Edit a PDF

Open any PDF in your library and it opens in the PDF editor. Files that Sopycat turned into a PDF when you added them, such as spreadsheets or TIFF scans, open here too. The file you first added is never overwritten: each save becomes a new version, and the original is always kept.

The tabs at a glance

Across the top of the editor are seven tabs. Sopycat remembers which tab you last used for each document, so a form reopens on Fill in and a contract on Edit text.

Tab	Use it to
Read	Read the PDF in the built-in viewer.
Edit text	Change words already on the page, or add new text.
Pictures	Add, move, turn, replace or remove pictures.
Pages	Reorder, turn, delete, crop and split pages. See Pages and the More menu.
Mark up	Highlight, draw, comment, stamp, sign and redact.
Fill in	Fill in the form's own boxes. See Fill in a form.
Fields	Add fillable boxes to a PDF. See Add form fields.

Every tab except Read has a toolbar with Save, Discard, undo and redo, the page count and page size, and a More menu with the tools that work on the whole file. Edit text, Pictures and Mark up also have zoom, from 50% to 300%. Click the percentage to Fit the width.

Save your changes

Any tab except Read › Save

Edits wait until you save. You can switch between tabs as much as you like: all your pending edits, from every tab, are kept together. The button counts them, for example Save 5 edits.

1. Make your changes on any tabs.
2. Press Save or Ctrl+S.
3. Sopycat writes everything in one go and says "Saved. The original is still here under Versions."

Each kind of change is saved as its own version: words, pictures, form fields, form answers, redactions, marks and page order. If one step fails, the steps already written stay saved and the rest stay pending, so you can fix the problem and press Save again without losing anything.

Some tools, such as Make the file smaller… or Watermark… in the More menu, change the file straight away. If you have pending edits, Sopycat saves them first as their own version, then runs the tool.

Throw away changes you haven't saved

Press Discard to drop every pending edit. If you change your mind, press Ctrl+Z and they come back.

Undo and redo

Undo is Ctrl+Z. Redo is Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z. There is one history for all the tabs, so undo steps back through your edits in the order you made them, whichever tab they were on.

What if Sopycat closes before I save?

Your pending edits are kept as a draft on this computer. Sopycat saves the draft about every two seconds, and also when you switch tabs, switch to another window or close the document.

Next time you open the PDF, you'll see "You have unsaved changes from" a time, with the number of edits, and two buttons:

• Restore puts the edits back as pending, ready to save.
• Discard throws the draft away.

If the file was saved again after the draft was made, the message turns amber so you can decide carefully.

If you try to leave a PDF with pending edits, Sopycat asks Save your changes? with Cancel, Discard and Save.

Go back to an earlier version

Open a PDF › More › Versions, or the document's ⋯ menu › Versions

The list starts with The original, untouched, followed by each save with the date, time and a short note of what changed. Choose one to make it the current version. You can also type "Versions" in the command palette (Ctrl+K).

Sopycat keeps the original plus your 20 most recent saves for each document.

Change the words on a page

Open a PDF › Edit text

The Edit text tab has three ways to work: Lines, Paragraphs and New text. Choose one on the tab.

Change one line

1. Choose Lines.
2. Click a line of text.
3. Type the new words.

The old words are really removed from the file, not covered up, so they don't turn up when someone searches or copies the text.

Rewrite a paragraph

Choose Paragraphs and click a block of text. When you type, the whole block rewraps inside its box, the way a word processor would. If your new text is too long for the box, Sopycat shows you where it runs over so you can shorten it.

Add new text

1. Choose New text.
2. Drag a box on the page and type.
3. Pick the font (Helvetica, Times, Courier or a font installed on your computer), size (6 to 72), bold, italic, alignment and colour.
4. Press Ctrl+Enter to keep it, or Esc to drop it.

New text is real text in the file, so it can be searched and copied. Drag a box to move it. Remove it with its × or Delete.

Change how words look

The style panel changes the font, size, bold, italic and colour of the text you're editing. Press Keep to apply it. To undo everything you've done on the current page, press Undo this page, which shows how many edits it will undo.

Why won't a line change, or why does the font look different?

• Lines that belong to a stamp or a form field can't be changed on the Edit text tab. Change form answers on Fill in.
• Many PDFs only carry the letters they actually use from a font. If the file doesn't have what Sopycat needs, the line is set again in the closest standard font.
• A scanned page is a picture, so it has no lines to click. You can still add new text on top of it.

Add, move or replace a picture

Open a PDF › Pictures

The Pictures tab changes the real pictures inside the file. It doesn't paint over them.

1. Press Add a picture… and choose a file (PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, WebP, TIFF, HEIC or SVG).
2. Click the page to place it, or drag a box to set its size. Esc cancels.

Click any picture on the page to pick it up. Then you can:

• Drag it to move it. Drag a corner to resize it in proportion, or hold Shift to stretch it. The arrow keys nudge it.
• Turn it a quarter with Left or Right.
• Swap it for another file with Replace…, or take it out with Remove.
• Undo your changes to it with Put it back as it was.
• Copy it to the same place on other pages with Same spot on other pages. Tick the pages and press Copy. This is handy for a logo.

Mark up a PDF

Open a PDF › Mark up

The Mark up tab has two kinds of tools.

Kind	Tools	What they make
Review tools	Select, Highlight, Underline, Strike through, Draw, Box, Circle, Line, Arrow, Callout, Sticky note, Stamp	Real PDF comments, with your name and the date. Other PDF readers show them too.
Page tools	Type on the page, Signature, Picture, Redact	Part of the page itself once you save.

Choose a colour (red, yellow, green, blue, black or white), a thickness from 1 to 8, and a text size from 8 to 36.

For signatures and stamps, see Sign with your handwriting and Stamp a page. For redaction, see Redact safely.

Move, resize or remove a mark

• With Select, drag a mark to move it, or drag one of its eight handles to resize it.
• Arrow keys nudge the selected mark. Hold Shift to move it further.
• Delete removes it. Esc lets go of it.
• Every mark you haven't saved yet has a × to remove it. Undo last takes back the last one.

You can also move or remove comments that were already in the file. Those changes are saved straight away, as a new version.

Whose name goes on my comments?

The name in Settings › Your name. If you haven't set one, Sopycat uses your Windows account name.

Read, answer and export comments

Mark up › Comments, or More › Comments…

The comments panel lists every comment in the PDF. From it you can:

• Reply to a comment. Ctrl+Enter sends the reply.
• Resolve, edit or delete a comment.
• Tick Show resolved to see comments that are done.
• Press Export to save all the comments as a web page (HTML) or a spreadsheet file (CSV).

Why can't I edit this PDF?

It has a password or is locked against changes

If a PDF needs a password to open, the editing tabs show This PDF has a password. If it opens freely but its maker turned off editing, they show This PDF is locked against changes. Only the Read tab works until you unlock it.

1. Go to any editing tab.
2. Type the password (for a locked file, the permissions password).
3. Press Remove the password or Remove the lock.

The locked copy stays under Versions. If you don't know the password, Sopycat can't open the file for editing. Ask whoever sent it. While a file is locked, the More menu offers only Remove the password…, Signatures…, Save a copy… and Versions.

Someone else is editing it

In a shared library, a PDF that someone on another computer is editing opens read-only for you. A banner offers Reload theirs, Keep yours as a copy, Compare and pick, Open read-only and Edit anyway. See sharing a library.

It's a manual, not a PDF

Manuals you record have their own editor. To edit one as a PDF, export it to PDF first (see exporting a manual) and add the PDF to your library.

Keys for the PDF editor

Keys	What they do
Ctrl+S	Save every pending edit
Ctrl+Z	Undo, across all tabs
Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
Ctrl+Enter	Keep a new text box, or send a comment reply
Esc	Drop a new text box; in Mark up, go back to Select
Delete	Remove the selected mark, text box or page
Arrow keys	Nudge the selected mark or picture (Shift for more)

For every shortcut in the app, see keyboard shortcuts.