How to edit a PDF on a Chromebook
What a Chromebook can do with a PDF by itself
ChromeOS opens PDFs in its own viewer, where you can read, print, highlight and draw on them and fill in some forms. To change the words that are already there, rearrange pages, convert a PDF to Word or merge several, you need an editor, and the desktop editors people use on Windows and Mac do not install on ChromeOS.
OnePDF runs in Chrome itself, so it works on a Chromebook exactly as it does on any computer, including school and work Chromebooks where installing software is not allowed.
Edit a PDF in Chrome
- Open Edit PDF in Chrome and choose the file from your Downloads, Google Drive or a USB stick. It opens on the Chromebook; signed out, it is not uploaded.
- Click a paragraph and retype it. The new words are set in the document's own font, size and colour. Drag a paragraph to move it.
- Save. The edited PDF is saved where you choose.
Everything else, the same way
- Fill in a form and sign it, with a drawn signature or a digital one.
- Merge PDFs, split one or reorder its pages.
- Convert a PDF to Word, to Excel or to PowerPoint, and documents back to PDF.
- Compress a PDF to email it, or recognise the text in a scan.
Keep it in the shelf
Chrome can install OnePDF as an app: open the menu and choose to install it, and it gets its own window and a place in the launcher and the shelf. Once it has loaded, it opens again without a connection, which helps on a train or a school network that comes and goes.