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Search this topicIn Acrobat with PDF editing available, choose Edit and select the text block. Replace the wording and adjust formatting in the text controls. Review line wrapping and nearby elements afterward: PDF text boxes are independent, so adding text does not automatically push other boxes or later pages down.
Open Edit, choose Text under Add Content, and drag out the area for the new text. Type your wording, then adjust the font and size as needed. Drag the box border to move it. Resizing the box changes wrapping; it does not automatically resize the letters themselves.
Acrobat needs the font installed on your computer to revise text using that font. An embedded font alone may allow only size or color changes. Check the font availability and licensing, or return to the original source document. Substituting another font can change spacing and line breaks.
Open the PDF in Preview and enter the phrase in the toolbar search field. Widen the window if the field is hidden. Preview looks for the exact phrase by default; use Any Match when you want individual words instead. Browse the results in page order or by match count.
Open the PDF at the page you want to remember and choose Tools, Add Bookmark. Use View, Bookmarks to see saved entries and jump back to them. To remove an entry, Control-click it in the bookmarks sidebar and choose Delete; this removes the bookmark, not the PDF page.
Open the PDF in Preview and open the Inspector using the information button. Use its general-information panel to inspect the file details, such as size and author. Treat author metadata as descriptive rather than proof of identity. Other Inspector panels show permissions, annotations, and selection dimensions.
Open Preview's Inspector and select the annotations panel. Choose an annotation in its list to reveal its location in the PDF. This is useful when a small text box or shape is difficult to spot on the page. Review the listed objects before sharing a marked-up document.
Open the PDF in Preview and choose View, Slideshow. Use the controls at the bottom of the screen to advance, return to an earlier page, or end the show. Check page order beforehand; this displays the PDF's pages as they already exist rather than building new presentation slides.
Choose Tools, Text Selection, then hold Option while dragging over the column you want. Copy the selection and paste it into your destination. Review the pasted text because PDF columns may not transfer as a structured table. Use a rectangular image selection instead if you only need a visual excerpt.
In Preview, choose Tools, Rectangular Selection and drag around the part of the page you need. Choose Edit, Copy and paste it into an app that accepts images. This captures the selected area visually; use Text Selection instead when you need editable words rather than a picture.
Select the text, then use the highlight control to choose a color, underline, or strikethrough. For repeated marking, enable highlight mode and select passages one after another. Turn the mode off when finished so later text selections do not accidentally receive the same markup.
Control-click the highlighted text and choose the command to remove the highlight. The same approach works for underline or strikethrough annotations. Use View, Highlights and Notes to locate marked passages. If the color is part of the original page image rather than an annotation, that removal command will not apply.
Open the Markup toolbar in Preview and choose the note tool. Type your comment, then click elsewhere on the page to close the note. Drag it into position and use View, Highlights and Notes to review comments in the sidebar. A note adds feedback without rewriting the original PDF text.
Open Preview, Settings, then PDF and change the annotation Name field. You can also turn off Add name to annotations if you do not want an author name added. Preview normally uses your macOS login name. Check a newly created note to confirm the setting before sharing comments.
Open a copy in Preview and choose View, Thumbnails or Contact Sheet. Select the pages to remove and press Delete. Review the remaining sequence before saving or sharing. Deleting a page also removes its annotations, so keep the original if comments or other content may be needed later.
Open the PDF in Preview and display page thumbnails. Select the pages you need and drag their thumbnails from the sidebar onto the desktop to create a new PDF. Open that new file and check its page order and contents before renaming or sending it to someone.
Select the page that should come immediately before the new page. Choose Edit, Insert, Blank Page. Preview inserts the blank page after the selected page, so check the thumbnail order afterward. Work on a duplicate if you want the original PDF to remain unchanged.
Use the rectangular selection tool to mark the area of the page you want to keep, then apply Crop from the Markup toolbar. Check the result before saving. Cropping hides page content outside the selected area; it is not a substitute for redaction when removing confidential information.
Show Thumbnails or Contact Sheet in Preview and select all the pages that need rotating. Click the rotation button to turn them left; hold Option while clicking to rotate right. Repeat as needed, then inspect every selected page so a mixed selection does not leave some pages upside down.
Open the file and choose File, Revert To, Browse All Versions. Move through the available versions until you find the one you need, then restore it. The available history depends on the versions that were saved; this is not a guarantee that every past edit can be recovered.
In Preview, choose File, Revert To, Browse All Versions and locate the desired version. Hold Option to use Restore a Copy instead of replacing the current file. Compare the recovered copy with the current version before deciding which to keep, and give the files distinguishable names.
Open it in Preview, reveal the menu beside its filename in the title bar, and enable Locked. You can also use Finder's Get Info window. This helps prevent changes to that file, but someone can create and edit a duplicate. Use PDF password protection for access controls instead.
If the file is marked Locked, open the filename menu in Preview's title bar and clear that checkbox. Alternatively, select the file in Finder, open Get Info, and clear Locked there. This file-lock setting is separate from a PDF password or editing permission restriction.
Open the file, choose File, Export, and select the required type from the Format menu. Review the available options and save with a clear filename. Check the exported result before discarding the original, especially when the destination format may not retain the same document features.
Source checks for these answers: September 21, 2026. Product instructions and local requirements can vary.