Your PDF document looks great except for that stubborn line that refuses to go away. You’ve tried selecting it and deleting it with no luck.
We know how frustrating that can be. We’ve all been there, trying to remove an unwanted element from a PDF document only to realize that, for some mysterious reason, it’s completely unselectable. Often, we’ll just accept defeat and send the document as-is. There are only so many hours in a day, and most of us can’t afford to spend even one of them trying to fix formatting issues.
Next time you’re in this situation, here are simple fixes you can try:
1. "Unlock All”
Text and images in PDFs can be “locked” so you can’t move or edit them. When faced with an unmovable object, try Unlock All. To access this feature, Go to Arrange > Unlock All.
2. Use the Precision Edit Tool
If that doesn’t work, try Precision Edit, PDFpen’s special tool for dealing with difficult objects.
Here’s how to use the Precision Edit Tool:
a. Select the white arrow icon from the Editing Bar. Alternatively, choose Tools > Precision Edit Tool. This selects the Precision Edit Tool and your pointer changes to the precision pointer, as shown below:
b. Click the object you want to select, edit, or resize. You’ll see a bounding box with control handles at the corners of text or graphic element, as shown below:
c. Do one of the following:
- Place your pointer over the object. Your pointer will turn into a little hand, also known as a move pointer. Drag to move the object.
- Place your pointer over one of the object’s control handles. Your pointer will turn into a double-headed arrow, also known as a resize pointer. Drag to resize the object.
- Press Delete to remove the object from the PDF.
Note: The Precision Edit Tool works for many things, but it doesn’t work for selecting imprints or objects you drew using PDFpen’s drawing tools; for those, you’ll want to use the regular Edit Tool.
3. Use AppleScript > Remove All Imprints
As we explain here, PDFpen offers a selection of AppleScripts you can use to automate PDF tasks, even if you don’t know how to code. One of the scripts is “Remove All Imprints”. You can use it to remove comments, images, and objects in a PDF. To access PDFpen’s AppleScripts, click the scripts icon in the menu bar. You’ll find “Remove All Imprints” towards the bottom, right after Split PDF.
Note: In versions of PDFpen running on Lion, Mountain Lion, Yosemite, or later, under Apple rules, you have to populate the script menu yourself. Get step-by-step instructions here.
Your turn: try this on hard-to-select objects
Some PDF documents have text and graphic elements that don’t go easily away. To make them selectable, moveable, and editable, try these tools and/or features:
- “Unlock All”
- Precision Edit
- “Remove All Imprints
If none of these work, try exporting your PDF to Word and making edits to your newly created .docx file on Pages.