PDF tutorial

Learn to read, search, annotate, fill in, sign, and print PDF documents, practising every step in a PDF viewer sandbox.

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Course contents

Getting Started

  1. Introduction to PDF — What a PDF is, how it differs from Word files and photos, why people share documents as PDF, and where you'll meet PDFs every day.
  2. Understanding the PDF Interface — Tour the PDF viewer: toolbar, navigation pane, page view, zoom, and the page indicator. Then open, search, print, and download a PDF, and explore a city guide in the Chapter 1 project.

Viewing PDFs

  1. Navigating PDF Documents — Move through any PDF: scroll, jump to a page number, use the page buttons, thumbnails, bookmarks, and a clickable table of contents.
  2. View Options — Change how pages are shown: zoom, Fit Page and Fit Width, single page and continuous view, full screen, and rotation. Then find your way around a user manual in the Chapter 2 project.

Working with Text

  1. Selecting and Copying Text — Select words, sentences, and whole pages of PDF text, copy them into other documents, and find out why scanned PDFs can't be selected.
  2. Searching PDFs — Find text in a PDF, step through every match, use case-sensitive search, and research a report in the Chapter 3 project.

Annotations

  1. Comments and Sticky Notes — Review a PDF with comments: add sticky notes, reply to other reviewers, set a status, and edit and delete comments in the Comments panel.
  2. Text Markup — Highlight, underline, and strike out the exact words you mean, add comments to your marks, view every mark, and remove the ones you no longer need.
  3. Drawing Tools — Draw on PDF pages with freehand ink, rectangles, circles, arrows, and lines, then review a whole newsletter in the Chapter 4 project.

Forms and Signatures

  1. Filling PDF Forms — Fill in fillable PDF forms: text fields, check boxes, option buttons, and drop-down lists, then submit the form and save your completed copy.
  2. Electronic Signatures — Create a signature by drawing, typing, or uploading it, place it on a PDF, resize, update, and remove it, then complete and sign a job application in the Chapter 5 project.

Printing, Saving and Sharing

  1. Printing and Saving PDFs — Print all pages, selected pages, or a range; choose orientation and scaling; save and share PDFs safely; then print an event booklet in the Chapter 6 project.

Practical Projects

  1. Real-World Projects — Put the whole course together in three real jobs: review a proposal, complete a registration form, and review and sign an agreement.