In the world of software, the word "essential" gets bandied around a lot. But as a writer, there really is an essential app that's saved my bacon many times: PDF Expert.

It's a great, easy-to-use PDF editor that goes far beyond the Preview app built into macOS. I've been a paying customer for many years. My colleague Charlie Sorrell is also a fan.

With PDF Expert, you can edit text, images, links and any other element in a PDF. I've found it invaluable for trickier tasks, like merging documents. But it's also great for quick tasks, like filling out forms or adding a signature.

If you need a document editor that offers many more features than Preview, I recommend you take a look at PDF Expert.

-- Leander Kahney, EIC.

PDF Expert: Lifetime subscription

PDF Expert is an award-winning app that makes working with PDFs as easy as any other document file. With it loaded on your Mac, you can easily edit text, images, links and everything else.

Typo in a contract? Fix it in a flash. Need to revamp an entire page? No problem.

Small wonder PDF Expert earned Editors’ Choice honors from Apple, and took home the App of the Year award in 2015. And right now, you can get PDF Expert for just $29.99 at Cult of Mac Deals (a discount of more than 60%).

With PDF Expert, suddenly PDFs become as easy to edit as a Word document. The app's tools make it a simple matter to annotate PDFs, merge and sign documents, fill out forms, and share everything across devices.

You can even add password protection to sensitive documents, something clients will certainly appreciate. Plus, PDF Expert works great as a straightforward and smooth PDF reader.

Buy now: Get PDF Expert for $29.99. That’s more than half off the usual price.