Turn a PDF you already have into an editable document

A PDF can be used in two different ways here, and they give you very different things. You choose after picking the file.

1. 1Press Nyt dokument and go to Upload en PDF.
2. 2Choose the file.
3. 3Pick what should happen to it: - ⟦Underskriv den, som den er⟧ keeps the pages exactly as they are. You drop signature and date fields on top and send it. Nothing about the original changes. - ⟦Byg den om til redigerbar tekst⟧ reads the text and rebuilds the document out of our own blocks. You can then edit every word of it.

Rebuilding is AI, so it needs AI switched on for your company. Without it you are not asked the question at all: the file is signed as it is, which is what Underskriv den, som den er does. See Have AI write or change a document.

When to rebuild rather than sign

Rebuild it when you want to keep using the document, not just sign this one copy. Once it is made of blocks you can change the terms, add merge fields so the customer details fill themselves in, and save it as a template for everyone in the company. See Save your own templates and sections.

Sign it as it is when the document is fixed: something a customer sent you, something a lawyer drafted, anything where the exact layout is part of what is being agreed.

What survives, and what does not

The words, the order, the numbered clauses, the party details and the signature areas come across. Headers, footers and page numbers are dropped, because they are page furniture rather than terms.

The layout does not survive. Fonts, columns, logos and spacing are all replaced by our own styling. That is the trade: you are getting an editable document, not a copy of the original.

The clause numbers change, and that is deliberate. Numbering here is automatic, so the sections are renumbered from 1 and a sub-section like 4.2 becomes a numbered clause of its own. Anywhere the contract refers to itself ("see clause 4.2") is corrected to match, so the references still take you to the right place. If a reference could not be matched, you are told so when the document opens, and it is left as it was rather than pointed at a guess.

A scan will not work. If the PDF is a picture of a page rather than text, there is nothing to read and you are told so. Sign it as it is instead.

Always read the result against the original before you send it. A long contract that has been through text extraction can lose a line, and only you know what the document was supposed to say.