Working with PDFs

Open a PDF

Open PDF. Choose Open from Drive and pick a PDF, or open one from Drive with the PDF option on its menu. The page title reads "PDF Tools & Viewer". You can view PDFs, turn and reorder pages, fill in forms, or run tools such as merge, split, compress and make searchable (OCR). Results are saved into Drive next to the original, and the original is never overwritten unless you choose to.

Two kinds of work

Edit pages in the browser. Open the Edit pages side of the panel to:

• Rotate a page.
• Move a page up or down to reorder (Move up, Move down).
• Delete page.
• Fill in Form fields: text boxes, check boxes and choices.

Choose Save as copy to write the edited file to Drive. These changes happen in your browser using the file you opened.

Run tools. The Tools tab lists the available operations. Pick one, set its options, and choose to run it. A job panel shows progress and, when done, links to the result with Show in Drive.

The tools

• Merge: join several PDFs into one in the order you pick. You need at least two.
• Split: cut after the pages you list (for example 2,5). You get a .zip of parts.
• Rotate: turn every page by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.
• Compress: make the file smaller. Strengths run from Light to Strongest; the strongest may blur images.
• Images to PDF: turn images into a PDF, one per page.
• Office to PDF: convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OpenDocument files.
• PDF to images: every page as a PNG or JPEG in a .zip, with a resolution (DPI) setting.
• Make searchable (OCR): recognise the text in scanned pages so you can search and copy it. Choose the language.
• Watermark: stamp text across every page, with an opacity.
• Remove pages: delete the pages you list, for example 1,4-6.
• Add a password: require a password to open the PDF.
• Remove the password: save an unprotected copy (you need the current password).

Page lists use commas and dashes, such as 1,3,5-7.

Note: Your provider installs the server-side tools. If the Tools tab says merging, splitting, converting and OCR will appear once they are installed, you can still view PDFs and use Edit pages.

Passwords stay private

The password tools never go into a background queue. They run only while you wait, so the password is not stored. Keep your passwords in the Vault instead of leaving them in file names.

Signing

For a PDF that needs signatures, use the Sign app. Right-click the file in Drive and choose Request signatures.

Practice

1. Merge two PDFs from Drive into one.
2. Use Remove pages to delete the cover page of the result.
3. Run Compress at Balanced strength and compare the file sizes in Drive.
4. Rotate a sideways page in Edit pages and save as a copy.