# First steps

> How to open a PDF the first time you start vivePDF, find the tool you need and see where the result is saved, with screenshots.

URL: https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/first-steps/
Last updated: 2026-10-24

When you start vivePDF, the **Home** screen opens. To open a PDF, click **Open PDF** or drag the file onto the window; to reach a tool, use the **Tools** menu at the top or the command palette. Every tool writes its result to a new file, so your original stays as it was.

## 1. Open a document

1. On **Home**, click **Open PDF** or press `Ctrl+O` and choose your file.
2. Or drag the file from Finder or Explorer onto the window. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and pictures open too.
3. The document opens in its own tab in the **Viewer**. Move between pages with the thumbnails on the left, and open the markup and editing tools from the strip on the right.

![The vivePDF Home screen: the Open PDF button, Quick access tools and Recent documents](https://vivepdf.com/shots/en/start-1-1600.webp)

Documents you open stay in the **Recent documents** list, so next time they are one click away. The **Merge**, **Split**, **Compress** and other buttons in the **Quick access** row are shortcuts to the most used tools.

> **Shortcuts on a Mac**
>
> The `Ctrl` shortcuts in this guide use `⌘` on a Mac: `⌘+O` opens a document and `⌘+K` brings up the command palette. The full list is on the [Keyboard shortcuts](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/shortcuts/) page.

## 2. Find the tool you need

Every tool sits in the **Tools** menu at the top, grouped by what it does: **Page layout**, **Optimisation**, **To PDF**, **From PDF**, **Content editing** and **Security**.

![The Tools menu open: Merge, Split, Compress, Convert, Security and the other tools in groups](https://vivepdf.com/shots/en/start-2-1600.webp)

If you don't know where a tool is, use the command palette: press `Ctrl+K` and type what you want to do. Typing "compress", for example, puts **Compress** at the top; `Enter` opens it.

![The command palette searching for 'compress' with the Compress tool as the first result](https://vivepdf.com/shots/en/start-3-1600.webp)

## 3. Find the result

When you run a tool, the result appears in the panel on the right: the page count or the space saved, a preview and the name of the new file. By default the file is saved next to the original with a short addition to its name (for example `report-merged.pdf`). Change where it goes with **Browse** next to **Output file**.

The **Next step** buttons in the result panel carry on with the new file, for example to compress or password-protect the file you just merged. The book icon opens the result in the Viewer, and the folder icon shows the file in Finder or Explorer.

![A report open in the Viewer: page thumbnails on the left, the tool strip on the right](https://vivepdf.com/shots/en/start-4-1600.webp)

## What next?

Short guides for the most common jobs:

- [Merge PDFs](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/merge-pdfs/) and [split a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/split-a-pdf/)
- [Compress a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/compress-a-pdf/)
- [Convert a PDF to Word](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/pdf-to-word/), [convert Word to PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/office-to-pdf/) and [make a PDF from photos](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/images-to-pdf/)
- [Fill in a form](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/fill-a-form/), [sign a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/sign-a-pdf/) and [edit text in a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/edit-pdf-text/)
- [Highlight and annotate](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/highlight-and-annotate/) and [delete pages](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/delete-pages/)
- [Password-protect a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/password-protect-a-pdf/) and [redact a PDF](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/redact-a-pdf/)

The whole interface is described on the [Interface](https://vivepdf.com/en/docs/interface/) page.