Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 5/13/2008

Question
Hi,

I am using Adobe Illustrator CS2 on windows and started a couple hours ago.

I have uploaded a pdf file (a threefold pamphlet) to make a slight text modification before printing it. I do not know how to modify the text by keeping the same characters and text orientation (writing vertically from bottom to top).

Also, When I upload my document, only one of the two pages is uploaded. How can I bring those two pages back in the same document once my modifications have been done?

Besides, the only image of my document does not upload correctly: a double is made and inserted within the same space and the colors change (they have changed in two different ways when I tried opening the document again).

Thank you very much for your help,

Vicky

Answer
Hi Vicky,
Thank you for rating my answer. I thought I deserved a better rating because I answered the question depending on the little information I found in your question. You didn't tell me that you created the file in Publisher and that you have the original file!

Would you please consider re-rating my answer? I've been with allexperts.com for a few months and all my scores were 10. Your rating for helpfulness was 7 and it hurt my scores very badly.
Would you please send an email to experts@about.com and ask them to change the rating?

Thank you so much,

Laith




Hi Vicky,
Being able to edit a PDF file in Adobe Illustrator depends on how the PDF was originally created and the software that created it. For example PDFs created in Adobe Illustrator have a much better luck than those created in Microsoft Word. A PDF is usually created at the end of the process of creating a design and its main goal is to preserve the appearance of the file on all computers and platforms but not to be edited later. Illustrator is the only well-known software to be able to edit its own PDFs (with "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" option selected when saving as PDF). It has less ability to handle PDFs created by other applications so you will probably have to re-do some text boxes or re-place your image(s).
To Edit the PDF file by opening it in Illustrator you will need to have all the fonts used installed in your system. Illustrator will give you a message when you open the PDF telling you of any missing fonts or may convert all text to outlines to preserve appearance (it will tell you about that in a message before it opens the file).
Since Adobe Illustrator is one-page layout software, it will open one page of your PDF at a time. When you open a file, Illustrator will ask you to select the page to open. What you need to do is to open the first one, save it as 1.pdf. Open the 2nd page and save it as 2.pdf. You'll have to deal with the 2 files separately. In most cases (as I mentioned previously) you have to recreate the text boxes that are not showing the right way. You may have to re-place your images in the new file (you can d that by selecting "File/Place" from the top menu.
Once you have finished editing both files, you have to use adobe Acrobat to combine them in one file (you can download a tryout version from www.adobe.com if you don't have the software). In Acrobat, open the first file (1.pdf) then select "Document/Insert pages" from the top menu, browse to the 2nd file (2.pdf). You'll be asked where to insert it (before or after). Select "after page 1", click ok and save the new file.

I hope that the above information will give you a good start with editing your file in Illustrator. If you like me to take a closer look at your file please email it to imagedpi@yahoo.com. I will be more than happy to give you further assistance.

Best regards,

Laith