Is there a way to edit a .pdf file?

You can use Acrobat DC (the full version not the reader) assuming that the original author didnt make the pdf un-editable when they created it. You can try it for free for a month.

In addition to Acrobat, there are some third-party products (free or cheaper than Adobe) that let you do this as well.

But as @Lightlyseared wrote – the creater can ‘lock’ the file and that cannot be overridden.

If it’s a graphic image you can try taking a screenshot then editing in Gimp, PaintNet, or whatever program you have on your comp.

I’ve done that to correct floorplans for home listings, but it really depends on the level of detail in the file.

There are also quite a few web applications that let you load and edit PDFs and save new ones, several of which are free to use a limited amount.

I’ve used this one several times: https://www.sejda.com/pdf-editor

Thanks to all of you. @Zaku, that one was listed on a “top ten” list; I’ll give it a try.

Can you just print it out and alter it with a pen?

@Jeruba I thought of that, but no. I want to change a pattern which goes 1A, 6B, 2C, 5D, etc, all the way through the alphabet to AA through AE. When I’m beading and using the pattern, I just glance at it, and have made a number of mistakes because I’ll see, for example, 7AB, and pick up a B bead rather than an AB bead. There’s 9 full pages of this, so it would take quite a while to correct them all by pen. What I want to do is change the AA – AE to symbols, like #, &, @ etc. That will correct the problem of me seeing the only the B when I see AB.

Make sense? Thanks for the idea, though.