Since its development in the early 90’s, the PDF format has extended its purpose and features way beyond its original concept. Instead of serving as a preservation format, the PDFs versatile nature now allows users to fill in forms, create comments, and to collaborate with others.
Thus, even though the PDF is primarily a format for locking in your data, you can make minor changes to a PDF as well directly within Adobe Reader and Acrobat. In the latest versions you can select a few options to save the changes you make.
To Save PDF files you are Viewing in Adobe Reader 11:
- 1Choose Save As… from the File menu.

- If you want only the textual content from the PDF, you can also simply use the Save as Text… option. Adobe Reader will save the file in .TXT format.
- When filling out a form, you can save a copy of it with the data you entered if the form’s creator gave extended rights to Reader users.
- 2In the Save As dialog box, type in a file and your preferred location. Click on Save.

To Save PDF Documents you are Viewing in a Web Browser:
- All web browsers will work in a similar fashion, allowing you to save and download PDF documents from the web. Here is the process in Google Chrome.
- 1In Google Chrome, hover your mouse cursor in the lower right hand corner to reveal the toolbar.
- 2Click on the Save button
- 3In the Save As dialog box, type in a file and your preferred location. Click on Save.

How to Automatically Save Changes in Adobe Acrobat 11 Pro
- In Acrobat, if you are making a few minor changes to the PDF here and there, you can set up the application to automatically save your changes periodically. To do that:
- 2From the Edit menu, select Preferences.

- 2In the dialog box, go to Documents in the Categories list on the left.
- 3Under the Save Settings section, check the box next to Automatically save document changes to temporary file every and enter in a time range. Click on OK.
