Migrate from Adobe Acrobat to LibreOffice

Export

1. 1

   Step 1

   Collect the PDFs you still edit

   Most PDFs only need to be read. Separate the ones someone changes from the ones someone merges. Merge and split belong in Stirling-PDF or PDFsam Basic, not in this guide.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Keep the original

   Copy the file before Draw touches it. The original PDF is the fallback when the export looks wrong.

Import

1. 1

   Step 1

   Open it in Draw

   LibreOffice Draw opens a PDF by importing it into a Draw document. That is the editing step. It is not a overlay on the original bytes.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Change the text, then export

   Edit, then export a PDF. Compare the new file with the original at 100% zoom before you send it to anyone.

3. 3

   Step 3

   Use another tool for merge and split

   If the job is combining files or pulling pages out, stop and use Stirling-PDF or PDFsam Basic. Draw is on this page because it can edit. It is a poor merge tool.

What breaks

• Layout

  Columns, tight forms, and files from a design tool often reflow. If the page has to look identical, Draw is the wrong tool.

• Signatures and review

  Acrobat's signature request, comment threads, and compare tools do not exist in this path. A signed PDF should be left signed. Exporting a new one drops that signature.

• Prepress and OCR

  Print production and a scanned image that needs real text are outside Draw. Do not send a rebuilt PDF to a printer without checking fonts.