Quick Tools

How to use Quick Tools

What it is. The ordinary file jobs, done properly: merge, split and compress PDFs, convert PDF to and from Word and images, PowerPoint to PDF, resize and crop images, add a watermark, duplicate a file, and a movie maker — each as a clear three-step flow that ends with a real file you can download.

When to open it. Whenever a form, a bank, a buyer or an office wants a document in a shape you do not have it in.

Have ready.

• The file.

Step by step.

1. Pick the tool for the job.
2. Add the file.
3. Download the result. Every tool shows the whole journey, so you can see what is about to happen before it does.

What it will not do. They are file utilities. PDF-to-Word conversion is imperfect on complex layouts, compression trades quality for size, and none of these can recover quality that was never in the original.

Every setting in Quick Tools, explained

Compress PDF

Makes a PDF smaller. How to choose: For upload limits — the commonest reason anybody needs this at all. If it is wrong: Compression costs image quality. Check the result is still readable before sending it somewhere that matters.

Merge PDFs / Split PDF

Joins several into one, or pulls pages out of one. How to choose: Merge in the order you add them. Split when only some pages should be sent. If it is wrong: Sending a whole document when only two pages were asked for is how private information leaves by accident.

Image(s) to PDF / PDF to Image(s)

Converts between photographs and documents. How to choose: Images to PDF is what to use when an office asks for a document and you have photographs of the pages. If it is wrong: Photograph the whole page, square on, in daylight. A tilted photograph makes a tilted PDF that gets rejected.

PDF to Word / Word to PDF / PPT to PDF

Format conversion. How to choose: Word to PDF before sending anything you do not want edited or reflowed. If it is wrong: PDF to Word is never perfect on a complex layout. Check it before relying on it.

Resize Image / Crop Image / Add Watermark

Image adjustments. How to choose: Resize for upload limits, crop for what should not be in the frame, watermark for anything being sent out that you do not want reused. If it is wrong: Cropping does not remove what is outside the frame from the original file. Keep the original.

A worked example

A bank asks for a single PDF under 2 MB, and you have six photographs of the pages.

What goes in:

• Six photographs

What comes out:

• Images to PDF, in page order, to make one document.
• Compress PDF to bring it under the limit.
• A downloadable file.

Check the compressed version is still readable before sending it. A document that met the size limit and cannot be read gets sent back, which costs a day.

How to read what it gives you

• Every tool ends with a real file. That is the stated design: files in, finished work out.
• The private tools stay on the device, and the screen says which those are.
• Each flow shows the whole journey before you commit to it.

What usually goes wrong

• Compressing until it fits without checking it is still readable.
• Merging in the wrong order.
• Sending an entire document when a split would have sent only the pages asked for.

Questions people ask about Quick Tools

How do I make a PDF smaller for an upload limit?

Use Compress PDF, then open the result and check it is still readable before sending it. Compression works by degrading images, so a document that squeezed under the limit but cannot be read will simply be sent back — which costs you more than the upload did.

How do I turn photographs of documents into one PDF?

Images to PDF, adding them in page order. Photograph each page square-on in daylight, filling the frame: a tilted or shadowed photograph makes a tilted PDF, and offices reject those.

Do my files get uploaded anywhere?

The tools marked as private stay on the device, and the screen tells you which those are. Check before putting anything sensitive through one that is not.