Using the Preview App to Edit, Markup and Digitally Sign PDFs

In this video the MacWhisperer continues his lessons about Apple's Preview program.

Preview is a powerful program that comes pre-installed on every Mac, and is the default program for opening JPEG's in PDFs… But it can do so much more.

By using the side bar on the left to rearrange, delete or add pages…

By using the markup tools to edit, highlight, redact, or add arrows, shapes and graphics…

Or most importantly by using the signature tool to easily and simply digitally sign any PDF document on your Mac.

Dylan walks through the ins and outs of using preview with PDFs, And explains how to really get the most out of this powerful and free program.

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Dylan Stewart a.k.a. The MacWhisperer teaches a monthly technology course where he explores new and innovative ways to use technology and trains people on how to master their devices and their software to get more done in less time than I ever thought possible.

If you click the link below you can check out the membership for a 30-day free trial, with a half-off ($77 per month) subscription after the trial.

You can find out more about Dylan by going to:

Highlights from this video
[00:00:00] Introduction to editing PDFs with Preview
[00:00:53] Apple's Preview Program
[00:01:34] Opening Preview
[00:01:57] Using the Preview Sidebar (thumbnails, navigationa nd more)
[00:02:19] Reorganizing pages of a PDF
[00:02:35] Deleting pages from a PDF
[00:02:44] Importing PDFs and adding pages
[00:03:16] Zoom in and out on a PDF (adjust your view)
[00:03:32] Share, text or email a PDF from Preview
[00:03:47] The highlight tool, underlines, strikethrough
[00:04:04] Rotate a PDF
[00:04:41] Searching a PDF (the magnifying glass)
[00:05:42] The Markup Toolbar
[00:05:56] Select Text
[00:06:03] Redact Text
[00:06:16] Sketch and Drawing Tools
[00:06:56] Removing a markup
[00:07:05] The Shapes tool
[00:07:17] The magnify tool
[00:07:45] Filling out a PDF form with Preview
[00:08:07] Change markup text size and format
[00:08:56] Sign a document without scanning or printing (Signature Tool)
[00:09:30] Creating a signature
[00:10:49] Flattening a PDF (save a copy with changes)

[motandzil]

Very useful video! The ability to insert pages into a PDF alone is a huge benefit for me... never knew this was possible. And, I've created a signature, too. Thanks for all the tips!

[constancephoto]

Great, extremely comprehensive video-thank you! I had no idea there are so many useful features of preview.

[SusanD-jo]

It is very clear and detailed. Appreciate your time

[lafamillecarrington]

Creating signatures using the computer's camera is so easy. I'm amazed I hadn't come across that before.
Thanks.

[NKL-hg]

Thank you for this- so happy to have found your channel!

[drptripp]

so many things available and I had no idea, thanks for demonstrating it in an easy to understand way

[richardherencia]

Glad I found your videos! Explained exactly how to put my signature on a PDF. Thanks so much!

[Rubiksguy]

I download my packing slips and open them in preview. Sometimes the customer wants to update their address. I’ve taken to handwriting, but there’s gotta be a better way. Can this be done in preview?

[donbiagio]

Hi Dylan:
That was great. As I said before ‘nobody does it better’.
Looking forward to your next one.
The “Hawaiian shirt guy”.
Biagio Bisignano
🌺👍❤️

[luisamedina]

How can you add (or insert) page numbers on Preview when you have a multi-page document? Thanks a lot in advance for details when replying. Thanks a lot for this vid as well!

[mickguinn]

I love that we can easily annotate anything Preview can open. I use Markup all the time to annotate photos of areas inside and outside our house that we'd like a cleaner or gardener to attend to. Using Google Translate, I put notes in Spanish for them, and they appreciate it. 1000 words and all.

However, it seems that every time I do this, the background of the text box is transparent when I need it to be opaque white. The same thing seems to happen to arrows when I need to use one. They keep defaulting to transparent.

When you're annotating a lot of photos and PDFs, having to click crazily each time to change the default settings feels onerous. I'd also love to set my default for Preview to have the Markup setting open on all docs. Is that possible?

Seems like there should be some way to change the default settings. Does anyone know if that's possible, or there's a hack that might?

Or is there another 3rd party MacOS app that would do this just as easily (Adobe feels unnecessarily complex) and allow me to set these defaults?

Very obliged if anyone is able to assist here. 🙏🏼

[Running Sequoia on 2 modern M-chip Macs]

[TheDely]

This was great but how do you erase the editing you have done ? That you might not like please?

[elmegade]

The person / people who designed this app are not from this planet. Talk about

[treasuredude]

I created a signature in Preview and it works great but for the life of me I can't get it to sync to iCloud and my iPhone. I'm using Monterey and iOS 15.7. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

[imperador]

O own a Mac Mini. My preview does not have the draw tool, only the sketch tool. Is there a way to add the drawing tool, since I use the mac with a wacom board?

[michaelorourke]

Thanks very helpful - I noted my Export to PDF is grayed out - any suggestions to fix ?

[jakwire]

good vid, thanks! it is very buggy on Monterey 12.6.3 -- locked up several times. I'd figure they'd have worked this out by now. Any better on Ventura? I bet not...

[pulkitarora]

I did it the same way to a pdf application form in which I have to fill my basic details, BUT in the file section, export in pdf ISN"t HIGHLIGHTED . have to send it anyhow please help me its really frustrating

[محمدالدريويش-فل]

The notes for me are not deletable and I cannot minimize them when I click outside the note.

Edit: I found a way to delete them, which is by going to the sidebar for highlights and notes, select the note and then press backspace. For the minimization issue, it was because the highlights and notes button in the tool bar (Looks like a pen) was toggled, if you toggle it off, you will be able to minimize the notes easily like the video.

[jakwire]

That said, I used 'Scan Genious' to turn my original hard copy into the PDF. I'm guessing Preview sees the whole doc as an image, so I can't highlight text... any ideas how to easily get an editable hard document into my mac so Preview is able to 'see' the text for edting?