How to edit PDFs online for free

Adobe Acrobat is a pretty robust PDF viewer with robust editing features. But if you don't have access to the paid version of the program, there is an easy online solution to edit PDF files.

All you need to do is upload your PDF to Google Drive. The only Google Drive guide you'll ever need to read. The only Google Drive guide you'll ever need to read. Google Drive is the perfect combination of online file storage and document management tools. We explain how to best use Google Drive online and offline, on your own and in collaboration with others. Read more . To edit a PDF, do the following:

1. Upload your PDF to your Google Drive. Click New> Upload File and navigate to the location where your file is saved on your computer.
2. Once the upload is complete, go to the file in your Google Drive, right click and select Open with> Google Docs.
3. Your PDF will now open as an editable document in Google Docs.
4. Once you're done editing it, you can save it to your computer as a PDF or Word document, among other file formats. Click File> Download as and select your file type to save your edited document.

There are a few caveats to be aware of when using this method.

It works best with PDF files that consist of only text. If you have a form that you've filled out, any structure or fields will be lost when you convert it to a Google Doc. Images in PDFs will also disappear, while any fancy text formatting (even in text-only PDFs) won't be visible in Google Docs. .

While there are some apps you can connect to Google Drive that claim to be PDF editors (like Lumin PDF and DocHub), you can't edit existing text with these apps. You can add annotations, highlight text, and more, but you can't actually make any changes to the text in the document.

What is your preferred method for opening and editing PDF files without Adobe Acrobat? Let us know in the comments.