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Edit a document before you send it

swipesign has a PDF editor built in. Fix a typo, add a clause, insert a logo or reorder pages: without leaving the workflow.

Support

You uploaded the contract, placed the fields, and then spotted the wrong date in clause 4. You do not have to go back to Word. Editor in the workflow toolbar opens the document for editing in place.

The PDF editor open on a contract, with an Insert toolbar offering Heading, Subheading, Text and Image, a page rail on the left, and Discard and Save PDF actions.
The editor is in Beta
It is marked as such in the product. It handles ordinary business documents well; something built with unusual fonts or a heavily designed layout can shift. Always use Preview before you save.

What you can change

Existing textClick any text on the page and type. Fonts, sizes, colour, bold, italic, underline and alignment all follow.
New textDrop in a paragraph or a heading anywhere on the page.
ImagesPlace a logo, a stamp or a scanned annex. PNG, JPG and SVG.
HighlightsDraw a highlight rectangle over a passage that matters.
PagesRotate, duplicate, reorder, insert a blank one, or delete.
Everything, undoneFull undo and redo history, and Discard rolls the whole session back.

The three that save the most time

Most of the editor explains itself. These do not, and they are the ones that save time.

  • Find and replace: Ctrl + F opens it, with a match counter and prev/next. It searches the real text, and Replace all will swap every occurrence at once. This is how you change a party name throughout a contract in one go.
  • Copy formatting: the paintbrush at the end of the text toolbar. Copies the styling of one piece of text onto the next thing you select. The fix for pasted-in text that looks wrong.
  • Insert anywhere: Heading, Subheading, Text and Image are armed from the toolbar, then you click the page to drop them.
The editor with a paragraph selected, showing the text toolbar: bold, italic, underline, font family, size, colour, alignment and copy formatting.
Select any text and the toolbar switches to formatting controls.

Keyboard shortcuts

Use Ctrl, not Cmd, for find on a Mac
Cmd + F is taken by the browser's own find bar, which searches the page rather than the document. Ctrl + F reaches the editor.
ShortcutDoes
Ctrl + FFind and replace
Cmd/Ctrl + SSave changes
Cmd/Ctrl + ZUndo: add Shift to redo
Cmd/Ctrl + B / I / UBold, italic, underline
Cmd/Ctrl + + / - / 0Zoom in, out, reset
T / H / IInsert text, heading, image
Arrow keysNudge the selected object
DeleteRemove the selected object
EscCancel whatever you are in the middle of

Saving, and not losing work

  1. 1
    Make your changes. The status line tells you what mode you are in.
  2. 2
    Preview to see the document as it will be saved.
  3. 3
    Save changes to write it back.
Saving replaces the document on the server
The edited version becomes the document. It cannot be undone after saving, so preview first: particularly if the editor warned you that some change could not be applied exactly.
Unsaved work survives you closing it
Close the editor with edits outstanding and they are kept. Next time you open it, you are offered them back: Restore or Discard. Closing the tab is not the disaster it looks like.

Edit before you send, not after

Once a workflow is out, the document is frozen: for you as much as for anyone else. The editor is a pre-send tool. See Check it before you send.

And if there is no document yet at all, you can build one from a blank page instead: Create a PDF from scratch.

Can I edit a document that has already been signed?

No, and no other tool should let you either. Editing a signed PDF breaks the signature it carries, which is the entire point of a signature. Cancel the workflow and start again with the corrected file.

What happens to my signature fields when I edit?

They stay where you put them on the page. If your edit moves the text underneath, check the fields still line up before sending.

Can I edit a Word file?

Upload it and swipesign converts it to PDF first: you then edit the PDF. For anything structural, editing in Word and re-uploading gives a better result.

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