Please help - attempting to edit .pdf

[James_Whitmore@adobeforums.com]

I've just loaded Illustrator 9.0 with no training, and no experience. The only thing I need to do is edit a .pdf document. I've opened the .pdf, see all kinds of neat tools, but can't select a "portion" of the document. Every time I try to select (using "selection" or "direct selection" tool), it selects the entire page. In a perfect world, I could select a portion of the .pdf, delete it, then enter new text in the empty spot. Is this doable, and can it be done with some simple instructions?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

Use the direct select tool (hollow arrow with + sign) to select individual items. You can change the size and colour while they are elected using the Color and Transform palettes.

Text will be trickier, because instead of a nice intuitive paragraph or column, your text is a whole lot of little peices of text only a few letters long. Better to select one piece of text (which will make that text's formatting your default) then switch to the text tool and click on an empty part of the page any type what you want. Delete the old text and replace it with what you just typed.

To copy formatting from one piece of text to antoher, select the target text, press I, and click on the source.

PDF files are not meant to be edited. If you can get your hands on the original file used to make the PDF, then that is where your changes should be made. Otherwise, save as EPS and Distill that in Acrobat Distiller.

Good luck, Jimmy.

[Jonathan_McClintic@adobeforums.com]

James,

Click, then right click. Ungroup. Or click, then ctrl-shift-g to ungroup. Then you can select individual objects. If the pdf was saved to retain Illustrator formating, it might not be as bad as Scott says, but that is rarely the case, so best of luck.

Jonathan