Pages and the More menu

The Pages tab is for the pages themselves. The More menu, at the right of the editor's toolbar, holds the tools that work on the whole file.

Rearrange, turn and delete pages

Open a PDF › Pages

The Pages tab shows every page as a thumbnail.

Move a page: drag it, or click it and press Ctrl with an arrow key.
Turn a page: hover over it and press Turn left or Turn right, or press [ or ].
Delete a page: hover and press the delete button, or press Delete. A document always keeps at least one page.

These changes wait for Save, like your other edits. See saving your changes.

Work on several pages at once

Choose the pages you want. Then:

Take out as a new document makes a new PDF in your library from them, named after the document and the page numbers.
Delete removes them.
Clear unchooses them.

Add blank pages, crop and split

Open a PDF › Pages › More page tools

Add a blank page at the end, or Insert a blank page before the chosen page.
Crop… Drag the corners of the box. Only what's inside stays visible. Tick Apply to all pages to crop them all the same way.
Uncrop every page brings back everything you cropped. Cropping hides the edges but keeps them in the file, so nothing is lost.
Save every page as its own file… splits the PDF into one file per page.

Blank pages, crop, uncrop and split are saved straight away, as a new version.

Because cropping keeps the hidden edges in the file, don't use it to hide private details. Use redaction for that.

The More menu tools that change the file do it straight away and save the result as a new version, so you can always go back under Versions. If you have edits waiting to be saved, Sopycat saves them first, as their own version.

Add another PDF to the end

Open a PDF › More › Add another PDF to the end

Pick a PDF and its pages are added after the last page. To put many files together in any order, including pictures and Word files, use Convert files and choose Combine them into one PDF.

Make a PDF smaller

Open a PDF › More › Make the file smaller…

The window shows how big the file is now. Sopycat brings the pictures inside down to a set sharpness and saves them again. The words are untouched.

Choice	Pictures at	Good for
Screen	96 dpi	The smallest file, for email and the web
Print (the default)	150 dpi	Looks right on paper
Maximum quality	300 dpi	Only oversized pictures are reduced

Press Make it smaller. Sopycat tells you the result, for example "Down from 8.2 MB to 1.9 MB (77% smaller)." It never makes a file bigger: if it can't make it smaller, it leaves it as it is.

Make a scan searchable (OCR)

Open a PDF › More › Make it searchable (OCR)…

Sopycat reads the words on picture-only pages and adds them to the file as invisible text. After that you can search the PDF, copy its words, and use Find and redact on it.

It works in English only.
It runs on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.
Pages that already have text are skipped.

To make a whole folder of scans searchable, use Batch jobs.

Bookmarks

Open a PDF › More › Bookmarks…

Bookmarks are the list readers show beside the pages, for jumping to a section. The window lists them with the page each opens:

Change a title, or the page, in its box.
The arrows move a bookmark up or down; ‹ and › move it out a level, or in under the one above.
Add a bookmark for page n adds one for the page you are on.
Make them from the headings fills the list from the file's headings: its tags when it has them, otherwise the lines set larger (or bold) than the body text. Headers, footers and page numbers are left out. Look the list over before you save.

Nothing changes until you press Save, which saves a new version. A manual saved from Sopycat as a PDF already has a bookmark for each step.

Save an archive copy (PDF/A)

Open a PDF › More › Save an archive copy (PDF/A)…

An archive copy is made to the archive rules for PDFs (PDF/A-2b), so it looks the same in any reader years from now. The document itself stays as it is; the copy goes into Saved files › Documents as "name (archive).pdf", or to a folder you choose.

Before you save, the window says what the copy changes, for example:

Fonts put inside the file. A PDF that uses the standard fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier) gets Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New, which have the same widths, so nothing moves. Other missing fonts come from your computer.
A colour profile added, so the colours mean the same everywhere.
Scripts, automatic actions, attached files, sound and video left out. Comments are kept and set to print.

Some files can't be made into an archive copy, and the window says why: a locked or signed PDF (unlock it first; a signature would no longer check out), a font that isn't in the file or on your computer, or print (CMYK) colours with no colour profile.

Sopycat checks the copy against the archive rules itself. If an archive asks for a validator's report, check the copy with the tool they name.

Check accessibility

Open a PDF › More › Check accessibility…

Sopycat checks what a screen reader, a keyboard or a magnifier needs from the file, and lists it in three groups: what to put right, what only a person can judge, and what passed. Press Put right to fix what can be fixed here; the file is checked again, and the original stays under Versions.

Check	What Sopycat can do
Tags: headings, paragraphs, lists and pictures marked for screen readers	Nothing, if the file has none: make it again from its original with tags turned on (in Word: Save as PDF › Options › Document structure tags for accessibility). Manuals saved from Sopycat are tagged.
Title	Sets it, and makes readers show it instead of the file's name.
Language	Sets the language screen readers read the words in.
Real words, not pictures of words	Scanned pages can be read with Make it searchable.
Everything in the reading order	Words or pictures outside the tags are read (words as paragraphs, pictures as pictures to describe), or marked as decoration so screen readers skip them.
Pictures described	Each picture is shown with a box for what it shows, or a tick to mark it as decoration.
Headings in order	Lists headings that skip a level. Change them in the program the file was made in.
Bookmarks (documents over 20 pages)	Makes them from the headings.
Form fields described	A box for each field's description, which screen readers say when someone moves to it.
Tab order	Makes Tab move through links and fields in reading order.
Tables, Reading order, Colour contrast	Only a person can judge these. The window says what to look for.

When you edit a tagged PDF in Sopycat, what you add is put into its tags as you save, so screen readers read it: a reworded heading stays a heading, new words are read where they sit on the page, and page numbers, headers, watermarks and Bates numbers are marked as decoration.

A clean result does not mean a file meets a particular law or standard. It means these things were checked. Listen to it with a screen reader as well; Narrator is built into Windows (Ctrl+Windows+Enter).

Protect a PDF with a password

Open a PDF › More › Protect with a password…

To require a password to open the file, type it in Password to open and again in Again. Leave it empty for none.
Under What readers may do, untick anything you want to turn off: Printing, Copying text and pictures, Changing the content, or Comments and form filling.
If you turned anything off, set a Permissions password. It's needed to lift those limits later.
Press Protect.

Under Compatibility you can choose the strength. AES-256 is recommended and works in every current reader. AES-128 suits Acrobat 7 and later. RC4 is only for very old readers and is weak.

The unprotected copy stays under Versions on this computer.

Keep the passwords somewhere safe. Sopycat can't open a PDF for editing without its password.

Remove a password

Open a PDF › More › Remove the password…

Type the password (or, for a file that's locked against changes, its permissions password) and press Remove the password or Remove the lock. The locked copy stays under Versions.

Print

Open a PDF › More › Print…

Choose the layout first, then Sopycat opens your printer's own Windows print window.

Pages per sheet: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 or 16, or Booklet (fold in half). For a booklet, print on both sides, flipping on the short edge, then fold the stack in half.
Paper size, scaling (Fit to the sheet, Actual size or a percentage), and Upright or Sideways.
Which pages to print, and a Thin border around each page.

Add page numbers, a header or a footer

Open a PDF › More › Header and footer…

Type the words for the top and bottom of every page. These fill themselves in:

Type	Becomes
{page}	The page number
{pages}	The number of pages
{date}	Today's date
{time}	The time
{title}	The document's title
{file}	The file name

The footer starts with "Page {page} of {pages}" in the middle. You can choose which pages get it. Under the boxes, the window shows the top and bottom of the first page as they will print, and points out any word in braces that is not one of these, since it would print as typed.

Wherever a window asks for pages, type them the way you would say them: "1-3, 7", "2–5", "2 to 5", or "8-" for page 8 to the end. The line under the box says which pages that is, and names anything it could not read or a page the document does not have.

Add a watermark

Open a PDF › More › Watermark…

Put faint words or a picture across the pages, such as DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL or a logo. Choose Words (DRAFT to start with) or A picture, then set the opacity, rotation, size, color, where it goes and which pages.

Add Bates numbers

Open a PDF › More › Bates numbering…

Bates numbering puts a unique number on every page of a set of documents, in order, so any page can be cited. Set a Prefix and Suffix, the number to Start at, how many Digits (zero padding), where it goes and which pages. Then press Number the pages.

The window shows which numbers the pages will get and where the next document should start. Once the numbers are saved, this computer remembers that number, so the next document in the set carries on from it. On another computer, type it in Start at.

Files attached inside a PDF

Open a PDF › More › Attachments…

A PDF can carry other files inside it. Here you can open, save or remove them, or press Attach a file… to add one. Anyone who opens the PDF in a full reader can get attached files out.

Compare two PDFs

Open a PDF › More › Compare with another PDF…

Pick the other PDF. The comparison has two views:

Words compares the text line by line, page by page. The words before are struck through in red and the words after are in blue.
Look lays the pages on top of each other. Red is only in this PDF, blue is only in the other, and Sopycat tells you what share of the ink differs. Use it for pictures, layout and signatures.

You can also start a comparison from the command palette (Ctrl+K).

Save a copy outside the library

Open a PDF › More › Save a copy…

Saves the current version to a place you choose, named like "Contract (edited).pdf". If the PDF has a redaction log, the log goes with it. Use this when you want to email or upload the file.

The PDF has a password or is locked against changes. Until you remove it, only Remove the password…, Signatures…, Save a copy… and Versions work. See Remove a password.

The certificate tools are on Fill in, sign and send for signature. Find and redact and the redaction log are on Redact safely.