Editing text — Nixt PDF docs

Nixt PDF can change text that is already on a page: correct a date, a name, a figure or a typing mistake, in place. The new words are drawn where the old ones started, at their size and in their colour.

There are two ways to do it:

Edit text — click a line and type into it.
Change text… — find a word or number and change it on one page or everywhere.

Changing a line with Edit text

On the Home or Edit tab, click Edit text. The tool strip says Click a line to change its words where they are. Enter keeps it; Esc leaves it.
Every line that can be changed is outlined faintly. Point at one to outline it firmly.
Click the line. A box opens over it, holding the line’s words at the line’s own size.
Type your change. The box works like any text box: select, delete, type.
Press Enter or click Keep. To leave the line as it was, press Esc or click Cancel.

While the change is being made the box says Changing it…. Clicking an empty part of the page while a line is open keeps the change, the same as Keep. Clicking another line opens that line instead.

To edit words you’ve already selected, click Edit text on the selection bar: the line opens with those words selected, so typing replaces them.

Lines that can’t be changed

A line outlined in amber can’t be edited. Clicking it shows the reason, followed by so it cannot be changed here.:

Reason	What it means
The text is at an angle	The line is rotated, slanted or mirrored.
The text is the invisible layer behind a scan, not words drawn on the page	The line is recognised text on a scanned page. Changing it would change what a search finds, not what anyone sees.
The text is drawn from too deep inside the page to rewrite	The page draws this text from inside a nested part of its own drawing.
The page’s drawing could not be read	The page uses a kind of compression Nixt PDF doesn’t read.

Changing every occurrence with Change text

On the Edit tab, click Change text… (or choose More › Change text on the page…, or click Change text everywhere… in the Edit text tool strip). It’s dimmed on a document with no text.
In Change this, type the words or number to find.
In To this, type what they should become.
Choose where:
- The switch reads On this page only (page 3) by default. Turn it on for Everywhere in the document.
Choose how to match:
- Match capitals — on by default. Turn it off to find the words whatever their capitals.
- Whole words only — off by default. Turn it on so form doesn’t match inside information.
Check the line under the options: 4 matches found. counts what would be changed. It’s shown in amber when there are none.
Click Change it. It’s dimmed until Change this has something in it and To this is different.

The dialog closes and the message says what was done.

What happens to the new words

Nixt PDF takes out exactly the letters that change and draws the new words where the old ones started.

Font. The new words use the page’s own font when it has every letter needed. When it doesn’t, they use the standard font closest to it, and the message says one in a standard font, because the document’s own has no letter for part of it (or how many).
Other scripts. Words in a script no available font has — Arabic, Chinese or Cyrillic in a Latin document, for example — are drawn as lettering by your computer, and stay searchable and copyable.
Room. When the new words are longer, the rest of the line moves along to make room. When moving isn’t possible, the words are set a little narrower, and the message says set a little narrower to fit. When even that won’t fit, that place is left alone, and the message says left 1 alone: the replacement does not fit where the original was.

Examples of messages:

Message	Meaning
Changed 3 places.	Every match was changed.
Changed 2 places, left 1 alone: the text is at an angle.	One match couldn’t be changed, for the reason given.
That text is not on this page.	Nothing matched.
Nothing changed.	The line was kept, but no change could be made to it.

Each change is one undoable step. A Change text… across the whole document is a single step.

Editing a signed document

Changing text changes what the pages say. On a signed document, Nixt PDF warns you the first time you choose a tool, and anyone checking the signatures afterwards is told that page content changed after signing. See Validating signatures.