I have a need to be able to open a pdf in InDesign, and be able to change the type within the pdf using InDesign tools.

Is this possible? Are there any plugins availble that would do this sort of thing?

PDFs are really designed to be an end-product, not one that changes. Adobe will tell you that for anything other than minor changes you really need to go back to the source document.

You'll have more luck exporting the PDF to RTF or a Word doc and then using another tool (like InDesign) to generate a new PDF.

No, and no.
You'd be better off getting and using Acrobat.
If you want high quality changes, you need the original file pre-PDF.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CHunter,

In a word, NO (though I've been mistaken before). I am not aware of any InDesign plug-in that will allow you to do this.

You have a few possible options:

• If you have the full version of Acrobat, you may be able to do "minor" edits directly in Acrobat (depending on the Security Settings of the PDF).

• If you have Illustrator, you can open the PDF and edit it (though be aware that some fonts and editing capabilities will be limited).

• If the original PDF was created from an original Illustrator file, you may have a little more editing capabilities.

• Your best bet is to obtain the original file that the PDF was created from.

I'll confirm what I've read. I recently had to fill out paperwork for the state of Michigan. The PDF forms the State of Michigan had were editable in Illustrator. I could have changed them around a lot including the fonts and rules(I call them lines still). I didn't try every font.
I don't know how the State made their PDFs and I don't know what your end use is. My purpose was to turn out nice clean copies for the dept. I was dealing with.

This blog entry has some interesting details on editing a PDF with Illustrator.

Just yesterday, I downloaded a PDF designed for multiple page printing and wanted one readable single page. I used Illustrator to select, cut, and paste the desired page into a new document and output it as a PDF. Clumsy, but better than not being able to read the fine print.

There are some commercial programs available to allow you to type info into PDFs on the lines and merge(concatenate) them, or create documents with selected pages. You could do a search. My sister had to fill out a document for a government grant and she did not have a typewriter available. We found one that allowed her to type directly on the form.

Not every PDF can be edited in Illustrator/Photoshop,
only those saved with "Create PDF Compatible File"
selected during the save process can. This option is
on by default, but those who want a smaller file size
(don't need/want the 'twin file' that this option creates)
and never plan on opening the file in anything but
Illustrator/Photoshop, deselect this option.

I'm also wondering, JeffN, did we scare you away
or have a helpful answer your question?

quote:

Originally posted by Donna:
There are some commercial programs available to allow you to type info into PDFs on the lines and merge(concatenate) them, or create documents with selected pages. You could do a search. My sister had to fill out a document for a government grant and she did not have a typewriter available. We found one that allowed her to type directly on the form.

You can do all of this within Acrobat 8 Pro (and possibly other versions) if you have it. The Typewriter tool can be used to type anything anywhere - no lines even necessary. Just select the tool, click anywhere in the document, and type.

If the document is a form, but not originally prepared as a pdf "form," "Run Form Field Recognition" from the Forms menu. It will locate lines. Clicking on a line with the "hand" or "select text" tool will enable entries. (I had to do this quite recently for a membership renewal form.)

Multiple pdf's can be combined using "Document/Insert pages," or "File/Create pdf from multiple files."

If selected pages are needed from a longer document, they can be separated using "Document/Extract pages," if the original is not secured to prevent it.

Acrobat (full version) may not be cheap, but is worth its weight in gold. I wouldn't be without it. Use it for various things (other than simply reading docs) almost daily.

Not part of this discussion, but just thought of another Acrobat "trick." - OCR.

I received a one-page all text letter relating to a job I do for an organization. Instead of hand copying it to a digital file, I scanned it to pdf.
Opened in Acrobat, and ran OCR. Only 2 or 3 edits/corrections were needed. Copied the text to TextEdit where I fine-tuned it for adding to a web site and for use in a newsletter.

Menu is "Document/OCR Text Recognition"

Acrobat CS4. Amazing. Here's a link to Adobe TV, showing the whole CS4 Design Suite. It will take a little while to get to the Acrobat segment, but it's worth it.

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1556v1688

I found it. There is an InDesign plug in made by Recosoft (recosoft.com) that is called PDF2ID. I saw a demo of this at Graph Expo 08 in Chicago. It adds an 'open pdf' item to the File menu in InDesign. When you choose 'open pdf' and select any pdf, the pdf is converted to an InDesign document that can be manipulated just like if you created the document from scratch. It is very cool how it works. If you haven't seen it, check it out.