6 Ways on How to Open PDF Documents

We open PDF files every day; well, at least, most of us do. Whether we work in an office, from home, or run our own business, PDFs have become an inevitable part of our lives. So what's the best and most effective way to open PDF files? Is it online, with a software application, or with a browser? Well, the answer depends on your intent - what do you intend to do with the PDF in question: read it, annotate it, edit it, convert it, apply a password, etc. Once you know the purpose, finding the right method becomes a breeze. Let's begin with the best way to open PDF files in Windows and macOS since these are the world's top desktop platforms.

Way 1. How to Open PDF on Windows and Mac

For this method, we'll be using a very cool PDF editor called UPDF. Don't worry if you haven't heard that name yet - you will, soon! UPDF is the world's premium PDF editor, annotator, and reader, among other things.

The UI is very lighthearted, and intentionally so. UPDF was designed to be a powerful, but also a fun one! The whimsical colors and fluid design bring out the inner child in you - including your hidden creativity. And to bring it all together is a simplified layout where every tool you need is easily accessible through a set of tabs that represent main feature groups such as editing, markups, page organizing, and so on.

Step 1: Click the Open File Button

Click the "Open File" button in the UPDF interface.
Choose the file you want to import from the Explorer window.
Confirm the file import.

Alternatively, you can just drag the file, toggle back to UPDF, and drop it in the software window.

Step 2: Open Multiple PDFs

Once the first file is open, you can also open others.

For Windows:

Click the + symbol in the quick access toolbar at the top.
Each PDF will open in its own dedicated tab.

For Mac:

Click the "File" > "Open" option to select and open PDF document. Each PDF will be open in different windows.
You can drag the two PDF windows together to compare them.

Step 3: What You Can Do After Opening Your PDF

UPDF not only allows you to open PDF files and view/read them, but also to perform several other actions, such as editing, annotation, and page management.

In edit mode, which you can access from the "Edit PDF" tab at the top, you can modify, add, or delete existing text and image content. You can also rotate images, replace them, extract them, copy them, and so on.

The "Comment" tool provides you with markup tools to make notes, highlight text, draw shapes, add geometric shapes, underline, etc.

The page organizer lets you do anything you want with the pages of a PDF file, such as removing, adding, reordering, extracting, and more.

Way 2. How to Open PDF Online Free

For this method, we'll be using a versatile and free online PDF utility known as DocFly. This PDF platform is very user-friendly and highly functional. In addition to being able to open a PDF, you have access to a range of tools for creating, editing, compressing, merging, converting, protecting, splitting, and other PDF actions.

Step 1: Go to the DocFly URL

Visit the DocFly website and go to the page for PDF editing.

Step 2: Upload your PDF File

Press the "Click to upload your file" button.

You can also drag the file and drop it into the web interface.

Step 3: Edit and Perform Other Actions

In the PDF Editor module, you can add content to the file, delete it, etc.

Way 3. How to Open PDF on iPhone

iPhone requires a seamless user experience that's in line with Apple's UX philosophy, so you need a sophisticated tool to open a PDF on your iPhone. One such utility is UPDF for iPhone, a robust file manager and PDF manipulation tool with lots of functionality and a user-friendly user interface or UI.

Step 1: Import the PDF File into UPDF for iOS

You can do this by clicking the + symbol in the UPDF for iOS interface.

After that, click on the location for the import - Files, Photos, or a Computer

Step 2: Open the PDF on iPhone

Select a file from the source folder or location by tapping it.

The file will open on your iPhone, after which you can perform several actions.

What You Can Do with UPDF for iPhone

UPDF allows you full freedom to handle your PDFs. Once the file is open, you can read it, annotate it, and even compress it. You can also import as PDF, scan to PDF, combine images to PDF, etc. Most of all, UPDF for iPhone is an excellent file manager that can replace your stock app on iOS. It comes with a range of tools, as we saw, and it's really affordable to upgrade if you need full functionality.

Way 4. How to Open PDF on Android

UPDF for Android allows users to open and read PDF documents. You can manage all the PDF documents on Android easily. Open, read, copy, move, duplicate, print, organize and share PDF documents.

Step 1. Authorize PDF Documents

You can click the "All PDFs" and authorize PDF documents on a PDF document.

Step 2. View PDF on Android

Then you can read PDF documents on Android. The reading experience is really good.

Way 5. How to Open PDF in PowerPoint

There are a couple of different ways to open PDF in PowerPoint. Some of them are quite complicated and others don't serve the purpose, so we've shown you the simplest way to open PDF in PowerPoint when working with a presentation.

Step 1: Open the PDF and Adjust the Zoom Level for Best Visibility

In the first step, you'll need to open the PDF in any native PDF viewer.

Next, adjust the zoom level so the entire width of the PDF can be seen.

Switch to PowerPoint - it's important that you don't open any other application in between.

Step 2: Open PDF in PowerPoint as Screenshots

Click the Insert tab in PowerPoint and then click on Screenshot. You will find this in the Images group.

Now click on Screen Clipping below the thumbnails in the available Windows section.

When in screenshot mode, click and drag the area on your PDF to select it.

The moment you release the mouse button, that screenshot will appear in the PDF.

You can now do this for all the pages of the PDF that you want to view in PowerPoint.

Way 6. How to Open PDF in Excel

The open PDF in the Excel process is different from PowerPoint. That's because you can only embed the PDF as an object rather than a file where you can see the content directly. You also have to note that this is only possible when you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your PC. This is because the process of embedding a PDF in Excel requires the use of Acrobat as a supporting utility; however, if you have a different PDF editor as your default one, this process might work with that as well.

Step 1: Launch Excel

Open the MS Excel application on your desktop.

Step 2: Go to the Insert Menu

Click Insert and then go to the Text group and find and click Object.

Step 3: Embed the PDF into XLSX

In the Object menu or dialog pane, select the Object Type as the base format for your PDF files. In this case, it will be Adobe Acrobat Document (a specific version will be displayed).

Tick the box that says Display as Icon.

Click OK, then choose your PDF file and confirm with OK.

PDF not Opening? Fix it

There are several reasons why you can't open PDF files on your computer. Here are some of the top fixes for various issues:

Update Your PDF Application: If your default PDF application is not up-to-date, that might be the problem. The solution then is to simply update to the latest version and see if that makes the problem go away.

Repair the PDF: If the file is corrupted, it won't open in most PDF applications. To resolve this issue, use a free PDF repair tool online. If it still doesn't fix the problem of being able to open PDFs, then try another method.

Use a Different PDF Tool: You can install UPDF and try opening it that way. That's because UPDF supports a variety of PDF versions and you can easily open any PDF using this powerful utility.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to open PDF files in various applications, we should say that the most recommended one is UPDF. The reason is that it supports various PDF versions, and comes with additional tools to help you edit, annotate, and organize your PDF pages. It's also a fun utility with a playful and engaging design, and the best part is that your PDF editor will keep getting new functionality with each new iteration. What's not to love??!!