PDF editing software suggestions

[ckafrica]

Can anyone give me advice regard good software for pdf editing?

I've got a trial copy foxit phantom and I either haven't figured out how to use it properly or it doesn't do what I want to the extent that I require.

Things I'd like it to do would include:
Compile and manipulate pages from different pdfs quickly and easily.
Easily cut off margins (especially annoying and ink wasting border art) from an entire file quickly.
Be able to write on top of existing PDFs and have that writing become part of the PDF when I save.
No watermark (yes I'm willing to pay).
Convert easily into an office program format would be mint but probably asking too much (especially for tables)

Anything with a good scan to text converter would be a bonus

Thanks for the help

[Jilocasin]

I think PDF-XChange can probably do what you want. I haven't personally used it for doing anything other than viewing pdfs, but I've heard that it's editing functionality is quite good.

[Manxome]

MS Word 2007 has a built-in ability to export as PDF. I'm not sure if it can import them, too, never had occasion to try.

Not necessarily your best option if you'd have to buy it, but if you happen to have access to a machine with Office 2007 installed...

[CatharzGodfoot]

I'm not sure if it can import them, too, never had occasion to try.

It can't

[Crissa]

Hardly anything can import PDF.

Preview in OSX can:
Compile PDF pages together easily;
Export PDF pages as images (like a fax) or just the text (and sometimes formatting);
Manipulate some margins;
Print with no watermark.

Pages in OSX can:
Import a PDF page as an image;
Manipulate margins;
Overwrite imported pages and turn it into part of the document;
Convert in office formats;
Print with no watermark.

Pages can't import PDF automatically into a document, however; it's just as images (like a fax) or just the text.

It is sometimes frustrating. I was sent PDFs on my house purchase (great!) which were locked (so I couldn't export them as text or images! Lame) but I could print them (yay!) and turn them into a PDF I could click and drag each page into Pages and write upon. Then I exported the Pages document into PDF and sent it back.

Unfortunately, I had to do this to about a hundred and fifty pages, some of them more than thrice. *sigh*

-Crissa

[ckafrica]

OSX is apple correct? I'm windows unfortunately.

If you want a PDF unlocker
this is what I use and does the trick quite easily and effectively.

The Word function is not suitable for my needs because the only way you can import the pdf is by turning them into pics so when you back it's a much bigger file which doesn't suit my needs.

[RobbyPants]

There's a free tool you can download called PDF Creator, which lets you take various formats (like a Word Doc) and convert it to a PDF. It actually is treated as a print driver, so to convert, you go to print in Word, and select PDF Creator as your printer. Clicking Print will open a dialog window that lets you choose the output file name, and select other settings.

This won't let you edit existing PDFs, but it will at least let you make new ones, so long as you keep your original Word Doc.

[Crissa]

OSX defaults to letting you print anything as a PDF, but yes, that's one way to get around it.

But Word and Open Office already do that.

-Crissa