The tips should know with PDF files on Google Drive

Google Drive currently offers a lot of useful tools to help us edit text files, spreadsheets or presentation slides. But that is not all that this cloud service can offer because Drive also greatly supports interacting with PDF files thanks to the built-in features as well as external settings. In this article, let's take a look at some ways to take advantage of Drive's PDF support so we can work faster and easier.

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1. Features available

Save PDF directly to Drive when viewing with Chrome

Chrome itself has a great PDF file viewer with fast download speeds. In addition to saving the file to the computer, this viewer also has a button to save the file straight to our Drive account which is not widely known. Normally you have to manually download and upload to Drive again manually, while now just one click is done.

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Usage is also extremely simple. First of all, you need to make sure you have logged into your Google account in Chrome. Later:

1. Browse on the web and open any PDF file
2. In the new screen that appears, click the printer icon in the toolbar that appears at the bottom
3. Click on the " Change " button> scroll down to the " Google Cloud Print " section.
4. Select " Save to Google Drive "

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Edit the content of the PDF file

Google Drive has a built-in technology for reading and converting PDF files. Based on this technology, you can quickly search for content in PDF files similar to when you find a certain keyword in Word, Excel, PowerPoint files. In addition, because the text in the PDF document has been fully converted into editable text, you are free to edit the content at your discretion.

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Doing:

1. Upload your PDF file to Drive
2. Right-click> select Open With> Google Docs.
3. When the file is opened, save it as Google Docs
4. Edit, edit, search as you like
5. When editing, you can save the file in PDF format for further use ( see instructions below ).

Note : for PDF pages with complex formats, such as document catalogs, the content may be skewed after converting to Google Docs file. Images, notes, colors, typography . most still remain the same, so it doesn't affect much.

Content converted from PDF files to Google Docs for editing

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Export any document file to PDF

Normally, when you edit text files, spreadsheets or presentation slides on Google Drive, you will have the option of saving it to your computer as Word, Excel or PowerPoint. But that's not all, because Drive also supports us to export PDF files. Often, to share and not want others to edit, you should choose PDF, so the format will be preserved, and easy to view on many different devices.

How to do the following:

1. In any open document on Drive, click the File menu
2. Select Download as> PDF Document

Scan PDF files with mobile applications

When you install the Drive application on Android or iOS, you can take advantage of your phone's camera to scan a document on paper and convert it into a PDF file. Special point is that after using the camera to finish shooting Drive will cut the page accordingly, then increase the contrast and other parameters to help us read more easily. The paper can also be flattened and increased in brightness compared to camera images. Great for storing online documents and throwing away the paper.

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Using:

1. Run the Drive app on Android or iOS
2. Click on the + sign when you create a new document
3. Select the camera icon
4. Putting the paper in the picture frame, note that it is better to shoot in a bright environment
5. Click capture, then press the tick button and wait for Drive to convert the image into PDF

2. Use add-on to install from outside via Chrome

Mark on PDF file

Notable PDF is an add-on that helps turn Chrome into an extremely powerful PDF file viewer. It will allow you to highlight, underline, cross out, insert comments and insert text into documents, just like what Adobe Reader on a computer can do. If you regularly manipulate online, even if you just use Chrome to process PDF files, it will be enough.

Usage: right-click on your PDF file and select Open With> Notable PDF

Download the add-on Notable PDF

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Fill in the PDF file

The default Chrome PDF viewer allows you to fill in PDF files with spaces. However, if you need to check the checkmark, insert the signature or have to fill in the same type of information, you will have to use services like HelloSign or DocuSign. Both have the ability to integrate with Drive, so just right-click your PDF file and select Open With> HelloSign / DocuSign and you're done, no need to manually upload these two services.

The free account of the above two services allows you to manipulate a total of 3 files per month, but it's okay because if you finish signing the file, we can save it on our Drive and delete it HelloSign / DocuSign.

Download HelloSign

Download DocuSign

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Mix multiple PDF files into one

Normally to do this you must use the software installed on the computer, and if you use the PDF Mergy service, everything will be made online so faster. How to use is extremely simple: in Drive, you right-click on the file to merge, then select Open With> PDF Mergy . These documents are then automatically transferred to the PDF Mergy website, where you can easily move them to the desired location, drag and drop or add files as you wish.

When everything is ready, click the blue ' Merge ' button to perform the mixing operation. You can save the result file to your computer or save it to Drive.

Download PDF Mergy

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Cut PDF file, why not?

I was mixing it up, now cut it. There will be times when you need to cut the PDF file to get only those pages that need it or to reduce the file size before posting it somewhere. PDFSplit tool! This will help you do this, and of course it is well integrated with Drive, so it becomes even more convenient.

Using:

1. Open a PDF file in Drive
2. Click the Open With icon
3. Select PDFSplit!
4. In the new page that appears, in the 'Pages' section, enter the serial number of the page you want to start cutting and the page number of the end page.
5. For example, I want pages 6 to 9 of a PDF file, enter number 6 in the first box, number 9 in the second box.
6. Click Split when you're done.

Download PDFSplit!

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Set password for PDF file

With the same usage as PDFSplit! but add-in PDFProtect! will allow you to password protect your PDF file. You will be able to choose different levels of encryption, whether to print documents or not, whether to change the file content or not . Too great and convenient, right?

Download PDFProtect!

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