15 PDF Tips and Tricks You Probably Didn't Know

15 PDF Tips That Will Change How You Work

Most people only use PDFs for reading. Here are 15 tricks that make you a PDF power user.

Tip 1: Merge Any File Types into One PDF

You're not limited to merging PDFs. Convert Word, Excel, images, and PowerPoint to PDF first, then merge everything:

1. Convert each file: Word to PDF, Excel to PDF, JPG to PDF
2. Merge all PDFs: Merge PDF

Tip 2: Compress Before Emailing — Always

A 25 MB PDF can become 5 MB with one click. Always compress before emailing — your recipients will thank you.

Compress PDF — Medium compression is invisible to the eye.

Tip 3: Add Page Numbers After Merging

When you combine multiple documents, page numbers reset. Fix this:

1. Merge PDF your documents
2. Add Page Numbers to the merged file

Tip 4: OCR Makes Scanned PDFs Searchable

Can't Ctrl+F in a scanned document? That's because it's an image, not text. OCR PDF adds a hidden text layer so you can search, copy, and select text.

Tip 5: Remove the Password You Forgot

If your PDF has editing restrictions (can't print, can't copy), you can remove them without the password. Only the "open" password requires the actual password.

Unlock PDF

Tip 6: Grayscale Saves Massive File Size

A color PDF with charts and photos can be 3x larger than the same document in grayscale. If color isn't essential:

Grayscale PDF → then Compress PDF

Tip 7: Extract Just the Images

Need a chart from page 7 of a report? Don't screenshot it — extract the original high-resolution image:

Extract Images from PDF

Tip 8: Sign PDFs Without Printing

The "print → sign → scan" workflow is dead. Sign digitally:

1. Sign PDF — draw, type, or upload signature
2. Flatten PDF — lock the signature permanently

Tip 9: Convert PDF Tables to Excel

Stop manually retyping table data. PDF to Excel extracts tables with columns and rows intact.

Tip 10: Redact Properly (Not Just Black Boxes)

Drawing a black rectangle over sensitive text doesn't work — the text is still underneath and can be selected. True redaction permanently removes the data:

Redact PDF

Tip 11: Create a PDF from Your Phone Camera

Turn your phone into a document scanner:

1. Photo each page
2. Upload all photos to Image to PDF
3. Download a professional multi-page PDF

Tip 12: Flatten Forms Before Sharing

Filled out a PDF form? Flatten it so recipients see your answers but can't change them:

Flatten PDF

Tip 13: Set PDF Metadata for SEO

Google indexes PDFs. If your PDF appears in search results, the title and description come from metadata:

PDF Metadata Editor — set a proper title, not "Document1.pdf"

Tip 14: Convert GIFs to MP4 for Presentations

GIFs in presentations are huge and laggy. Convert to MP4 for 90% smaller files with better quality:

GIF to MP4

Tip 15: Watermark Confidential Documents

Mark documents as "CONFIDENTIAL", "DRAFT", or "INTERNAL" before sharing:

Add Watermark

Bonus: Keyboard Shortcuts for PDF Readers

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+F	Search text
Ctrl+G	Go to page
Ctrl+P	Print
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-	Zoom in/out
Ctrl+0	Fit to page
Space	Scroll down
Shift+Space	Scroll up

All Tools Mentioned

Every tool in this article is free on MyPDF — no account, no limits, no watermarks.