Converting non-editable pdfs to editable pdfs

[Albin Jose]

I have an non editable pdf, i need to change certain data in the pdf , how to make it editable.
Thanks in advance

[Sekhar Kadiyala]

you mean you want to do it thru Java code? Or any other mechanism is okay?

[Albin Jose]

java code

[Albin Jose]

Let me know , if its possible thro java, if not let me know the other mechanisms as such

[Paul Sturrock]

As far as I am aware you are going to need the full-blown Adobe Acrobat software for that. See here.

[Bill Shirley]

Are you talking about adding interactive elements, like a form field?

Or are you talking about changing the content?

If you are programatically accessing the content of the file it can't be "non-editable". If you are changing internal text ($NAME$ to Albin), it's just another file - that it is PDF doesn't matter.

If it's a file access problem, ask the crew in I/O and Streams.

[Campbell Ritchie]

There is another current thread about a very similar subject: here. Look at iText and JPedal; the latter is mentioned in that other thread. I don't know anything more about those products.

[Peter Chase]

Some PDF files have specific features for form-filling. These areas can be edited. Apart from that, PDF is not intended to be an editable format.

Shuffling the pages of a PDF can be achieved by a number of programs and libraries. Editing the text within a PDF is also relatively easy, but bear in mind that it is near-impossible to re-flow the text within the document; if your new text doesn't fit nicely into the space occupied by the old text, there's nothing you can do.