Simple .pdf manipulation - Libreoffice Writer?

English Applications
1

Hi again!

I want to migrate from Win to Linux and have to change some procedures for this. For example, I have to do some basic .pdf manipulations:

  • Merge some .pdf’s in a single .pdf
  • Add page to .pdf from scanner
  • Add some basic comments (in Adobe Acrobat I use Text fields)
  • Add a password to open the file (compatible to Acrobat Reader).
  • Done. :slight_smile:

I think all these basic things could be done in Libroffice Writer, can anybody confirm this, before I spend some hours with trial and error? :slight_smile:

If there is another, better software to achieve this, would be nice to get a hint in the right direction.

Many thanks in advance

2

Sorry I can’t answer questions 1 to 3. But for adding a password to a pdf file I use the package pdftk (with a front end from packman {pdftk-qgui}).

http://packman.links2linux.org/package/pdftk-qgui/757945

3

I use pdf24 (free and opensource) with wine that works very well but I never used for password
or PDF editor I suppose native for linux but it doesn’t works very well, I prefere pdf24

4

Tested Libreoffice Draw. There can you add comment, drag-and-drop pages (add, delete, order).
Password can be set when exporting as pdf, security, add password.
Don’t know about scanning :wink:

5

pdf is not meant to be an editable format
unless you have the same fonts used in the original pdf file the output form libreoffice will not look the same
for simple pdf tweaks you can use pdftk (search yast or zypper for it) it’s a command line tool but there are several gui front ends
if you want an acrobat like app you can try
Master PDF Editor
https://code-industry.net/free-pdf-editor/
I think the free version has all the features you asked for

zypper in http://get.code-industry.net/public/master-pdf-editor3-3.7.10-1.x86_64.rpm

the above link may change so download the latest to your pc and install locally

6

Hi together!

Still fighting with Libreoffice Draw. HARD fight… Work I get done in Acrobat in 5 min I can’t get done in 3 hours now. Sigh…>:)

This Master PDF Editor looks nice, too, but what do they mean by:

Following functions are locked in free version:

  • “Paste to Multiple Pages”
  • “Save Optimized As…”
  • “Document Actions”
  • “Document JavaScript”
  • “Page Properties”
  • “Signing PDF with digital signature”

“Document actions”? Any kind of .pdf manipulation (add/shuffle pages from other .pdf files etc.?)? Does anybody use the full version?

7

if you use those functions with the free version of the app it will embed a waternark in all pages of the outputted document.
Document actions are javascripts that are run when you open or close the document, they are only available if the reader supports javasctripts not all readers support them and most block pdf javascript, javascripting never really took off in pdf’s
I haven’t tried the full version as I don’t need it, page reshuffling works well in the free version (it can be done several ways the simplest seams to be in the page thumb panel, by moving the page thumbs the pages are moved within the document)
If you have a valid copy of acrobat you can install it in wine, I haven’t tried with acrobat but wine installs and runs SumatraPDF quite nice, you’d need to run the acrobat installer with wine and wine will do the rest, it will even create a new acrobat shortcut and add acrobat to the open with menu for pdf files.

8

Yup, valid license for Acrobat available, but WINE is the very last option. I always try to solve problems with software onboard already. :wink:

That’s why I keep on fighting with Draw, making some good progress in the meantime, might be that this is already the solution (even adding a password on exporting the file is possible, apparently). Hopefully. Otherwise I will download and try one or the other software I now have on my recommendations list here.

Thanks for now, I keep on look for the best solution… :shame:

9

wine works great
the recommended way to read interactive pdf’s on Linux is to install the current Adobe Reader under wine, as I said wine will make a launcher in the main menu, editing pdf’s with LibreOffice is bad practice as it’s not direct pdf editing but a conversion from a fixed layout to odf then back to pdf there is data lost in those extra conversions.
I’ve installed paint shop under wine and it works great, as I said I have SumatraPDF installed and use it for reading cbr and epub files (I don’t like Okular for those formats) and it’s quite fast, I mean Steam Machines use wine to run hardware intensive games.

If I remember correctly Adobe released Acrobat viii as abandonware a few years back you can try that, seeing that Adobe released the pdf format at the level of Acrobat 8 (pdf 1.7) newer versions of Acrobat don’t add anything to the pdf format you can stay with viii
https://dottech.org/93115/free-adobe-photoshop-cs2-acrobat-pro-8-creative-studio-2-and-more/

https://web.archive.org/web/20130108013240/http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

You can always use pdftk to uncompress the pdf then edit it with a simple text editor like vim :stuck_out_tongue:

10

You can always try a web service like Dochub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dochub
if you don’t mind sharing your data with the world click bellow (if you have an Acrobat license I still think wine is your best choice)
https://dochub.com/

11

Except for the scanning directly into a pdf (never tried), I do all this with PDF Studio 8 from Qoppa Sftware. Plus signing pdf’s, some basic editing, etc. I ended up buying the Pro version, not cheap but…

A good opensource option is kpdftool. I don’t know if there’s a compiled version for tw but any from 13.x will run nicely. It does have a bug related to page numbering when adding pdf’s together, thou.

12

An alternative (possibly more maintained?) to kpdftool is PDF-shuffler: basically allows to add and remove pages from one or several merged PDF. It is available through the “Publishing” project on OBS:
https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=Publishing&package=pdfshuffler

13

Hi I_A!

I wanted to give wine a try on a system to play around a little, I chose TW (current) as the OS to test. Have 42.1 and 42.2 also available, if you consider these more appropriate.

Installed Q4win 1.3.2 from standard repos. Did this prefix thing, started the setup.exe on the CD ()Acrobat X Pro), went through the config menus (I tried both “typical” and “custom”) and installation started (“The program features you selected are being installed”), but always stops during “Copying files” with:

Setup interrupted

The wizard was interrupted before Adobe Acrobat X Pro - English, … could be completely installed. Your system has not been modified… Click Finish to exit Wizard."

Any special options/tweaks needed to install correctly?

Many thanks in advance

14

With Acrobat 9 Pro I get:

Exec string:
/usr/bin/env  WINEPREFIX='/home/aaa/.local/share/wineprefixes/wineTEST'  WINESERVER='/usr/bin/wineserver'  WINELOADER='/usr/bin/wine'  WINEARCH='win32'  WINEDEBUG='-all'  /bin/sh -c "cd '/run/media/aaa/Acrobat9/Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro/' &&   '/usr/bin/wine'   msiexec /i AcroPro.msi  2>&1 "
Exit code:
23296
App STDOUT and STDERR output:

, while with X Pro I get:

Exec string:
/usr/bin/env  WINEPREFIX='/home/aaa/.local/share/wineprefixes/wineTEST'  WINESERVER='/usr/bin/wineserver'  WINELOADER='/usr/bin/wine'  WINEARCH='win32'  WINEDEBUG='-all'  /bin/sh -c "cd '/run/media/aaa/Acrobat 10/Adobe Acrobat X/' &&   '/usr/bin/wine'   msiexec /i AcroPro.msi  2>&1 "
Exit code:
17152
App STDOUT and STDERR output:

Yes, I know this is not the Wine Forum, but did not find much there, maybe somebody could point me in the right direction.

15

:open_mouth: Hi again!

This is the most weird, creepy thing I’ve every done, with the help of a minor and this intercyber-thing I got it running:

  • Install wine in YaST/zypper

  • Make fresh 32bit (! important) environment (called “Wineprefix”)

env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot
  • Install some “Winetricks” (with these it works, not sure all are really necessary, though)
env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 winetricks atmlib gdiplus vcrun2005 vcrun2008 vcrun2010 corefonts msxml3 msxml6 ie6 winhttp
  • Download from www.adobe.com the “Adobe Application Manager” (ApplicationManager10.0_all.exe) file to Desktop (one of the components phoning home to Adobe every time you open/close any of their Apps) and install:
env WINEPREFIX=~./wine32 wine ApplicationManager10.0_all.exe
  • Now it get’s really sick: Installing Acrobat X Pro will not work, instead copy the complete “Acrobat 10.0” folder from your Windows install to the following location:
~/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/

and start Acrobat with Wine:

env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 wine "/home/USER/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/Acrobat 10.0/Acrobat/Acrobat.exe"

  • Enter your license key and you have a running copy of Acrobat X Pro under wine.

  • As a bonus we add a Desktop icon to start Acrobat by adding a script called “acrobat” in /USER/bin

#!/bin/bash
env WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 wine "/home/USER/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/Acrobat 10.0/Acrobat/Acrobat.exe"

and subsequently clicking right on the Desktop, choosing

“Create new…” -> “Link to Application”

Choosing the right icon, naming it “Acrobat X Pro” and “acrobat” as the application to run.

Confirmed running in current Tumbleweed and 42.1…

Nice weekend