Edit pdf created from Quark

Hi, as a graphic designer myself, I've been asked that question before by several clients. I guess by Adobe Writer you mean "Adobe Reader". It is not possible to change text in a pdf document with the free adobe reader. However you can "touch up" text using "Adobe Acrobat Professional" (You may be able to do it with the standard, but I am not sure, I do not use standard, you can try and see). To do this just look for the "Tools" menu on the top of the screen, then Advanced Editing>Touch Up Text Tool. Then click on the word you would like to delete or change for another word. Hit "Delete" or start typing the new word. That's it!
Keep in mind that in order to do that the computer of the person typing the new text needs to have the same font used in the Quark document when it was created. The problem here is that most mac fonts are not compatible with windows fonts. A way to solve this is to ask your designer to use fonts that are compatible with both machines next time she designs something that will potentially be needing some text "touch up". By compatible fonts I mean something like "Arial".
Another thing to keep in mind is that Acrobat Pro is good for just making small touch ups but you will not be able to edit the document in its entirely like you would inside Quark. Like for example if the new word you type is much longer than the one it was originally in the document, and there is not enough space for it, it will run off the page! Weird things may also happen when adding extra space returns. So, just be aware!!!

Hope this helps.

Thank you. This was just what I suspected. She is using the Adobe Standard (I think Writer was the old version) so she can create pdfs. We did try the "touch up" test tool but it kept giving us an error regarding the font. We had the graphic artist send it to us as an embedded font, thinking we could edit the text because it would also send the font. We received another error. Unfortunately the Garamond Light font is exclusive. I tried to find it on certain websites but was not successful in getting the right type. They also used Caslon Antique. I noticed you can see the font in the properties. Both are Type 1. Not sure what this means. I am assuming we would need the MAC version of this font. We are Windows. Do you know if True Type fonts are transferable between OS?

If the pdf was created in Quark in a mac is most likely to use a macintosh font which is not installed in the windows computer you are trying to use. You would need to purchase the same font in a windows format to be able to edit the pdf.
Most fonts come in a "windows" and "mac" version. You pick whatever you need according to your OS when purchasing fonts. However, there is a new font format called "Open Type" which can be installed in both platforms (win and mac). So next time you buy a font buy the Open Type version of it, that way you can install it in the mac and the same file can be installed in the windows computer.
You may be able to find the fonts you are looking for here:
http://www.linotype.com/
http://www.myfonts.com/

Good luck.

Hi! I have taken over my neighborhood's newsletter. I have backed myself into a corner with deadlines. I have a little design experience, but am basically a novice when it comes to "working" on PDFs. I have the last version of the newsletter in a PDF file. I have donwloaded a 30-day trial of Acrobat to make changes to the last issue. I do not have the fonts in the PDF (Eagle light, etc. created on a mac) so I have tried to change the fonts: Tools - Edit Doc Text - Properties - Text - then when I try to select either a Document Font that I have (i.e. Tahoma) I get this message "All or part of the selection has no availabler system font. You cannot add or delete text using the currently selected font" OR I try to select a systems font (Arial) I get this message..."Warning. Since the origianl font is not available, a substitutefont for editing is used. Any changes to the text of the original font will place a new font dependency upon the doc". I hit "ok", then I get this message again "All or part of the selection has no available system font. You cannot add or delete text using the currently selected font"! HELP.

I have read several comments that if I want to do major editing I need another program - what do you recommend? Anything for free trial?

You have found a reason why Acrobat is not a very good editor. If you could have edited the PDF, you will also find that edited text does not flow from line to line and can shift unexpectedly.

Can you discuss this issue with the previous editor?

If you want to keep the same style and format, it would be easier with the program that the previous editor used.

You might see the name of the editing program by looking at the 'properties' of the open newsletter PDF.

You might try OpenOffice.org with an extension to edit PDFs in Writer.