PDF & Document Workshop Help

Learn how to open, edit, organize, optimize, convert, protect, OCR and analyse PDF documents with CS17.

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Getting Started

Open a PDF and choose how you would like CS17 to manage your working session.

Opening a PDF

1
Open the PDF & Document Workshop.
2
Drag a PDF into the Open PDF area or choose a PDF from your computer.
3
Wait for the document and page thumbnails to finish loading.
4
Choose the section you need from the Workshop toolbar.

Choose How You Work

Browser Only Work with the PDF in the current browser session without creating an automatic CS17 recovery workspace.
Local Workspace Choose a folder on your computer and allow CS17 to maintain local recovery information for your work.
Tip: Browser Only is useful for quick jobs. Local Workspace is useful when you may need to return to a document later.

Starting Another Document

Use Start New when you have finished with the current document and want to return to the opening screen. You do not need to refresh the browser.

Navigating Your PDF

Use the left page thumbnails and viewer controls to move quickly around your document.

Page Thumbnails

The left side of the Workshop contains a thumbnail for each page in the PDF. Click a thumbnail to display that page in the main document workspace.

Previous and Next

The fixed Previous and Next buttons at the top of the Pages panel allow you to move through a document without clicking each individual thumbnail.

The Previous and Next controls navigate the PDF. They do not change the order of pages.

Large Documents

In PDFs containing many pages, the thumbnail area has its own scrollbar. As you move through the document, CS17 keeps the active thumbnail visible without moving the entire Workshop page.

Zoom and Fit

Use the viewer controls to increase or decrease the document size. Fit options can be used to bring the page back into a comfortable working position.

Edit

Use Edit to make changes to the currently selected PDF page.

Select the Page First

CS17 uses a single-page editing workflow. Select the page you want from the left thumbnails before adding or changing content.

Editing Tools

Text Add or work with text areas on the selected page.
Checkboxes Add or work with checkbox-style fields where available.
Images Add images to the selected PDF page and position them in the document.
Signatures Draw or type a signature and position it on the page.

Apply Changes

When an editing operation requires it, use Apply Changes & Reload to commit the changes and rebuild the working page.

Important: Check the page after applying major edits before continuing to another page.

Organize

Organize contains the page-management tools for changing the structure of a PDF.

Selecting Pages

Select the page or pages you want to manage, then choose the required action from the Organize panel.

Available Page Actions

  • Add pages to the document.
  • Remove selected pages.
  • Duplicate pages.
  • Rotate pages.
  • Move pages up or down in the document order.
Navigation vs Organize: Previous/Next in the left thumbnail panel only navigates. Page reordering is performed from Organize.

Optimize

Optimize can reduce PDF file size while balancing document quality.

Recommended

Recommended is the easiest option. CS17 compares suitable optimization methods and chooses a useful result rather than automatically assuming that stronger compression will produce a better file.

Lossless

Lossless attempts to preserve the PDF's existing text, structure and quality while reducing unnecessary data where possible.

Balanced and Strong

These modes may render pages as compressed images to achieve different file sizes.

Important: Image-based compression can affect selectable text, searchable text, forms and very fine document detail. Use Lossless or Recommended when preservation is important.

No Useful Saving

CS17 may refuse to present a file as optimized when the resulting PDF is the same size or larger than the original.

Convert

Convert PDF pages into images or combine images into a PDF.

PDF to JPG or PNG

Choose whether to convert the current page, selected pages or all pages.

  • JPG is useful for smaller photographic images.
  • PNG is useful where crisp lines and text are important.
  • Higher DPI settings create larger, more detailed images.

Images to PDF

Select multiple images, arrange them into the required order and create a new PDF.

Images can be fitted to an A4 page or used to create pages based on the image dimensions, depending on the available conversion option.

Security

Security contains privacy, signing and password-protection tools.

Remove Metadata

Creates a copy of the document with available PDF metadata removed or reduced.

Flatten Privacy Copy

Creates an image-based privacy copy of the document. This can remove searchable/selectable text and interactive form structure from the resulting copy.

Signature Tools

Open the existing signature tools to draw or type a signature and place it onto a PDF page.

Password Protection

CS17 can create a genuinely password-protected PDF using AES-256 encryption.

Enter and confirm the password, choose any available printing or copying restrictions, then create the protected copy.

Keep your password safe. CS17 does not store the password for you.

Opening a Protected PDF

If CS17 detects an encrypted PDF, enter the correct password when requested. The authorized document can then be opened for the current working session.

CS17 does not recover, crack, brute-force or bypass unknown PDF passwords.

Intelligence / OCR

OCR can recognise text contained in scanned or image-based PDF pages.

Choose the Pages

Select the OCR page range before starting:

  • Current Page — OCR the page currently displayed.
  • Selected Pages — OCR selected pages.
  • All Pages — process the complete PDF.

Recognised Text

Recognised text is displayed in the Intelligence panel. You can review the result and use the available copy or text-download options.

Make Searchable PDF

Make Searchable PDF adds an invisible recognised-text layer while retaining the visible appearance of the original PDF pages.

Tip: OCR accuracy depends heavily on the quality, resolution, orientation and clarity of the original scan.

Analyse PDF

Analyse PDF inspects the document without deliberately changing its contents.

Running Analysis

Open Analyse PDF and use the analysis control to inspect the loaded document.

What It Looks For

  • PDF page information.
  • Selectable text.
  • Images or image-based pages.
  • Form-related content where detected.
  • Pages that may be scanned or suitable for OCR.
Analysis complete: Results appear below the document workspace. Re-run analysis after making major page changes.

Workspace & Recovery

Choose whether to work temporarily in the browser or maintain recovery information on your computer.

Browser Only

Browser Only does not create an automatic CS17 recovery workspace. If the browser session is closed or refreshed, the current working session may be lost.

You can still manually download your completed PDF normally.

Local Workspace

Local Workspace allows you to choose a folder on your computer for supported recovery/workspace functions.

Browser permission may be required before CS17 can access the chosen folder again.

Recent Work

When available, Recent Work allows a locally saved working document to be resumed.

Start New

Use Start New to close the active working document and return to the opening screen without having to refresh the entire website.

Password-protected PDFs: CS17 does not store the document password. Take care when choosing whether an unlocked working copy should be retained locally.

Privacy & Local Processing

CS17 PDF & Document Workshop is designed around browser-based document processing.

Your Working Document

PDF processing performed by the Workshop is designed to take place within the browser using the application's document-processing components.

Browser Only

Browser Only avoids creating an automatic CS17 local recovery workspace.

Local Workspace

If you deliberately choose Local Workspace, CS17 can use browser-supported local storage and a folder you authorize for recovery/workspace functions.

Passwords

Passwords entered for PDF protection or authorized unlocking are not intended to be stored as saved CS17 passwords.

For sensitive documents, always confirm that you are working on a trusted computer and browser profile.

Troubleshooting

Common things to check if a document does not behave as expected.

The PDF Will Not Open

  • Confirm that the file is a valid PDF.
  • Try opening the PDF in another PDF viewer.
  • If it is protected, enter the correct password when requested.
  • Try reopening the Workshop and loading the PDF again.

A Large PDF Takes Time to Load

Large documents contain many pages and thumbnails. Allow the Workshop time to prepare the document before beginning major operations.

OCR Is Inaccurate

  • Check that the scan is upright.
  • Use the clearest source document available.
  • Low-resolution or blurred text can reduce recognition accuracy.
  • Complex handwriting may not OCR reliably.

Local Workspace Cannot Access the Folder

Your browser may require you to approve access to the selected folder again. Use the Workspace controls to reselect or re-authorize the folder where necessary.

The Document Looks Wrong After a Major Change

Check the current page carefully and, where appropriate, reselect its thumbnail to refresh the working view.

If a problem only occurs with one particular PDF, keep the original file. It can be useful for diagnosing unusual PDF structures.

Quick Tips

A few simple habits can make working with PDFs faster and safer.

Keep the Original Keep an untouched copy of important PDFs before performing major edits or page changes.
Select Before Editing Check the active thumbnail before making changes to ensure you are working on the intended page.
Use Recommended Optimize Start with Recommended when you want CS17 to compare suitable optimization results.
OCR Scans If text cannot be searched or selected, try Intelligence / OCR.
Use Local Workspace for Longer Jobs Recovery is particularly useful when working on larger documents over more than one session.
Download Important Milestones Save a new copy after completing major stages of an important document.
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