PDF Viewing and Editing

PDFs are one of the most popular file types stored, shared, and accessed in Egnyte. Egnyte’s WebUI supports rich tools for viewing and editing PDF files in the browser.

PDF Viewer

The PDF Viewer is used to preview PDF files within the WebUI and on shared file and folder links. The viewer is also used to preview a variety of other Document and Word Processing, Spreadsheet, and Presentation file types, as covered in Which Types of Files Work With The File Previewer? The viewer and all of its capabilities are available to all Egnyte plans.

Basic Controls

The PDF Viewer allows you to scroll through a document and navigate page with an overlay at the bottom of the document.

Clicking the first number in the overlay allows you to enter a page number, which will navigate you to that page.

The toolbar at the top of the viewer has controls for opening the left panel, printing, viewing the document in full screen mode, and changing zoom and navigation options. The right side of the toolbar has options for search and annotations.

Search

Clicking on the magnifying glass on the right of the toolbar brings up the search panel.  You can search for a word or phrase and the panel will show a list of matches with surrounding text.  Click on a match to scroll the document to that result.

Annotations Panel

The annotations panel is just to the right of search on the toolbar.  This panel shows a list of all of the annotations (notes, highlights, etc.) added to the document and allows you to search those annotations.  Clicking an annotation scrolls you to that annotation in the document shows an arrow pointing to the annotation.

Left Panel

The left panel is accessible via the first item on the toolbar.  Clicking the menu item opens and closes the panel.  The panel has three tabs:

• Thumbnails – thumbnail images of each page in the document.  Clicking a thumbnail navigates you to that page in the document.
• Outlines – shows the outlines or bookmarks in the document.  Note that not all documents are defined with outlines.
• Attachments – shows any files that are attached to the document.

PDF Editing

PDF Editing is an optional add-on to Egnyte plans that provides the ability to add annotations, create form fields, and fill out interactive PDFs. The changes made in the editing mode are made directly to the PDF and will be visible in third-party PDF viewing and editing applications.

Starting the Edit Process

PDF editing is supported when the following criteria is met:

• The document is a PDF
• You have Editor or greater permissions
• The file is not locked by another user

To begin editing, click the “Edit” button to the top-right of the PDF Viewer on the top bar.

Editing Controls

After starting the edit process, a number of new toolbars will be added to the PDF Viewer that contain 30+ annotation and editing tools.  These tools are covered in the following menus:

• Annotate – highlight, add sticky notes, and make freehand drawings on the doc
• Shapes – add shapes and arrows to the document
• Insert – insert callouts, images, stamps, and signatures
• Measure – add measurement annotations to capture the size and area of shapes.  Use calibration tools to set the scale
• Fill and Sign – add signatures, stamps, and other marks to a document
• Forms – add text inputs, form controls, and signature locations to a document

Many of these tools support a wide variety of formatting options including colors, sizes, and lines.

While in edit mode, the Annotations panel allows you to change the status of existing and new annotations, marking them as accepted, rejected, cancelled, etc.

Saving Your Edits

Once you have made edits to your document, you can save the changes.  On clicking the Save button in the top-right, you’ll be given two choices:

1. Save - this creates a new version of the PDF file
2. Save As – this creates a new file and gives you the option to choose the new file name and the location for the file