To replace a word or a line in a PDF and keep it in the same font, open the line in an editor that writes with the document’s embedded font, select the words to replace, and type over them. To replace a word everywhere it appears, find each occurrence and replace it line by line, checking each one. PDF Textfix works exactly that way on a Mac: Find takes you to every line that holds the word, and each replacement is applied only after a check that nothing else on the page moves. This guide covers a word inside a line, a whole line, every occurrence, saving, and then the special cases: an empty replacement, a word split across two lines, and shared text such as a running header.
Step 1: How do you replace a word inside a line?
Open the PDF in PDF Textfix, click the line, and press Return (or double-click it). The line editor opens over the line, in the line’s own font. Inside the editor, the text behaves like any Mac text field: double-click a word to select it, or drag across the characters you want to change, then type the replacement. Everything before and after your selection stays as it was, in the same font and at the same size.
When the new word would run into the words after it, PDF Textfix moves the rest of the line to make room and says so in the bar: “The rest of the line moves to make room for the edit.” A Keep Following Text in Place button then appears, which puts the following words back where they were; Shift Rest of Line (⌃⌘R) moves them by hand when you want that.
Press Return to apply. The bar under the pages describes the edit as you type, and its second line names the font being used, so you can see that the replacement is written in the line’s font and not a stand-in.
The same idea, in another editor, reads: “To replace existing text, click on the text and then type new content.” That is from Adobe’s help for Acrobat, which also states that “To edit text using a specific font, you must have that font installed on your computer.” PDF Textfix does not need the font installed: it writes with the font embedded in the file, and marks any character that font lacks.
Step 2: How do you replace a whole line?
Open the line, select all of its text (⌘A in the editor), and type the new line. A line holds no line break: the replacement stays on the one line, and an edit never moves text onto the next.
A longer replacement needs room. If it would run into text that belongs to another line, such as the next column of a table or a value printed beside a label, PDF Textfix refuses the edit and the bar says why. Shorten it, or split the change between two lines that already exist.
Step 3: How do you find every place a word appears?
Use Edit > Find > Find Line… (⌘F). Type the word, and PDF Textfix finds the lines that hold it anywhere in the document. Find Next (⌘G) and Find Previous (⇧⌘G) move between the matches. On each one, press Return, replace the word, and press Return again to apply.
Two other tools help on the way:
- The Lines pane (⌥⌘L) lists the lines of the pages on screen, page by page, and its search field filters them as you type.
- The Edited filter at the top of the Lines pane shows the lines you have changed on the pages around the one on screen, which is a quick way to look over a run of corrections nearby.
For a check of the whole document, run Find once more for the old word: when Find Next (⌘G) no longer lands on a line that holds it, every occurrence has been replaced. Tab applies the edit and selects the next line; press Return to edit it. That keeps a run of corrections in one rhythm.
Step 4: How do you save the replacements?
Press ⌘S, or ⇧⌘S to save a copy under a new name and keep the original untouched. Save writes the whole file again; the lines you replaced are gone from the page, and the saved file keeps no earlier version of them. When the check of the written file passes, the status bar says “Saved and verified.”
Can you replace every occurrence at once?
Not in one command: each replacement is applied and checked on its own, because every line has its own room, font and neighbors. The find and replace answer explains the reasoning and what to do with dozens of matches.
What if the word is split across two lines?
A word hyphenated at the end of a line, such as “agree-” on one line and “ment” on the next, is two separate lines to PDF Textfix, and Find may not match it as one word. Search for a fragment instead (“agree” finds the first half), then edit the two lines one after the other: Tab applies the first edit and selects the next line, and Return opens it. Keep the split where it was; moving the break would need text to flow from one line to the next, which a PDF does not do. The same applies to a name or a number that wraps in a narrow column.
Can you replace a line with nothing?
Yes. Select all of the line’s text in the editor, delete it, and press Return. PDF Textfix accepts an empty replacement like any other edit: it checks it, then removes the line’s text from the page while every other character stays where it was. Undo (⌘Z) brings it back until you save.
Removing a line from the page is not the same as removing the words from the file. The same words can still be in links and their addresses, bookmarks, comments, form fields, the accessibility text of a tagged file, images and the file’s metadata. PDF Textfix is not a redaction tool; for confidential content, use one.
What happens to text that appears on every page?
Some files draw a header or a footer from one shared part of the file on every page. When that shared text is editable, one edit changes every place it is drawn, and the bar says so before you apply it. For a header drawn on three pages, it reads: “This text is shown in 3 places; the edit changes every one of them.” When the shared part takes its font from each page that draws it, its lines are locked instead, and the Issues pane (⌥⌘I) gives that reason.
To correct a person’s name across a letter, accents included, see how to change a name in a PDF. For a single misspelling, the typo guide has a before-and-after checklist.
Questions people ask
Does the replacement use the same font?
Yes, wherever the document’s embedded font has the characters you type. A character it lacks is drawn with a fallback font and marked in orange, so you see it before you apply the edit.
Can I replace text in a PDF for free?
Preview cannot do it: Apple’s guide says “Although you can’t edit the text of a PDF in Preview, you can use the markup tools to provide feedback or write down something you want to remember.” What Preview allows is covering the old words and typing over them, which leaves the old words in the file; the guide to whiting out text explains the risk. PDF Textfix is free to try. Your first 5 line edits save clean. After that, saved files carry a watermark until you buy once. Each changed line counts once per document, however often you save; the glossary entry on a line edit defines the unit.
Can I replace the text of a form field?
No. Form fields and comments are drawn again by viewers from their own values, so their text is locked. Fill or change forms in a form-filling app.
