How to split up a PDF

[DKMusic]

In the example below, as part of a hymnal, I'm inserting a full size PDF shifted down on the lower portion of the page. It's indicated by the blue box. But I need to make some modifications to it: in this case, chopping it between the red lines to move the music up higher on the page, leaving the title where it is.

I've been trying for a half hour and am having a real time of it. I cropped the PDF to just the title, then used Alt-click to duplicate it, dragged it down, and... it's a mess. Cropping, dragging... sometimes cropping snaps back into place and refuses to crop, sometimes I get strange ghosting overlays...

What am I missing? It feels very unpredictable, almost buggy. Is there a better way? I'm sure there is.

[Old Bruce]

Save yourself a lot of headaches and just place it twice, then crop one for just the top and the second for the bottom. Do not try to edit Music Scores.

[DKMusic]

Thanks @Old Bruce. I tried that, but when I place the PDF in the space here, it totally overwrites the existing PDF at the top:

I then tried drawing a picture frame and inserting there, but I'm having a hard time manipulating like I expect. I definitely don't want to edit the score itself... I'm used to treating the PDF like a finished product, and just cropping and shifting it around as needed.

I'm sure the problem is my lack of experience. I'd be happy to go watch some videos, or read a tutorial, if I could find one. 

Thanks,
Dan

[DKMusic]

For example, here's a frame I drew:

But when I try to place the PDF, I get this:

That doesn't make sense to me. Where's the title? The PDF is not flush to the top of the page, nor is it flush to the frame I drew.

When I try to drag it around and adjust the crop, this happens:

[Old Bruce]

I would not use Picture Frames, I would use a Rectangle. Place it over what you want to keep in the first PDF, then use the Layers pane and clip the PDF. Then do the same for the second PDF.

Look At this.afpub I used the PDF from another of your posts.

[DKMusic]

I took a look. Thank you. I can't say I understand yet what you did exactly, but I'll dig into it!

[Old Bruce]

14 minutes ago, DKMusic said:

I can't say I understand yet what you did exactly, but I'll dig into it!

I took two copies, then I used one Rectangle to cut out only the part I wanted. Then I repeated that on the second copy. Put the two pieces together and I was done.

[Paul Mudditt]

Have you tried going into the layers panel to strip out what you need from the PDF. A PDF is just a layered document so can be exploded and content extracted.

[DKMusic]

3 minutes ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Have you tried going into the layers panel to strip out what you need from the PDF. A PDF is just a layered document so can be exploded and content extracted.

Thanks Paul, I've been trying to figure out layers but am having a hard time. I'll try to explore that more.

[DKMusic]

On 1/21/2022 at 7:46 AM, Paul Mudditt said:

Have you tried going into the layers panel to strip out what you need from the PDF. A PDF is just a layered document so can be exploded and content extracted.

Hi Paul, I’m still not understanding exactly how to do that. Where exactly would I find that function? Thanks.

[DKMusic]

On 1/20/2022 at 4:27 PM, Old Bruce said:

I took two copies, then I used one Rectangle to cut out only the part I wanted. Then I repeated that on the second copy. Put the two pieces together and I was done.

I have figured out how to place a rectangle with no stroke and no Phil, but I can’t figure out how to use that shape to cut out what I want.

[Old Bruce]

29 minutes ago, DKMusic said:

I have figured out how to place a rectangle with no stroke and no Fill, but I can’t figure out how to use that shape to cut out what I want.

You need a fill to use it to mask. Here I used one of your screenshots instead of a PDF The (Rectangles) are exactly the same, the one on the right is used to clip the (Image)

[lacerto]

Obsolete.