Mac users can sign or edit PDFs with this handy software

At times, it can seem like the internet is in a constant state of change. Still, there are a few things we’ve been able to rely on over the years. Pictures of your cat will get more “likes” than any selfie you take. The comments on any political story will be a train wreck. And when you get a document by email, it’s going to be a PDF.

PDF (or Portable Document Format) has been the default filetype for printed pages and documents for decades now. There are plenty of good reasons for that: PDFs don’t take up a lot of space, they’re searchable and they’re easily readable by anyone.

And for the most part, they generally can’t be altered. That’s great for legal documents or other files that need to protect against tampering. It’s also a royal pain when you get one you really need to adjust.

Even a simple signature usually means you have to print the document, sign it, scan it and save the file before you can send it back. But for Mac users, there’s a simple workaround: PDF Expert.

The program you’ve been waiting for

This breakthrough software was Apple’s choice for App of the Year in 2015, and it’s just as indispensable today. It opens up a whole new world for your PDFs by making them fully modifiable in ways you’ll be taking advantage of almost daily.

First and foremost, you can edit PDFs with it. Open a file in PDF Expert and you’ll be able to change or add text, add links, modify outlines, resize images and more. Found a simple typo? No more returning the file back to the sender. Need a quick signature on an important document? Just click, scribble and save.

You can also add annotations, a feature that’s just as useful for teachers as it is for collaborative workgroups. If you’ve got a particularly sensitive file, you can lock it down behind a password.

One underrated feature of PDF Expert is its ability to merge pages. If you’ve got multiple scanned pages to read, just open the program and view them there. You’ll be able to drag and drop the pages into order as a single, readable document.

Komando readers can get the software for themselves at a hefty discount. Take 62% off your licensed copy of PDF Expert today.

Prices subject to change.

You can’t beat free! Get $70+ worth of premium Mac apps for free today!

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✍️ That was easy: Adobe has two URLs for the next time you need to adjust a PDF or add your signature: edit.ing and sign.ing. Yep, those are real URLs.

🚨 Etsy sellers, watch out: A new scam starts with an email from “support” and a PDF invoice hosted on a legit domain: etsystatic.com. The goal is to get you to fill out fake identity verification requests on a cloned Etsy site. Official Etsy emails always end with @etsy.com.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Need to sign a PDF? Open it in Mac Preview and click the pen icon. You can sign with your trackpad.

🍷 Menu decoded: At a fancy restaurant and have no idea what half the menu means? Ask ChatGPT to describe the dish. If there’s an online PDF of the menu, upload it and ask for suggestions based on your tastes. It can even tell you which wine pairs well with your meal. Beats asking the waiter, “What’s good here?”

✍️ On the dotted line: Sign PDFs fast without extra apps. On a Mac, open the PDF and select Show Markup Toolbar (circle with a pin icon) at the top. Hit Signature (cursive icon) to sign with your trackpad or camera. For Windows, open the PDF in Microsoft Edge and click Draw (pen icon) in the toolbar to sign.

🖥️ Full frontal: If you want to screenshot a long web page, check out the free GoFullPage extension (Chrome and Edge). It captures the whole page, not just what’s on screen. Just click the icon, and it scrolls, snaps and stitches everything into a new tab. You can save it as a PNG, JPEG or PDF. 

Need to sign a document on your Mac? Open a PDF in Preview, click the Markup icon (a little pencil), and select Sign. You can sign using your trackpad, your mouse or even hold up a piece of paper to your Mac’s camera. Easy peasy!

Safety first: Look at the file extension after downloading a PDF online. You’re looking for .pdf. If the file name ends with .exe, delete it. It’s likely malware.

Someone always thanks me for this: You want to print the content on a site but not the ads and junk. Drop the URL into PrintFriendly.com. You’ll get a clean, print-ready PDF. Sweet.