Written with AI assistance, then fact-checked and approved by Thomas Lovas Lokoy.
Last updated: October 2026
The short version: to edit a PDF on a Mac with PDF Expert, open the file, switch to the Edit tab and click the paragraph you want to change; hold Option and click to edit a single line; click an empty area to save. If you cannot select any text, the file is a scan and needs OCR first, which PDF Expert currently offers on the Mac only. The steps below follow Readdle’s own help centre, checked on 16 October 2026.
One thing to know before you start: Apple’s free Preview app cannot do this. Apple’s Preview guide says you can’t edit the text of a PDF in Preview — you can only add text boxes, shapes and notes on top. Changing the words that are already there takes a real editor.
Before You Start: What You Need
- A Mac on macOS 12 or later for the editor — that is the requirement on the US Mac App Store listing. The AI assistant, PDF Copilot, needs macOS 13 or later (iOS 16 or later on iPhone and iPad).
- A premium plan or the trial. Text editing, OCR, conversion, signing and PDF Copilot are all on PDF Expert’s list of premium features. Readdle’s PDF Copilot page offers premium features free for 7 days, which is enough to finish this tutorial.
- A copy of your original file. Duplicate the PDF in Finder before you edit, so you can always go back.
Step 1 — Install PDF Expert and Open Your File
Download PDF Expert for Mac and open the PDF you want to change. Practise on something low-stakes first: an old invoice, a menu, a draft report.
Now run a ten-second test that decides your route. Try to select a sentence with the cursor. If the words highlight, the PDF has a text layer and you can go straight to Step 3. If the cursor draws a box instead, or nothing highlights, the page is an image of text — a scan or a photo — and Readdle’s help centre is explicit that the editing tools work only in PDFs with a text layer. Do Step 2 first.
Step 2 — Scanned PDF? Run OCR First (Mac Only)
OCR turns a picture of text into real, editable text. Readdle says it is available in PDF Expert for Mac 3.0 or later, and that the iOS team is still working on it, so do this step on a Mac.
- Open the scanned PDF and go to the Scan & OCR tab. You can adjust page size, paper format or margins here if the scan needs it.
- Click Recognize Text to open the preview.
- Click the blue Recognize button on the right. For a multi-page document, choose the pages, then click Apply.
- Check the orange frames. Readdle uses them to mark possible OCR typos. Click one to compare it with the scanned image; if it is wrong, fix the text and click Correct.
PDF Expert detects the document’s main language automatically. If a page in another language comes out as nonsense, change the language or add a second one in the menu on the right and recognise it again.
Step 3 — Edit the Text
Switch to the Edit tab and click a paragraph. PDF Expert detects paragraphs automatically, so a click selects the whole block for editing. Three variations cover almost every job:
- One line only — a date in a header, a figure in a table row: hold Option and click the line. This stops the edit reflowing the rest of the paragraph.
- Several paragraphs at once: place the cursor outside the text block, then select several blocks.
- Move text: select one or more blocks, then press and hold the trackpad or mouse and drag them to a new spot.
Click an empty area to save the change, and click the Edit tab again to leave editing mode. On iPhone or iPad the route is Edit PDF on the top toolbar, then Text, then tap the paragraph.
Two traps Readdle’s help centre warns about. Text you added earlier in Annotate mode can only be edited in Annotate mode, not here. And deleting words with the edit tool is not the same as removing them: for names, account numbers or anything sensitive, use the Redact tool, which is what Readdle recommends for permanent removal.
Step 4 — Add Your Signature
Signing lives in the Annotate tab, not the Edit tab:
- Open the PDF and select Annotate.
- Select the Signature tool and click the plus sign in the right-hand sidebar.
- Choose Keyboard to type it, Trackpad to draw it, or Image to upload a photo of your handwritten signature. With an image, tick Convert white color to transparent and adjust the Tolerance until the paper background disappears.
- Pick a colour and click Create.
- To place it, click the signature in the sidebar, then click where it should go on the page.
Whether that signature is legally enough depends on where you are and who receives it. Readdle’s own article says the legal framework for electronic signatures varies from country to country and that validity depends on the requirements of the receiving party, so ask before you sign anything important this way.
Step 5 — Check the Document With PDF Copilot
Once your edits are in, PDF Copilot is a quick way to read the result back. On a Mac, click the AI button next to the Actions menu. From there you can ask questions about the document, get a summary, list the main points (and highlight or underline them in the text), summarise your annotations, or generate a short quiz of around ten multiple-choice questions.
A worked check for a contract you have just edited: ask “What dates and amounts appear in this document?” and compare the answer against the changes you made. If the AI still reports an old figure, an edit did not save or there is a second occurrence you missed. The answer is a pointer to where to look, not a replacement for reading the page.
Limits worth knowing, all from Readdle’s help centre: the trial includes 50 “quotas” and the subscription 200, but Readdle does not say what one quota is or whether it resets daily or monthly, so watch your count during the trial. On the Mac, Readdle states the feature is only available to subscription users of the website version of the app, so if you bought through the App Store, check before you rely on it.
Step 6 — Save, Convert or Share
Close editing mode and save the file. If the recipient needs to keep working on the text, PDF Expert’s premium features include converting a PDF to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, which is usually cleaner than asking them to edit the PDF themselves. Open the converted file once before you send it: complex layouts with columns and tables are where any converter is most likely to shift things.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I edit PDF text on a Mac for free?
Not with Preview: Apple’s guide says you can’t edit the text of a PDF in it. PDF Expert lists text editing as a premium feature, but its 7-day trial of premium features lets you make one-off edits without paying.
Why can’t I click on the text to edit it?
Almost always because the PDF has no text layer — it is a scan or a photo of a page. Readdle says the editing tools only work on PDFs with a text layer; run OCR from the Scan & OCR tab on a Mac first, then edit.
Can PDF Expert do OCR on iPhone or iPad?
Not yet. Readdle’s help centre says OCR is available in PDF Expert for Mac 3.0 or later and that its team is working on adding it to the iOS version.
How do I edit just one line without moving the whole paragraph?
In the Edit tab, hold the Option key and click the line. A normal click selects the whole paragraph that PDF Expert detected.
Can I use PDF Expert on Windows?
No — it is an Apple-only app, and Readdle’s help centre confirms there is no Windows version. On a Windows PC, Adobe Acrobat is the cross-platform alternative; its US plans start at Acrobat Standard.
