Mac computers can modify PDF files in several ways. Some of them rely on the built-in Preview app, which lets you rearrange pages, delete pages, add signatures and comments, and more.
On the other hand, you can combine multiple files into a single PDF right from the Finder app, and Safari has a feature that lets you save any webpage as a PDF for easier reading, without ads or unnecessary elements.
Below we describe the main features available on Mac computers to make it easier to edit PDF files:
1- Edit the PDF file by adding text to it:
Open the PDF in the Preview app. If the file contains editable text boxes, click in the box and start typing the information you want to add. To ensure that a blank field in a PDF is editable, hover your cursor over the field. When the box turns blue, you can type directly into the PDF. When done, click on the File button and then on the Save option to save all changes.
If the PDF does not contain editable fields, copy the text from the PDF and paste it into Pages or Google Docs. Then add the custom fields information.
To do this, follow these steps:
- In the Preview app, click the Tools tab, then click Text Selection Options.
- Use the pointer to select text.
- Copy and paste the text into a new document, then add the new text to the document.
- Save the document as a new PDF.
2- Add your signature to the PDF document:
You can add your signature to the PDF document by clicking on the signature option in the comment menu and then following these steps:
1. The Add Your Signature screen will appear. Click the "Click here to start" button.
1. Click on the iPhone tab and you will be asked to enter your signature. A signature box will appear on the iPhone screen. Type your signature on it and it will automatically transfer to the Preview app on your Mac computer. Once the signature is complete, click the Done button to save it.
1. The signature icon appears in the bar at the top of the Preview app. Clicking on it will bring up a box with your signature. Click a signature in the box to add it to the document. You can drag it to change its position in the document and use the pointer to change its size.
3- Add an image to a PDF file:
Preview officially does not allow users to add images to PDF documents. However, there is a method you can use to add images to PDFs:
- Open the Finder app on your Mac computer.
- Locate the folder containing the images that you want to add to the PDF.
- Right-click on the image, select (Open With), then (Preview).
- Once the image is displayed in the preview application, press the two keys on your keyboard (Command and A).
- By clicking this link, you can select an image to attach to the PDF.
- Press the two keys (Command and C) to copy the selected image.
- Press the Command and V keys to paste the image you just copied. The new copy replaces the original image.
Although this method is a bit strange, it is the only way to use the Preview application to prepare an image to attach to a PDF. Regardless of whether the two images are the same or not, the other image you insert becomes an image that you can easily add to your PDF.
After completing this section, follow these steps to add images to a specific PDF:
- Press the two keys (Command and C) to duplicate the image you just created in the preview.
- Close the preview window, and then open the PDF document as usual using the preview application.
- Go to the section where you want to add the images to your PDF.
- Press the two keys (Command and V) to paste the image into the PDF file of your choice.
4- Merge files into PDF:
You can quickly combine multiple files into a single PDF right from your desktop or the Finder app by following these steps:
- Go to the Finder app.
- Select all files to include in the PDF.
- Right-click on the selected file and select "Quick Actions" and then "Create PDF".
- Finder automatically creates a file with the name of the first file you selected, and it contains all the files you selected.
5- Save the webpage as a PDF:
If you want to save a webpage as a PDF without ads in Safari, you can follow these steps on a Mac computer. However, make sure that Safari is updated to the latest version:
- Open Safari and go to the page you want to save.
- Before saving any page as a PDF, you should remove all the important parts like ads and all other unnecessary parts and keep only the important information. To do this, click the reading mode icon to the left of the address bar to open the page in reading mode.
- This immediately reopens the page in reading mode, displaying only articles.
- After you open the page in reading mode, the only content saved in the PDF format is what you see on your screen.
- To save the page, click the File button and a list of options will appear.
- Click on the "Export as PDF" option.
- When the file export popup appears, select where you want to save the PDF file, rename the file or keep the default web address name and click Save.
Your PDF will be saved in the folder you specified. And you will get a PDF version of the web page. By saving a page this way, you can always easily read it on your computer and easily print it out on a piece of paper.