7.14 Reduce the file size of PDFs easily with a Quartz filter.
Viewing and Editing PDFs
Mountain Lion is a whiz at opening, viewing, editing, and creating PDF files. Because I covered opening files earlier in this chapter, I concentrate on viewing and editing them in this section. The creation of PDFs is covered later in this chapter.
To get started, you need to open a PDF, as described earlier.
Annotating PDFs
To annotate a PDF is to highlight, strike through, or underline text that needs to be edited or removed. Annotation also means to add notes or links to a document, or to spotlight an area of the page with an oval, arrow, line, or rectangle. Figure 7.7 shows an example of annotations in a PDF.
To annotate a PDF, do the following:
1. Click and drag the mouse cursor over the text you want to mark up to highlight it.
2. Choose Tools→Annotate.
3. Select which type of annotation to use:
• Highlight Text (
+Control+H)
• Strike Through Text (+Control+S)
• Underline Text (+Control+U)
• Add Oval (+Control+O)
• Add Rectangle (+Control+R)
• Add Line (+Control+I)
• Add Arrow (+Control+A)
• Add Text (+Control+T)
• Add Speech Bubble
• Add Thought Bubble
If annotating PDFs is something you do often, memorize the keyboard shortcuts for them. Keyboard shortcuts can save you much more time than you realize. It’s worth taking the time to learn them if you work in a fast-paced environment.
7.7 Mark up and annotate PDFs in Preview.
The annotations and other editing tools can be accessed quickly by opening the Edit toolbar. Simply click the Edit button to the left of the search field in the toolbar and the Edit toolbar appears beneath it.
Adding your signature to a PDF
Some PDFs may require your signature, so Mountain Lion has added this really cool tool to Preview. As covered earlier in this chapter, you can create a signature in Preview via the Preferences pane. To add a created signature to your PDF, do the following:
1. Open the PDF to which you want to add the signature.
2. In the Edit toolbar, click the Signature button and select the signature you want to place in your PDF, as shown in Figure 7.8. If you don’t see the Edit toolbar, choose View→Show Edit Toolbar or click the Edit button in the toolbar.
7.8 Choose a signature from the Edit toolbar.
3. Click and drag the signature to the location in the document you prefer.
4. Resize the signature if necessary by dragging the handles (gray dots) found on each side and in each corner of the signature window, as shown in Figure 7.9.
7.9 Signatures can be resized by dragging the size handles.
Deleting pages from a PDF
Just a few years ago, the only way to delete or rearrange PDF pages was to pay through the nose for a third-party program. Thanks to Apple, Preview now has these capabilities, which means you can provide a professional level of service without having to shell out a professional level of money.
To delete a page from a multipage document, do the following:
1. If you are unable to see all the pages of the PDF in the sidebar, choose View→Thumbnails and then choose View→Sidebar→Expand All.
2. Find the page you want to delete in the sidebar and click to select it. You can select multiple pages by holding down the key while clicking the individual pages. The sidebar must be displaying thumbnails, not Table of Contents. To set the sidebar to display thumbnails, click the Thumbnails button in the View section of the toolbar at the top of the PDF’s window.
3. Choose Edit→Delete or simply press the Delete key to remove the page from your PDF.
4. Save your PDF (+S) to keep the changes or press +Z to undo a change.
Rearranging pages in a PDF
As mentioned in the previous section, rearranging pages in a PDF is a treat for anyone who doesn’t have an expensive third-party application. To shuffle your PDF pages, do the following:
1. If you are unable to see all the pages of the PDF in the sidebar, choose View→Thumbnails then choose View→Sidebar→Expand All.
2. Search the sidebar for the page you want to move. The sidebar must be displaying thumbnails, not Table of Contents. To set the sidebar to display thumbnails, click the Thumbnails button in the View section of the toolbar at the top of the PDF window.
3. Click and drag the page to the location in the sidebar you prefer, and then drop it in place, as shown in Figure 7.10.
4. Save the changes by pressing +S or undo them by pressing +Z.
7.10 Drag pages from their old location to a new one to rearrange the contents of your PDF.
If you try to make changes to a locked PDF, Preview gives you two options to continue working with the document. To create a new document that retains the changes you made, click Duplicate. If neither of those sounds appealing, click Undo Change to just forget the whole affair. A third option is to unlock the file by clicking the word Locked in the title bar and selecting Unlock from the pop-up menu. Using this option allows you to save changes directly to the original document.
Magnifying the contents of a PDF
Sometimes the fonts in a PDF may be too small to view, or you may simply want to read a section of the document without having to zoom in on the entire page. Preview has a nifty tool called the Magnifier (catchy name) that can accommodate you. Here’s how to zoom in on a specific section of a page:
1. Open a PDF and go to the page you want to view.
2. Choose Tools→Show Magnifier from the menu and the Magnifier window appears in your PDF window, as illustrated in Figure 7.11.
7.11 Magnifier zooms in on specific sections of a PDF.
3. Click and drag the Magnifier to the location of the PDF on which you want to zoom in.
4. When finished, choose Tools→Hide Magnifier or press the ESC key to go back to normal viewing.
Changing the page view
If your PDF contains multiple pages, consider viewing the contents of the document in its entirety so that you can jump from one page to another rather quickly. The View button can be found all the way to the left in the toolbar (if the toolbar isn’t visible at the top of the PDF window, press +B). It is a pop-up menu that contains five options for selecting a specific type of view:
Content Only shows only the currently selected page in your PDF.
Thumbnails opens the sidebar on the left side of the PDF window and displays thumbnail images of each page in your PDF.
Table of Contents view displays the PDF table of contents (assuming it contains one) in the sidebar.
Highlights and Notes view displays every page that contains a highlight or a note in the sidebar.
Contact Sheet displays every page of the PDF in a single window, as shown in Figure 7.12.
7.12 Choose Contact Sheet view to see all pages of a PDF simultaneously in one window.
Rotating pages in a PDF
Sometimes when a PDF is created, some pages may appear in portrait orientation but should be in landscape (or vice versa) for readability. Preview can save your neck some strain by helping you easily rotate pages.
1. Open a PDF and go to the page you want to rotate.
2. Choose Tools→Rotate Left or Tools→Rotate Right from the menu to rotate the page 90 degrees in one direction or the other, as illustrated in Figure 7.13.
3. Save the changes by pressing +S or undo them by pressing +Z.
7.13 You can rotate pages in a PDF so that you can read them without having to look at them sidewise.
Compressing PDFs
PDF files are sometimes larger in terms of file data size than they need to be, and this is just a waste of valuable hard drive space (even in this age of terabyte-plus storage). Preview has a nice way of allowing you to reduce the file size of a PDF:
1. Open a PDF that you want to compress (reduce).
2. Press +S to open the Save As dialog sheet.
3. Choose Reduce File Size from the Quartz Filter pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 7.14.
4. Click the Save button to compress the PDF to a smaller file size.
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