12-02-2010, 05:23 PM

All I want to do is take my PDF files (which are labels for my hubby's equine supplements) and make a few small changes to the text. nothing major, no color changes or images on them - pretty straight forward. I tried GIMP but wasted a frustrating 2 hours trying to simply change a phone number! I am clueless. Is there anything I can download for free that doesn't have 8 bizzilion options?

12-02-2010, 05:37 PM

Don't forget to use Google for things like this.

Here is one tech-tip article that I found through a Google search ("convert PDF to Word"). He uses a free online service called Zamzar. This is a 3 yr old article, so no guarantees if that site is still around, but take a look.

Once converted to word docs, you can use OpenOffice or NeoOffice (both FREE) to open and edit the .doc files. When finished, if you want to save as PDF again, just go through the steps like you're going to print the file. Except instead of actually printing, there is an option in the lower left to save as PDF (or maybe it says "Print as PDF"). Either way, that should work for you. It might sound complicated, but once you install your O.O. or N.O., the rest is pretty quick.

12-02-2010, 09:48 PM

Go to Adobe and download a 30 trail version of either Acrobat or Photoshop. These come in full working order so you can do pretty much any type of change required.

At the end of the thirty days either remove them, or as I did buy them. This also gives you a chance to surf around for something less expensive or freeware.

12-02-2010, 10:57 PM

I suspect that the problem GIMP was having is that what you were editing had not been first converted to a graphic. If MYmacROX's suggestion does work the following might.

1. Automator has an action which will convert the pdf to an image.
2. The image can be pulled into a graphic editor such as GIMP and changed.
3. Save resulting file as a pdf.

If you are interested let me know. I think I could build/test this quickly this weekend.