objects is a single picture which comprises not only the visible picture but also a transparent margin exactly as big as the whole page, with the picture proper positioned in the respective corner. So, clicking somewhere into a picture or the empty space between is no help at all; you must again catch the border by clicking on the edge of the page. As soon as the light blue line appears and you press Delete, one picture disappears and the red border line of the object below appears. Click the border line and press Delete once more, and the second picture disappears; and so on.

If the thin red line surrounding an object coincides with the page edge it is but poorly visible. Selecting all objects with Ctrl+A first and then pushing them away from the edge with an arrow key makes it easier to get the line with the mouse. But don't press Delete while all objects are still selected, or everything will be gone!

[ecbritz]

Wow, you went to so much trouble, thanks! It's already "tomorrow" here, being 12:45 am, so I'll check this out in about 8 hours time. In the case of for instance forms not available in MS Word format I used to scan or screenshoot the pdf pages I received and then edit the resultant picture files with a photo-editing program. Photo-editing allows for just about anything you might want, including boxes filled with text. Once I had the jpeg file done, I would either convert it to pdf or insert it into a Textmaker/MS Word window and export to pdf. I suppose FlexiPDF won't be happy with these makeshift pdf's. But "tomorrow" I'll see.

[ecbritz]

Its 12 pm now, 12 hours later. Everything you said, checks out, this problem is now solved, I think. The one pdf I attached was actually a Textmaker page containing pictures of two pdf's (and some text), all exported together as one new pdf. Perhaps that is why you were so surprised with what you found.

I don't suppose it is possible to delete part of a picture. The Object Tool won't allow selection of part of a picture. Right?

[Jossi]

As far as I can see it is not possible to crop a picture directly in FlexiPDF.
A right-click on a picture (Object tool selected) gives in the context menu the option Image > Edit with... to open the picture with an external graphics program, e.g. Paint, crop it there and replace the original picture in FlexiPDF.

[ecbritz]

This advice is very interesting. If you can access a photo-editing program while editing a pdf, in the way you describe, all kinds of possibilities are opened. I'll check this out tomorrow. I think the FlexiPDF user manual should start -- or should be supplemented -- with a number of tutorials or exercises guiding a new user step-by-step through some fairly complicated procedures, to give him/her a feel of what can be done. The user manual is fine but if you start reading it and follow the instructions in sequence you run into difficulties very soon.

[ecbritz]

Your advice works like a charm! I attach a picture in which you can see, if you look closely, that I added a few yellow curls to the picture I edited. For this kind of photo editing, I use the free program Paint.net. Paint.net can really do anything I will ever need to edit the picture inserts in a pdf. With ease. (But you might of course need Photoshop.) I guess that one can also replace a picture in a pdf with another picture, using FlexiPDF in conjunction with a photo editor this way.

PS. What is meant by the word "crop" in Softmaker language? Delete a picture? I always understood "crop" to mean, in computer jargon, that part of a picture is removed, so that what remains of the picture becomes the whole picture.

[Jossi]

PS. What is meant by the word "crop" in Softmaker language? Delete a picture? I always understood "crop" to mean, in computer jargon, that part of a picture is removed, so that what remains of the picture becomes the whole picture.

That's how I used the word. You spoke of deleting part of a picture, so I understood you intended to cut off part of a picture so that only the rest remains.
Anyway, I'm glad everything worked out so well!

[ecbritz]

Cropping a photo in "my" sense of the word (yours as well?) can of course be done with the photo editor. You have really opened up a window to the world beyond the pdf you are editing with FlexiPDF; or rather to all kinds of handy tricks you can play with a pdf. I'm going to change the name, the wording of this thread, because it might be an eye-opener to other users as well. I'll change it back if requested. No need to change the title of every posting in this case, I think.

[ecbritz]

May I also say that apart from Image > Edit with you can also do Image > Insert to replace or add a new image to an old (or new) pdf. See the attachment.