How to edit objects on a page using Acrobat X

How to edit objects on a page using Acrobat X

Donna Baker – March 26, 2012

You work with many types of objects in Acrobat X: blocks of text, graphics and images, comments, and links. The big question is: Which tool do I use for which object?

Here’s a simple guideline. Objects like comments and links overlay the document. Use the object’s specific tools to select and make custom changes, such as changing the link’s color or changing the comment’s text.

In this example, you see text, graphics, buttons, and links. Click Select Object. Click and drag a frame around all the objects. When you release the mouse, only the overlaid buttons and links are selected. Right-click over one of the selected objects to open a menu with common layout and edit tools.

Now let’s check out the other objects. Click Edit Object then click and drag a frame around all the objects. When you release the mouse, only the page’s text and graphics are selected. We’ll spend some time using this tool, so right-click Edit Object and click Add to Quick Tools. Click Tools to close the pane.

Now let’s try out the Edit Object tool on the page’s graphic. Right-click the graphic with the Edit Object tool to open the shortcut menu and click Place Image. Locate and select the replacement image file and resize and reposition the image.

Let’s get rid of the ‘tail’ at the left end of the graphic. To crop the image, right-click to open the shortcut menu and click Set Clip. Move the Crop cursor over a corner and drag the frame as desired. Deselect the frame and the crop is finished.

To change the image’s orientation, right-click with the Edit Object tool to open the shortcut menu and pick one of the Flip or Rotate commands.

But what if you want to edit the image itself? Right-click with the Select Object tool again and click Edit Image to open the Image Editor (set your editor in the TouchUp Preferences). The graphic opens in your editor automatically. Make the edits as you like, then click the Tab Close Box button. Click Yes to save the changes and return to Acrobat. Be sure to save your updated PDF file!