PDF Expert 5

User guide

2014 Readdle Inc.

Contents

Chapter 1. Overview ....................................... 5

Chapter 2. Main menu..................................... 8
Chapter 3. Loading documents ..................... 12
Mail app ..................................................... 12
Dropbox ..................................................... 12
Other apps................................................. 16
Other web storage ..................................... 16
iCloud ........................................................ 18
Safari ......................................................... 19
Mac OS X .................................................. 21
Windows .................................................... 23
Chapter 4. File management......................... 24
Supported file formats ............................... 24
Managing files and folders......................... 25
2

Operations with files and folders ............... 27

Chapter 5. Viewing PDF files ........................ 31
Viewing ...................................................... 31
Chapter 6. Annotating ................................... 38
Chapter 7. Signatures ................................... 44
Chapter 8. Managing PDF Pages ................. 47
Chapter 9. Filling out forms ........................... 50
Supported form formats ............................. 50
Filling in the form fields .............................. 51
Clear form.................................................. 53
Chapter 10. Flattened PDFs ......................... 55
Chapter 11. Submitting and uploading .......... 57
Submit by email ......................................... 57
Upload to a web storage............................ 59
Sending to another app ............................. 60
Chapter 12. Sync .......................................... 62
3

Setting up the sync .................................... 62

Disable ...................................................... 63
Chapter 13. Settings ..................................... 65
PDF Viewer ............................................... 65
File Manager ............................................. 67
Security ..................................................... 68
Wi-Fi Drive ................................................. 69
File Contents Search ................................. 70
Sync .......................................................... 70
Support ...................................................... 71
Appendix. Troubleshooting............................ 72
Backing up files ......................................... 72
Reinstallation ............................................. 73
PDF Form issue ........................................ 74

Chapter 1. Overview
PDF Expert is an ultimate solution for PDF
reading, annotating and editing. The whole
set of PDF tools is as convenient as on a
desktop computer at the office or at home.
PDF Expert allows you to view any PDF
file, annotate it, insert corrections or
even create a new PDF file by copying
pages from other documents.
PDF Expert offers advanced form filling
tools for PDF forms. Text fields, check
boxes, radio buttons and other form
elements work as you expect.

 You can use PDF Expert to sign

contracts and agreements right on the
iPhone or iPad.
Upon completion, the changes are saved in
accordance to PDF format specification.
The documents can be shared to other
electronic devices or web storages for
further viewing or modifying in any decent
PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat Reader,
Apple Preview, etc. With this you can give
access to the annotated files to your friends
and colleagues.
You can send PDF files to or from PDF
Expert via your Mac or PC, email
attachments, Dropbox, Google Drive,
OneDrive, Box.com etc. PDF Expert also
6

reads most common document types,

including iWork, MS Office, text files,
images, even music and video files.
With PDF Expert on your iPhone and iPad
you can build a complete document
workflow for all professional and personal
needs.

Chapter 2. Main menu

PDF Expert provides a clean and simple
interface, which uses all the benefits of an
iPhone screen. The buttons at the bottom
provide the most needed options. You can
also drag and drop your files and folders to
other folders and tabs.
There are 3 tabs you can use for navigation:
1. Documents for all the local files,
2. iCloud for files backed up to iCloud,
3. Network for all the cloud servers
and network connections.
Display and sorting options can be revealed
by swipe from the top.

Tap Edit to reveal the bottom toolbar.

10

Swipe from the top to open the sorting

toolbar.

11

Chapter 3. Loading documents

Mail app
To send a file from your mailbox to PDF
Expert:
1. Open the email in the iPhone Mail
app
2. Tap and hold on the attachment
3. Select Open in PDF Expert
A copy of the file will be saved in PDF
Expert and opened for preview.

Dropbox
With PDF Expert you can download files
and folders directly from your Dropbox or
Google Drive account. To do that:

12

 Connect to Dropbox:
1. Tap Network
2. Tap Add Account

3. Select Dropbox
4. You can either enter login and
password manually or launch
Dropbox app to authorize

13

5. After authorization your Dropbox

account will be saved under Accounts
list. Tap it to review your Dropbox files
Tap on any file to download and open it
To download several files:
1. Tap Edit
2. Select files and folders you need
3. Tap Download

14

4. The files and folders will be copied to

Downloads folder in PDF Expert
Documents tab.
You can change the target folder under
PDF Expert Settings.

15

Other apps
To send a file from any other app you can use
Open In feature, which is usually found in
the actions menu, for example in Adobe
Reader.

Other web storage

PDF Expert supports several web storage
services, like Dropbox or Google Drive
along with FTP, SFTP, SMB and WebDAV
server connections. If the server youre

16

using is not in the list you can set up a

generic connection via WebDAV.
To connect to any of the listed web storage
services:
1. Go to Network

tab

2. Tap Add Account

3. Select the server
4. Provide your credentials and other
data needed for the connection
5. Tap Save
Tap on any file to download and open it in
PDF Expert
To download several files:
1. Tap Edit
2. Select files and folders you need
17

3. Tap Download
4. Select the target folder and tap
Download again

iCloud
With iCloud Feature in PDF Expert you can
sync PDFs and other types of files on
iPhone and iPad with PDF Expert or
Documents app.
To enable iCloud:
1. Go to iOS Settings
2. Tap iCloud
3. Turn on Documents & Data toggle

18

 To move or copy files to iCloud:

1. Go to Documents tab
2. Tap Edit
3. Chose the file or files you want to
move or copy to iCloud
4. Tap Move or Copy at the bottom
5. Select iCloud
PDF Expert syncs with Documents app and
PDF Expert on iPad, provided the device is
connected to the same iCloud account.

Safari
To send PDF files from Safari to PDF
Expert you can use 2 methods:
19

 Open in PDF Expert:

1. Tap on the direct link to load the
document in Safari
2. Wait until the document is loaded
3. Tap Open in on the black toolbar at
the top when the document opens for
preview

4. Select PDF Expert from the list of

available apps
20

 URL scheme:
1. Tap on the direct link to load the
document in Safari
2. Add PDFE to the URL in the address
bar (the URL will look like this
PDFEhttp://guides/manual.PDF)
and tap Go. The PDF will be sent to
PDF Expert automatically.

Mac OS X
1. Click Finder icon on your Mac
2. Move your cursor to Go at the top
3. Choose Connect to Server
4. Type in the PDF Expert IP address. It
can be found in PDF Expert
Network

under Wi-Fi icon

.
21

5. The IP address should start with

http://

6. Click Connect
7. Confirm the connection on iPhone

22

Windows
To set up a connection with a Microsoft
Windows computer:
1. Go to Network tab
2. Tap
3. Tap Wi-Fi Settings
4. Tap Wi-Fi Drive Help
5. Follow the steps from the article for
the Windows version youre using to
set up the connection.

23

Chapter 4. File management

Supported file formats
File
Viewer

.pages, .keynote, .numbers;

.doc/.docx, .xls/.xlsx, .ppt/
.pptx;
.odp, .ods, .odt, .rtf,
rtfd, .txt; .html, .htm,
.webarchive

PDF
Viewer

.pdf

Image
Viewer

.bmp, .gif, .ico, .jpeg, .png, .tiff,

.xbm

Video
Player

.3gp, .l16, .m3u, .m4v, .mm,

.mov, .mp4, .scm.

24

Audio
Player

.aac, .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .amr, .I16,

.m3u, .m4a, .m4b, .m4p,
.mp3, .pcm, .wav

Archiver

.zip, .rar

Note: PDF Expert is intended for annotating

PDF files, therefore you need to convert other
files to PDF in order to annotate these files.

Managing files and folders

You can arrange your files by dragging and
dropping them to tabs or folders.

1. Tap and hold on the file or folder

youd like to move

25

2. Drag the selected item above the

target folder. The folder will be
highlighted with blue
3. Drop the item to move it to the folder,
iCloud tab or Network storage

26

To get the file out of a folder, tap and hold

the file and then drag it to Drag here at
the top to get to the parent folder.

Operations with files and folders

To start managing files tap Edit at the top
and select one or several files/folders.
27

To
Copy

Do
Tap
Copy and select the
target folder

Move

Tap
Move and select the
target folder

Rename

Tap
Rename. You can also
rename the file by tapping its
name in Thumbnail view or
swiping over it in the list view

Delete

Tap

Delete

28

To

Do

Merge

Make sure that two or more

PDF files are selected then tap
and select Merge

Zip

Add to
favorites

Colorcode

Tap
and then tap
Zip.
The new zip file will be added
to the current folder
Tap
and then tap
Star
and the file will be listed in the
Starred Files folder
Swipe from the top and tap
Color tag
to highlight a file
or folder. You can select one of
6 colors available

29

To
Mail to

Upload

Open in
another
app

Create
new
folder

Do
Tap
to.

and then tap

Mail

Tap
and then tap
Upload to send a file or files to
the web storage PDF Expert is
connected to
Tap
and then tap
Open in. Choose the app and
the file will be copied and
opened in the application
youve chosen
Tap Create Folder
at the
top and type the name of the
new folder
30

Chapter 5. Viewing PDF files

PDF Expert provides a convenient and
easy way to review and read PDF files.
The table below lists all the actions you can
perform while reading PDFs in PDF Expert:

Viewing
To

Do

Open a Tap on any file in the Documents

PDF
in Network or iCloud tab.
Tap Recents to review the list of
recently opened files or tap
Starred Files to open one of the
favorites.
Zoom

Use two finger pinch gesture.

Double tap to zoom in instantly.
31

To

Do

Text
Tab
and enable the Text
Reflow
Reflow toggle. PDF Expert will
generate a text version of the
PDF file youre reading.
Scroll Swipe with one finger vertically or
through horizontally. You can change the
direction under PDF Expert
Settings.

32

To

Do

Go to
Tap
and select Go to Page.
certain
Then specify the page number.
page
Tap
and tap the page you
want to open.

33

To

Do

and type the word or

Search Tap
phrase youd like to find. The list
of results will start from the
current page. Tap on any item in
the list to navigate to the
appropriate place on the PDF
To search in Wikipedia or Google,
tap the corresponding button

34

To

Do

Tap
and select the bookmark
Add
bookmark tab to review the list of
bookmarks and navigate to one
of them.
Tap Add new Bookmark to add
new bookmark on the current
page.
Tap Edit to rename or remove a
bookmark.

35

To

Do

Navigate If a PDF has dynamic table of

via
contents, you can use it in PDF
Outlines Expert for navigation.

Tap

and select Outlines

Select the chapter to navigate to

it
Tap the little triangle to expand
the chapter

36

To

Do

List of
You can review a list of all
markups

annotations and use them to

navigate to the appropriate pages.
Tap
Tap
Tap any item in the list to go to
the page with the annotation

37

Chapter 6. Annotating
To start annotating a PDF document use
any annotation tools at the bottom.

Tap and drag above several

annotations to select them.
Tap and select a pen to start
drawing on the PDF. Select color
transparency and size of the pen
tool.

38

Select the tool and drag above the

text to highlight it. Tap&hold to
change the color.

Select a shape and tap on the PDF

to place it. You can select the color
of the shape and the line thickness

39

Tap to reveal more tools

Tap to save personal signature. To
place a signature tap&hold on the
PDF and select Signature
Select the tool and tap on the PDF
to place a note. Tap and hold on the
note icon to drag it to another place
on the page
Tap the tool and select or create a
stamp. Tap on the PDF to place the
stamp

40

Select the tool and tap the PDF to

start typing. Use controls above the
keyboard to change a font style,
color and size.

Tap to undo previous action.

Tap&hold to undo several actions.

41

You can also use several tools by taping

and holding on the PDF file.

Note option enables popup note tool

Text is equal to the Text tool usage
Signature allows you to add
My Signature or Customer Signature
Stamp activates

tool

Image allows you to insert an image from

the iPhone Photo Library to PDF. You can
also use camera to take pictures.
Images can be then scaled and moved.

42

 Sound enables audio recorder.

The sound note can be played in Adobe
Reader on Mac or PC and in PDF Expert on
iPhone or iPad. Please note that the audio note
is added without compression. So it is
recommended to limit the recording time to 10
minutes.

Paste allows you to insert any text copied

to the clipboard. If you want to copy a text,
you need to tap and in order to select it and
tap Copy, which appears above the
selection.

43

Chapter 7. Signatures
With PDF Expert you can sign a PDF
document or a form by adding your
personal signature in a document or to a
signature field.
Tap
on the annotations toolbar to
create a signature. This signature is saved
within PDF Expert and can be placed on
any document as My Signature. Tap Save
when you are done.

44

To Clear the signature tap the white sheet

icon at the upper right corner of the screen.
To place a signature on a PDF, tap and hold
on any place of the document till the popup
menu appears. Tap Signature and select
My Signature or Customer Signature:
When My Signature is selected a
previously saved signature will be placed on
the document.
When Customer Signature is selected,
a one-time signature is created and placed
on a document. This signature is not saved
within PDF Expert and cant be used to
another place or a document.
To edit a signature, tap once and modify its
color, line width or delete it.
45

To move or scale the signature, just tap and

hold on it.

Note: to clear or change My Signature you

need to go to PDF Expert Settings and open
PDF Viewer section. Then tap Edit My
Signature to clear or modify the current
signature.

46

Chapter 8. Managing PDF Pages

With PDF Expert you can preview the
whole PDF document in thumbnails and
add, extract or copy and paste pages of
any PDF.
Open a PDF and tap

to switch to

page management mode.

47

 Tap Edit to add new page, copy or paste,

delete, extract or email.

Tap to select or deselect all

pages
Tap to add a new empty page.
Tap to delete the selected
page or pages
48

Tap to copy the selected page

or pages
Tap to insert the page copied
earlier
Tap to extract and email
selected page or pages
Tap to view more options
Tap to rotate the selected page
or pages
Tap to extract the selected
pages

49

Chapter 9. Filling out forms

PDF Expert is a great tool to fill out PDF
forms. You can type text, select items from
drop-down lists, use check boxes, add
images to the fields, make calculations and
even sign forms with a personal signature.

Supported form formats

PDF Expert supports Acro forms created in
Adobe Acrobat or other similar apps.
The app also allows filling Static XFA forms
created in Adobe LiveCycle.
Attention: LiveCycle Dynamic XFA forms are
not supported in PDF Expert.

Follow the link to look through the list of

JavaScript supported by PDF Expert.
50

Filling in the form fields

Text fields tap on the active area of the
field to type in the text.

Note: You can disable Highlight form fields

toggle under Settings > PDF Viewer to hide
the blue background from the field.
51

 Checkbox and radio button tap an

appropriate box to make a selection.

Drop-down list tap to reveal the list and

pick an item.

52

 Signature field - tap it and select a

signature type you want to use. My
Signature is a regular signature saved
within PDF Expert and can be reused later.
Customer Signature is created from the
start every time you use it.

Clear form
To clear the form and remove all data from
all fields:
1. Open the form
2. Tap
53

3. Select Clear Form

4. Tap Yes on the popup
Note: Signatures placed with tap&hold will
remain after the Clear Form. Only Signature
fields will be cleared.

54

Chapter 10. Flattened PDFs

Flattening is a process of applying all
annotations, form data and markups to a
PDF. No changes can be made to
annotations or form data after the flattening.
Flattened PDF files are used:
When you need to apply all annotations
to a PDF in order to prevent further
modification
To complete the form
To apply a signature
To remove all active elements like links,
outlines and bookmarks
To make annotations viewable on basic
PDF readers

55

To send a flattened file by email or create

a flattened copy of a document:
1. Open the document
2. Tap
3. Tap Save a Copy or Send by Email
4. Select Flattened Document
5. Change a name and location of the
copy.

56

Chapter 11. Submitting and

uploading
PDF Forms may contain a Submit button
to send the form or data from this form to a
server for further processing.
However you can use PDF Expert features
for submitting as well.

Submit by email
To submit a filled form or a regular PDF by
email:
1. Tap
2. Tap Send by Email
3. Select Document, Flattened Copy or
Annotation Summary.
57

 Document allows sending the file as is,

with annotations and form data you can
change in Adobe Reader or other similar
apps.
Flattened Copy applies all annotations
and makes form fields flat to prevent them
from further editing.
Annotation Summary sends a list of all
markups and drawings in the file sorted by
page numbers. The original document is
also included.

58

Note: PDF Expert may not be able to send

an attachment by email because of the file
size limit. The limit depends on your mail
account, for example Gmail will process up
to 25MB attachments in each email.

Upload to a web storage

To send a file to web storage you can use
2-way sync folder. In that case you can
simply move or copy a file to Sync folder. If
the iPhone is online, the file will be
uploaded to web storage automatically.
To upload file or files to a web storage
manually:
1. Go to Documents tab
59

2. Tap Edit
3. Select a file or files
4. Tap Actions
5. Then tap Upload
6. After that, select the storage and the
target folder
7. Tap Upload

Sending to another app

To send a file to another app from PDF
Expert:
1. Open the PDF and tap
2. Tap Open In
3. Choose the target app from the
popup.

60

The copy of this file will be saved and

opened in another app.
To send a file to another app from
Documents tab:
1. Switch to Documents
2. Tap Edit
3. Tap Actions
4. Tap Open in

and choose the

target app.

61

Chapter 12. Sync

PDF Expert provides a possibility to setup
2-way synchronization with Dropbox or any
other web storage service you've
connected to. To connect to web storage,
follow the steps from Chapter 2.

Setting up the sync

Once youve connected to web storage,
navigate to the folder you'd like to sync with
and open it.
Tap Edit and then tap Sync at the bottom
to enable 2-way sync with this folder.
Confirm the setup and the full copy of this
folder will appear in Documents tab.

62

Attention: PDF Expert will sync the entire

storage contents if you tap Sync in the root
folder of your account. It is recommended to
sync with one specific folder to make the
sync fast and reliable.
Once sync is established any change
applied to the contents of this folder will be
uploaded

Disable
To disable sync for a certain folder:
1. Go to the Documents tab
2. Tap Edit
3. Tap the sync folder
4. Tap

to disable syncing
63

64

Chapter 13. Settings

PDF Expert Settings allow you to
customize your application, configure Wi-Fi
network drive options, document viewing,
security and other preferences.

PDF Viewer
Highlight links gives you an ability to
recognize links in PDFs.
Highlight form fields makes PDF
Expert add a light blue background to
each active field.
Page tap zones allow turning pages by
tapping on left or right edge of the
screen.

65

 Enable one-page PDF adding an

extra blank page resolves the issue
with emailing

PDF files to Microsoft

mail clients and services.

Edit My Signature allows you to
change the signature saved in PDF
Expert
Author allows assigning the author
name which will be applied to every
change you make in PDF files.
Scroll pages allows to select the
direction of scrolling.
Page

number

indicator allows to

choose when a page number should

appear.

66

File Manager
Download files to: You can set up the
default folder for all the files you download
from any web storage:
Downloads option will create a folder in
Documents for all the files you load
The

second

option

will

allow

downloading files with the same file

structure as on the server
The

third option allows you to define

the folder manually each time you

download the file
The Show file name extensions adds an
extension to the file name. When the
toggle is off you can define the file type by
its icon.
67

The Show Photos option enables the

special folder with an access to iPhone
Photo Library.
Clear Recent Files clears the list of
recently opened files.

Security
Passkey Lock allows you to protect
documents
another

from

person.

being
Once

viewed

by

set,

the

application will ask the passkey on each

launch.
NOTE: To set password for wireless access to
PDF Expert, use Wi-Fi Network Drive section.
ATTENTION: If youve lost the passkey you
can restore your files via iTunes.
68

The iOS Data Protection option disables

PDF Expert when you tap Home button,
provided you have iOS passkey lock
enabled. This prevents your files from
being accessed by others both via Wi-Fi
and USB cable, when iPhone is locked.

Wi-Fi Drive
This feature is based on WebDAV protocol
compatible with both Windows and Mac.
Enable Drive
Turn Wi-Fi access to your files on or off.
Ask For Password
Enable or disable password protection for
Wi-Fi access to your files

69

NOTE: The password enabled in this menu is

for Wi-Fi connections only. To protect your
documents from being viewed directly on the
iPhone, use the Passkey Lock feature.

File Contents Search

This option enables indexing to search
within your files.
NOTE: Indexing takes more RAM and CPU
resources from your iPhone, so enabling this
feature may decrease the performance.

Sync
This option contains settings for Automatic
Sync. You can enable sync via Wi-Fi and
3G or disable automatic synchronization
here.
70

Support
Tapping on Support button in Settings
section allows you to contact Readdle
Support team in case you have any
questions or suggestions regarding PDF
Expert performance or functionality. If you
have been faced with an issue, please
enable Verbose logging, then reproduce
the problem and contact us via Support
dialog. In this case the diagnostic log will be
attached to an email.
If the issue is related to a specific file, send
it to rdsupport@readdle.com.
Your files and logs will help us to resolve
the issue and provide a solution in the
shortest terms.

71

Appendix. Troubleshooting
Backing up files
1. Install iExplorer on your Mac or PC
and choose the free Demo
version http://www.macroplant.co
m/iexplorer/
2. Launch iExplorer and connect your
device to the computer via USB
3. Click iCloud
4. Find PDF Expert
5. Open Documents folder
6. Right click on the file you need to
save
7. Select Export to folder

72

Reinstallation
To reinstall PDF Expert completely:
1. Remove PDF Expert from iPhone.
2. Reboot your iPhone. (Hold Sleep
button on iPhone for 10 seconds.
Then turn the power off. After that
hold Sleep button for 3 seconds to
start the device)
3. Download PDF Expert directly from
the App Store on your iPhone using
the same account as for initial
purchase. Since you have already
purchased the product, your credit
card will not be charged.

73

PDF Form issue

If youve experienced any difficulties with a
PDF form in PDF Expert, you can send it to
rdsupport@readdle.com and we will gladly
assist you with the form.

74