Editing a PDF Form

[Frog]

OK I'f searched the board on this topic and found tons of info but none pertain to me .... first off I don't need a paid program .... I only want to alter one PDF form I made years ago ....

Yes I can go back on Win 10 and use Acrobat Pro 9 but in order to add new data every 3 months for my Lab blood work I need to go back and use the typewriter feature of Acrobat ....

Someone gave a solution on the Ubuntu forum for using LibreOffice Writer but I don't have the Bitmap selection in my version of LibreOffice ....

Here are the instructions .....

Here is my what mine shows .... notice there is no Bitmap selection ..... my version is newer that his ....

Oooooooops sorry I forgot to show the Libre photo

[Ocka]

@Frog

I only want to alter one PDF form

Gday Frog, i seem to be able to edit pdf forms in any office/app... Im not sure if im following you. But i read your just trying to edit a .pdf form?

[Ocka]

alternately you could convert to .ods then when finished export as pdf.

PDF to ODS Converter Online - AnyConv

[Frog]

Hey Ocka .... that is not the problem I guess I didn't express myself right ..... the problem is I created a PDF form years ago (and I forgot how I did it) except it is in Adobe's PDF format ..... I need to edit the form so that each time I go for my lab test .... every 3 months .... I can add the new results to the present form ....

Adobe does this by way of the typewriter function in their program most other free Office Software doesn't offer the typewriter function except in their paid version ..... which I don't need just to edit a healthcare form ....

Here is the form so you can see what I mean ..... already have 5-6 years worth of data saved up ..... sorry I can't show you a filled out form due to personal reasons .... but I place a number in each box and you can follow my health progress both good and bad .....

This is my master copy to use when the form gets filled out ....

Hope this clears things up a bit .....

Had to take a photo as can't show a PDF file on the forum ......

[Ocka]

Can you convert the file to edit it?

Then as i assume your doing now, re-create the form using office in Zorin for future use.

Or create a new form & copy manually to new form.

Hard labour i know

[Frog]

Let me look into all that .... I don't remember how I created the form to begin with is my biggest problem ..... I assume I can use a program like LibreOffice Cal to make a new form but I know nothing about spread sheets let alone create a form using one ....

Thank you sir for your help .... I'll check into it further ....

[Frog]

Ocka ..... I found a site on the net that converted my PDF to ODT now I just have to find a way to edit the form using Libre Writer .... looks like I will be a tad busy for a while ..... god I hate reading manuals ..... UGH ....

[JeffK969]

Out of curiosity, did you try Okular?
Recently saw a vid of Okluar vs Evince. They looked promising as options.

[swarfendor437]

You cannot edit a pdf in Okular but you can extract text, tables and images. You cannot edit directly. There is the free Master PDF Editor v1.0 for Linux but you cannot change the font from Times New Roman. My other suggestion would be to import the pdf to a spreadsheet or create a spreadsheet from the data and just update that - might be quicker/easier and you can change the height of the cells and format the font to the type and size of your liking!

[Frog]

Thanks ..... yes I use the free Master PDF Editor now and it works great but it doesn't allow you to add numbers into boxes on a completed form ... you need the paid version for that ....

I'm sure a spread sheet would be a great answer but like I said I know nothing about using a spread sheet .....

I also tried to change the master form to ODT which i did but still can't find a way to fill in the squares with numbers ..... can't find a way using Libre Writer ....

All is not lost cause I can still use Win 10 as I dual boot with Zorin .... just thought it would be nice to have everything over here on Zorin ....

[Ocka]

Try looking at youtube .
speadsheet with libreoffice calc

Heaps of info & VERY easy to make a new spreadsheet

Took 10min's & i've never done it before,
You could try scanning the sheet & then open in office calc.

[Frog]

Thanks ..... I'll give that a try ..... tried on my own and gave up as I couldn't even save my work ..... clicked on save as and when I tried to find it again it was gone .... .

Plum forgot about good ol' tubie ..... should have known ..... thanks

[swarfendor437]

Hi Frog,

I have PM'd you with a better solution!

[Frog]

Thank you sir ..... that indeed is a much better solution ....

[swarfendor437]

No problem Frog! Now you have a 'master' document, remember not to overwrite the first one! Remember to give it a new name (date being the simplest!)

[Frog]

Yes I renamed it Master Copy to be sure I don't do something rash ..... again I want to thank you for making that form for me as I had given up after spending most of the day yesterday trying to make my own .....

And thanks to everyone who tried to help teach this ol' dog new tricks but sometimes the ol' dog reaches his limits ....

[Ocka]

[Ocka]

[Frog]

Thanks for the two additional posts on using LibreOffice ..... I'll read both of them when I get a chance ..... I was able to convert my home-made form to ODT but wasn't able to make any changes to it using Libre Writer and Libre Cal was above my pay grade to learn to create my own form ....

I did view a bunch of videos like you suggested but they went into to much detail for my tired ol' brain to comprehend ..... the first one was great until he started going into keyboard short cuts which frazzled my brain and it was down hill from there .....

[Ocka]

You need ODS < spreadsheets/etc, or xltx ( excel)
As per photo you can convert to & export as many format's.
Best result was pdf to xltx << ODS is great but you'll need to convert/export as whatever your needs are.
Then edit & save/export/etc.