How to edit a PDF in Pages on a Mac
Pages cannot open PDFs. How to get a PDF's content into Pages on a Mac so you can edit it, which route keeps the layout, and when to skip Pages altogether.
The problem
You want to edit a PDF the way you would edit any document, and Pages, which opens Word files happily, refuses the PDF.
Can Pages open a PDF?
No. Pages opens Word, text and its own files, but not PDFs. Turn the PDF into something Pages can open first.
How do I edit a PDF in Pages?
- Convert the PDF to a Word document. See PDF to Word on a Mac.
- Open the .docx in Pages.
- Edit, then choose File > Export To > PDF when you are done.
What about a short document?
Copy the text instead: open the PDF in Preview, select all, copy, and paste into a new Pages document. Reapply headings and spacing by hand. See extract text from a PDF.
Why does copying give nothing?
The PDF is a scan. Make it searchable first.
Our take
Take a PDF into Pages only when you are going to rewrite it. Every conversion rebuilds the layout and gets some of it wrong; for a typo or a changed date, editing the PDF in place keeps everything else exactly as it was.
Or skip Pages
To change a few words, Simply PDF's Edit text changes them in the PDF itself, in the page's own fonts. It needs a key. See edit PDF text on a Mac.
Questions
Can Pages open a PDF?
No. Convert the PDF to Word or copy its text, then open that in Pages.
How do I edit a PDF in Pages?
Convert it to a Word document first, open the .docx in Pages, edit, and export back to PDF.