How To Edit a PDF On Android

It’s not secret that we used to use our computers for almost everything, and further back in the day, we primarily used them for document editing. This included editing things like PDFs. But, nowadays, we’re so on the go that it’s difficult to sit down for a minute and figure out what needs to be edited and by when. Luckily, you don’t have to figure out how to sit down and edit those PDFs on your computer anymore — many of them can be easily edited from a smartphone or tablet.

But, how do you edit a PDF like that on the go? If you follow along below, we’ll show you all of the steps involved in the process.

Native Editing Tools

Some Android phones actually make it extremely easy to edit documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs straight from your smartphone. It all depends on the manufacturer that you got the smartphone from, but many OEMs actually have licenses with Office suites and editing tools to put those apps on smartphones for free use.

That said, editing a PDF could be as simple as opening up an Office Editing tools already installed on your phone, creating an account, and then you should be able to edit a document or PDF right after.

The Google Suite

As you might’ve noticed, Google has been including its entire G Suite on Android phones for the past few Android versions. Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and others are all installed on your phone automatically. While each one will allow you to edit specific documents, Google Docs is the tool that will allow you to edit PDFs.

The first step is to make sure that you have the PDF that you need edited downloaded on your phone. Afterwards, you can open up the Google Docs app. Then, hit the Menu button, and tap on a option that will say something like Open…. This will open up your Downloads folder, and allow you to choose your PDF from the list. In some cases, Google Docs will open the PDF, but absolutely ruin the formatting. So, in some cases, you may need to make sure your PDF is saved as a .doc or .docx file before opening it.

Once you have it opened, you can edit the document file or PDF as you please. Edit text, edit formatting, colors, whatever you need to do. Once you’re done, save your changes. Now, if you had to convert it to a .doc file, converting it back to a PDF is easy, and without losing your formatting settings, too.

You simply need to open the Menu button, tap on the Save As option, and then you can tap the selection that says Save As PDF. It’ll save your new document as a PDF files, and then you’re free to send it off wherever it needs to go.

Edit a PDF Online

Maybe you have the Google Suite or an Office Suite available on your smartphone, but you’re having difficulty for them or you feel that they aren’t the right tools for the job. Luckily, you still have an easy option for editing your PDF on Android, and for free.

In your browser of choice, go to www.pdfescape.com. This is a free online tool that will enable you to edit a PDF document online without losing your formatting options. When the website loads, click on the button that says Choose File. This will open up your Downloads folder, and simply choose the PDF that you downloaded earlier. In some cases, Android will require you to navigate through your file tree to find the Downloads folder first.

It will take a few moments for PDF Escape to process the file, but once it does, you should see it appear on the website. There will be a far left pane with all of the tools that you can use to edit your PDF file, and then on the right, you should see the PDF document itself. PDF Escape offers basic editing tools, which should be more than enough for doing some of the more minor edits that PDF files need when they’re ready for submission or commercial use.

Verdict

As you can see, it’s quite easy to edit a PDF file on Android. There’s a myriad of tools that will enable you to edit PDF documents for free. Traditional PDF editing solutions cost gobs of money, but as you’ve seen above, that isn’t required anymore.