Guides for everyday file jobs on a Mac
Step-by-step answers for PDFs, photos and archives. Each guide shows the free way built into macOS first, then the faster way with File Acture.
How to Compress a PDF to a Specific Size on Mac
Preview's Reduce File Size filter can't aim for a size, so you get one fixed result that is often blurry or still too big. File Acture's Compress PDF lets you type a target such as 5 MB, 2 MB or 1 MB and finds the best image quality that fits, while text and vector graphics stay sharp.
How to Convert Images to PDF on Mac
The quickest free way on a Mac is to select the images in Finder, Control-click and choose Quick Actions > Create PDF. For control over page order, A4 or US Letter pages and margins, File Acture's Images to PDF puts JPG, PNG, HEIC and other images into one PDF and embeds JPEGs without recompressing them.
How to Convert a PDF to JPG on Mac
Preview's File > Export saves one page of a PDF as a JPEG at a time, which is slow for long documents. File Acture's PDF to Images saves every page, or only the pages you choose, as JPG, PNG or WebP at 72, 150 or 300 DPI in one run.
How to Edit Text in a PDF on Mac
Preview on a Mac can add text boxes, signatures and redactions to a PDF, but it can't change the words already on the page. To fix existing text, open the PDF in File Acture's Edit & Sign PDF, double-click the word or line, type the correction and save a new copy with Save PDF.
How to Make a Scanned PDF Searchable on Mac
Preview and Live Text can read text off a scanned page, but they don't save it into the PDF, so Find and Spotlight still see only a picture. File Acture's OCR PDF recognizes the text on your Mac and embeds it as an invisible layer, giving you a searchable copy that looks just like the scan.
How to Merge PDF Files on Mac
On a Mac you can merge PDFs for free by selecting them in Finder, Control-clicking and choosing Quick Actions > Create PDF, or by dragging pages between documents in Preview's sidebar. File Acture's Merge PDFs combines them in one step, in an order you drag into place, and writes a new file without touching the originals.
How to Password Protect a PDF on Mac
In Preview, choose File > Export, click Permissions, select Require Password To Open Document, enter the password and save; Apple's PDF engine behind it uses keys of at most 128 bits. File Acture's Protect PDF adds a password with AES-256 encryption to one or many PDFs in a single run and lets you allow or block printing, copying and editing.
How to Remove a Password from a PDF on Mac
If you know a PDF's password, open the file in Preview, choose File > Edit Permissions, deselect Require Password To Open Document and click Apply. File Acture's Unlock PDF does it for one or many PDFs: type the password once and it saves copies without encryption or restrictions, leaving the originals as they were.
How to Rotate PDF Pages on Mac and Save Them
In Preview, select the page thumbnails and choose Tools > Rotate Left or Rotate Right (Command-L or Command-R), and the rotation is saved with the file. For several PDFs or specific page ranges, File Acture's Rotate Pages turns all or chosen pages in one run and saves rotated copies without re-encoding anything.
How to Split a PDF into Separate Files on Mac
In Preview you can split a PDF by dragging page thumbnails to the desktop or by printing a page range to a new PDF, one part at a time. File Acture's Split PDF splits the whole file in one run: every page, every few pages, or custom ranges such as 1-3, 5, 8-.
Images
How to Compress Images on Mac to a Target Size
Preview can shrink a single photo: choose File > Export, pick JPEG and drag the Quality slider while watching the file size. To compress many images to a limit such as 500 KB or 1 MB, File Acture's Compress Images finds the highest quality that fits each file and scales a photo down only when quality alone isn't enough.
How to Convert HEIC to JPG on Mac
The fastest built-in way is to select the HEIC photos in Finder, Control-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image, then pick JPEG. File Acture's Convert Images does the same for batches with a quality setting, removes location data unless you keep metadata, and can also write PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF.
How to Remove Location Data from Photos on Mac
On a Mac you can remove a photo's location in Preview: choose Tools > Show Inspector, open the GPS tab and remove the location, or leave the location out when you export from the Photos app. File Acture's Remove Metadata strips location, camera details, dates and comments from whole batches and keeps the exact pixels of JPEG, PNG and WebP files.
How to Resize Images in Bulk on Mac
In Preview you can open several images in one window, select all thumbnails and choose Tools > Adjust Size to resize them together, but Preview changes the original files. File Acture's Resize Images scales a whole batch to a longest edge such as 2048 px or to a percentage, saves new files and never enlarges an image.
Archives
How to Create a Password-Protected ZIP on Mac
Finder's Compress command can't add a password, and the Terminal command zip -e only uses the old ZipCrypto scheme, which has well-known weaknesses. File Acture's Create ZIP packs files and folders into a ZIP encrypted with AES-256 that File Acture, 7-Zip, WinZip and Keka open with the password.
How to Open 7z Files on Mac, Including Password-Protected Ones
Recent versions of macOS extract a plain 7z file when you double-click it, and the tar command in Terminal can too. For password-protected 7z archives, or to unpack several archives safely in one run, File Acture's Extract Archive opens 7z, ZIP, TAR and GZ files, including AES-256 encrypted ones.