School records are very important documents and the most decisive that may exist for the entire educational community, since they may contain the information of all the agents who are in the school, as well as data regarding the property and the company that provides academic service.
They represent a highly detailed tool and store data of great importance, which may mean a lot at the time of being consulted because through them it is possible to solve doubts, corroborate data, share important information or consult the content of interest to anyone. In addition, school records are multi-year, so there may be files that are many years old.
School records may contain telephone numbers, information of each student, parents and teachers, academic plans, report cards, property sketches, evacuation plans, safety plans, purchase history, list of materials, legal documents, among many other elements; therefore, it goes without saying that it is essential to keep them in a safe place, or protected if they are in a digital medium.
Although all the elements that make up the school records are important, the student records are the most predominant and contain personal and academic information about each student that is part of the educational institution. Therefore, it is essential to keep them error-free, very well organized, and very secure, as any information leak can lead to serious problems. If you are thinking about how to improve the management and security of these important documents, then you will know how to do it.
How to Improve Student Record Management
To improve the student record management of the school or institution where you are, the first step you must do is download PDFelement, which is professional software that works with PDF documents. The great advantage it has over others is that it has a massive number of tools that will help you personalize the content as you wish, plus you will be able to manage your documents much easier.
As if that were not enough, PDFelement is developed by Wondershare, which means that it has full compatibility with Wondershare Document Cloud, so that you can access data of the school records with a single click.
Now that you know in general terms the fabulous application of PDFelement, I will share several procedures that will help you improve student records management from different areas, so that the information is very well organized and secure.
1. Convert to PDF/A:
At the beginning, I mentioned that school records may contain information from many years ago, including student records. Likewise, you should think that many files will be stored in the present and in the future, so it is important to have documents in a format that ensures that they will be compatible with any PDF application of the future.
Thanks to the PDF/A format you can’t be worried, since it saves the basic aspects of a PDF document, but with specific files that only have the basic elements of a PDF, putting aside those of the applications. In a few words, it is a format where the "essential" is saved and this will help you, even though the years go by, to be able to open them. If you have PDF student records, converting them to PDF/A is a wise idea. You can use PDFelement to convert PDF documents to PDF/A, below I will show you two ways to do it. The first is the following:
Step 1 Open your PDF file
Open PDFelement and click the “Open File” icon. Then search the student records PDF file and open it.
Step 2 Convert to PDF/A format
From the menu bar at the top of your screen, select “Convert.” A new window will be displayed and click the bar next to “Save as type.” Now choose “PDF/A” from the dropdown list and finally hit “Save.” The conversion will finish in just a few seconds.
There is another alternative to convert your PDF document to PDF/A. Below I will show you how to achieve it:
Step 1 Open your PDF file
Open PDFelement and click the “Open File” icon. Then search the student records PDF file and open it.
Step 2 Edit PDF file (optional)
Remember that PDFelement will not only help you convert your documents, but it is also powerful software that will help you to edit them in a personalized way using a large number of very functional tools. Click on "Edit" at the top of your screen and you will be able to realize everything you can do to give a better distribution and image to the content.
Step 3 Save PDF as PDF/A format
Click the “File” menu and then select “Save As.” A pop-up window will be displayed, click the bar next to “Save as type” and from the drop-down list select “PDF/A.” Now you just have to click the “Save” button and your PDF/A document will be ready in just a moment.
2. Reduce document size
Your student records may have great size, especially if they are scanned files, which will surely make them take time to open and slow down your query or editing process. Don't worry, PDFelement will help you reduce file size quickly and in a few simple steps. You just have to do the following:
Step 1 Open PDF file
Open PDFelement and click the “Open files” icon. Then open your student records PDF file.
Step 2 Compress PDF file
Click the “Tool” tab at the top of your screen and then select “Optimize PDF.” A new window will be displayed, choose the quality that you want, and then click on the “Apply” button to start the task. After a few seconds, you will get your new shrunk file.
Step 3 (optional): Remove unwanted objects
If there’s something extra that you don’t want in your PDF document, PDFelement will help you to remove it. Just click on the “Edit” tab and select the items that you want to delete.
There is another alternative to compress your document only by cutting sections through the "Crop" tool. All you have to do is click on the "Page" tab and then choose "Page Box." You will be able to see a pop-up window where you will determine the margins to crop the objects and change the size of the page. This action will decrease the size of your file.
Step 4 (optional): Compress PDF file by cropping
There is another alternative to compress your document only by cutting sections through the "Crop" tool. All you have to do is click on the "Page" tab and then choose "Page Box." You will be able to see a pop-up window where you will determine the margins to crop the objects and change the size of the page. This action will decrease the size of your file.
3. School record scanning
If you still don't have the school records in PDF format, what are you waiting for? You will be able to have them on hand, organized, and without storing large amounts of paper. To do a scan,PDFelement will help you do it easily, you just have to follow these steps:
Step 1 Launch PDFelement Scanner
Open PDFelement and select the “Home” menu button. On the “Home” menu bar, click the “From Scanner” button and then hit the “Scan to PDF” function. It is important to mention that you have to ensure your scanner is turned on and it is updated.
Step 2 Customize scanning properties
A new window will be displayed. Select the scanner that you will use to do the task from the “Scanner” drop-down list. Then choose to continue with the dialogue box or scan your documents using your scanner’s tool by checking the option below the drop-down menu.
Step 3 Scan file to PDF
After customizing your preferences, click the “Scan” button and the scanning process will automatically start. After it finishes, you will get a fully editable PDF document.
4. Ensure compliance and security
Remember that school records contain very important information, most of them with confidential data that should have restricted access. PDFelement you will be able to add security to your documents by encrypting them with password protection. Next, I will show you how to do it:
Step 1 Open PDF file
Open PDFelement and select the PDF file you want to password protect.
Step 2 Get encryption options
After you opened your PDF document, click the “Protect” tab and then go to the “Set Password” button which will be displayed at the upper left part of your screen.
Step 3 Apply password encryption
A new window will be displayed, check the “Open Password” square and type the password of your choice, then retype it to confirm and check the “Permission Password” square to customize the permissions that you want to apply to your file.
5. Add, Remove and edit metadata
If you need to add, remove or edit data from your school records, you will love PDFelement thanks to all the tools it has available to you. Each one of them will give you the opportunity to customize your file how you want it and always in an easy and practical way. Next, I will explain what you can do to edit the information in your PDF documents:
If you want to edit data in your PDF school records, you can do it through the tools found in the "Edit" menu. PDFelement will allow you to edit texts, add images, share links, set background, write header and footers, among many other alternatives.
There are also functions through which you can add comments, stamps, bookmarks and electronic signatures so that your documents do not cease to be valid.
6. Quick access from any location via the cloud
Another great advantage that PDFelement offers is that you can share your PDF documents very easily and upload them to the cloud. Among the options that exist on storage services, Wondershare Document Cloud is the best option for PDFelement, because there is total compatibility. You will be able to edit and personalize your files online with all the tools at your disposal, plus you will not have problems due to lack of compatibility or reading errors. To share your documents to Wondershare Cloud you just have to follow what I will show you below:
Open your document and click "File" at the top left of your screen. From the drop-down list, hit "Share" and then "Wondershare Cloud." This will be enough for your file to be in the cloud and you can open it from any location with a few simple clicks.
Closing Words
The school and student records contain important documents that must be organized, protected, and with the greatest possible security. The fact that they are hosted digitally has a great advantage, but that is not enough. If you use software like PDFelement, you can be sure that your files will be shared to an incredible storage service such as Wondershare Cloud, and, in addition, you will have many tools to edit, make corrections, or whatever you consider necessary to personalize the documents.