PDF tools for a school Chromebook: nothing to install

What a school administrator can and cannot lock

Schools manage Chromebooks from an admin console. Depending on the school's settings, an administrator can block the Play Store, turn off Linux, restrict which Chrome extensions can be installed, and filter which websites open. These are separate switches, so the combination differs from school to school.

A web page does its work inside the tab you already have open. It does not install anything, so there is no app or extension for a policy to refuse. The only setting that stops it is a website filter that blocks the address.

What the Chromebook already does for homework

The Gallery app opens a PDF and lets you fill in form fields, type text onto a worksheet, highlight and draw with a pen. Press Ctrl + P and choose Save as PDF to turn a Google Doc or a web page into a PDF without any extra tool. For marking up one worksheet, you do not need us.

What the built-in tools do not cover is combining several files into one, shrinking a file for an upload limit, or adding a password. Those are the jobs that block homework submissions.

Submit several pages as one PDF

Assignment portals often accept one file only. If you have typed pages in several documents, open Merge PDF, choose the files from the Files app, drag them into the right order and download one PDF.

If you photographed handwritten pages, use Images to PDF instead: add one photo per page, put them in order and download a single file. Check that every page is upright and readable before you submit.

Get under a portal's size limit

Photos of homework are large, and a portal that says the file is too big is common. Open Compress PDF to an exact size, pick the limit the portal prints and download the result. Photo scans shrink a lot. A typed document barely shrinks, because there was little to remove. Zoom in on the result to be sure your handwriting is still clear.

Sign a permission slip

Open Fill & Sign, type or draw a signature with the trackpad or touchscreen, and place it on the form. It adds a simple electronic signature image. It is not a certified digital signature, so check whether your school asks for one.

A parent or guardian signature should come from that person. Do not sign for someone else.

Pull out only the pages you need

Sometimes a teacher wants page 3 of a long handout, or you need to hand in everything except a draft page. Use Extract PDF Pages to tick the pages you want and download them as a new file. Delete PDF Pages works the other way round when it is easier to name what to remove.

Both keep your original untouched, so save the result under a new name and keep the full copy for yourself. If a page came out sideways, Rotate PDF fixes it before you submit.

Privacy on a school device

The tools read your file inside the Chrome tab and do not send it to a server, so the document does not cross the school network because of us. You can check this yourself with the steps in How to check whether any PDF tool uploads your file. A school can still log which sites you visit, and that is outside our control.

Limits on an entry-level Chromebook

Many school Chromebooks have 4 GB of memory, and the work happens in that tab. A very large scan can be slow or fail. If it stalls, close other tabs, split the job into smaller batches or compress the biggest file first. Once a page has loaded you can go offline and keep working, but a closed tab will not reopen offline, and OCR needs a connection the first time it runs.