When to use PDFs? Portable Document Format
People are often very comfortable using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. These are tools that help us get through our everyday, whether we are at school, home or the office. However, we interact with PDFs almost everyday and few of us can boast the same proficiency. Why is this? Well, PDFs were originally designed (in the 1990’s) to either just be viewed, or to be printed, written on or signed, and then faxed. Governments, businesses and printing companies used them for forms, agreements, brochures and high-quality publications (and still do).
The idea that people from all spheres of life needing to create PDF documents on mass and edit, sign, send and file them purely online has become more and more popular, especially in recent times with the coronavirus pandemic making remote working and remote learning much more prevalent.
So when exactly should you use PDF documents, and how can you edit PDF documents? Read on and we’ll show you why PDFs are indispensable and also how to edit a PDF online for free, with the all-in-one PDF application, Lumin PDF.
When you want assurance of document formatting…
Imagine you have been tasked with sending out an important survey to clients, asking them to rate their level of satisfaction with different parts of your service. You open Microsoft Word on your desktop computer, add the custom font specific to your business, maybe the company logo and some graphics for recipients to mark their answers. Everything looks good and you send it out to all the required recipients.
If every single person has your version of Word and your operating system, there should be no problems, but what’s the likelihood of that? In this modern world, people are using an increasing array of devices and applications to access documents. If someone were to open the survey on their phone or tablet, or in a different application such as Open Office, they will see a different formatting from the others. Not only will this look unprofessional, the document may not be able to render something that was key to understanding the whole thing.
This is where PDFs show their value, as all design elements, images and fonts are included in the file. No matter what device a person is using or what application they open the document in, the PDF file will look exactly as intended. The application the PDF was created in is not necessary for viewing the file properly, unlike with a Word document.
So a document can be viewed easily, but what about formatting? Enter Lumin PDF editor, with a suit of advanced tools allowing people to create, manipulate, store and edit PDF files online with cloud storage integration. The same survey detailed above could be created with a fillable form template and customized with logos and fonts in minutes. You could then send the file, confidently knowing it will be viewed as desired.
When it comes to filling in the form, if the recipient doesn’t have PDF editing software, they would either have to print the document or edit the PDF in Word (possibly causing the same formatting problems as above). However, having Lumin PDF installed means that people can add text and fill in forms directly in the PDF from any device. Whether you want to work on your Windows laptop or edit a PDF on your iPhone, Lumin makes it easy, with no unintended changes in formatting.
When creating a rich document…
Creating a brochure, newsletter or glossy info sheets? A PDF document allows you to easily add images and hyperlinks, embed videos and incorporate parts of other documents. What’s best, with remote working, you can even create them collaboratively. Lumin PDF gives businesses the opportunity to edit PDF pages online. Through Google Drive integration, you can upload a document and share with colleagues. Real-time syncing allows everyone to see changes as you are making them, and annotation tools means co-workers can highlight sections, leave comments or make changes of their own. This is the simplest and best way to edit PDFs.
If you want an accompanying PDF pack for a presentation, you can convert text, graphs or tables from Word or Excel and merge them together into one well-formatted document. It’s also no problem if your document has very rich content, resulting in a large file. With a Lumin PDF account you are able to store your documents in the cloud, without taking up space on your computer, which you can compress when wanting to send to others through email.
When you want to be professional…
It is commonly acknowledged that PDFs are the standard for professional looking documents. When sending the document to a printer, there is no danger of resizing, things disappearing, or images changing quality. If being sent through email or uploaded to a website, PDFs can also be watermarked to lessen the threat of intellectual property theft, or locked so that members of the public can’t readily download and change any of the contents of the document.
Edit PDF text online with Lumin
While we’ve only looked at three points, you can see why PDFs are so central to our everyday lives. Editing PDF documents online is opening up new possibilities for people to use this file type in more efficient and effective ways. Lumin PDF offers users the ability to edit PDF files online for free and across all their devices. Collaborate with colleagues and friends, split and merge files and sign using an e-signature all within the one secure application.
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