How to Embed a PDF in Notion? - PDF to Notion (2024)

Table of contents

• 1. Add a PDF block
• 2. Embed PDF in Notion
• 3. Resize the Notion PDF preview
• 4. Control Access
• What is the best way to upload a PDF to Notion?
• Here’s why you are unable to embed your PDF in Notion
• How to import PDF into Notion?
• 1. Click on ‘Settings & members’ option in the Notion sidebar
• 2. Click on the ‘Import’ option and select ‘PDF’
• 3. Find and select the PDF you want to import from your local drive
• 4. Access the imported PDF in editable format
• FAQs
• Can you read PDFs in Notion?
• Can you edit PDFs in Notion?
• Can Notion summarize PDFs?

When you start using Notion, it’s hard not to stick with it and get all your documents on it. That’s because it acts as a spectacular repository of your documents. It doesn’t matter if you use Notion to create a website or use it as a CRM, you need to get your documents there.

And when we talk about documents, it's hard not to talk about PDFs. In the current times, PDFs have become the go-to file format for all official documentation purposes. If you use Notion for business, you will find it easy to share PDFs with select audiences.

For example, Invoices and purchase orders can be shared only with the accounts team. And organization-wide documents like annual holiday calendar, tax forms can be made accessible to every employee through a common Notion dashboard.

Irrespective of what you use it for, you would want to insert PDFs in Notion.

1. Add a PDF block

The embed and PDFs blocks, both serve the purpose of embedding PDFs into Notion. We will cover the process of using the embed block but the same process and screenshots apply to the PDF block as well.

To get started, go to the Notion page where you want to upload the PDF and type “/embed”.

This will pull up a view where you can see the embed block, clicking on it will create a new block on the page.

Here is what the empty block looks like.

2. Embed PDF in Notion

There are two ways forward. You can either upload a PDF from your device or add a link to source the PDF from. If you want to share a link, you must ensure that it is public and Notion can access it.

Here is what the selection pane looks like.

3. Resize the Notion PDF preview

After you have selected the PDF to embed, click on “Embed Link” or “Upload” to show your PDF in your Notion page.

Notion will show a preview as displayed in the below image.

Next, you can expand or compress your PDF to adjust the size. You can treat it just like other Notion blocks — you can move it around or delete it when you want.

4. Control Access

As discussed earlier, not all PDFs need to be accessible to all your team members. Some documents are meant for specific teams and must be kept private from others.

To share with a specific audience, or even to make your Notion page public, you can click on the “...” icon at the top-right corner of your screen and add people you want to share access with.

What is the best way to upload a PDF to Notion?

The best way to embed PDF in Notion is by simply pasting a PDF URL and commanding Notion to embed it. The below image shows an example. On pasting the URL, Notion shows an option of embedding it.

This method, however, won’t work if you plan to upload your PDF from your device.

In this article, we covered the steps to embedding a PDF in Notion and sharing it with others in your team. You can embed many other file types in Notion using the same method.

Here’s why you are unable to embed your PDF in Notion

Embedding PDFs in Notion may not work if the PDF URL is not publicly accessible. Try opening the URL in another browser. If you get a 404 error, you can be sure that either the link is incorrect or it’s private. If the URL is correct, all you need to do is edit the privacy settings of the PDF before uploading it to Notion.

How to import PDF into Notion?

Embedding is not the only way to upload a PDF to Notion. You can add PDFs by importing them as well. Here’s how:

1. Click on ‘Settings & members’ option in the Notion sidebar

2. Click on the ‘Import’ option and select ‘PDF’

3. Find and select the PDF you want to import from your local drive

We will upload the PDF titled ‘Assignment’ into the Notion page. Click on it and then click on ‘Open’, to start importing.

4. Access the imported PDF in editable format

FAQs

Can you read PDFs in Notion?

You can easily read PDFs in Notion by embedding them into your reading list and resizing it to the page width. You can scroll and read through your eBooks in the form of PDFs by adding them to a Notion ‘Embed’ or ‘PDF’ block, as if it were open in a new tab.

Can you edit PDFs in Notion?

You can edit PDFs in Notion by importing them into the tool. Use the built-in ‘Import’ capability to render the PDFs in a new page in an editable format. However, Notion’s PDF import capability is in Beta so imported tables could lose their formatting.

Can Notion summarize PDFs?

Yes, Notion can summarize imported PDFs using the Notion AI module but it is unable to read embedded PDFs. To summarize a PDF in Notion, import it as a new page so that the PDF gets added in editable text format. Next, prompt Notion AI to summarize the PDF and watch as it writes a gist.

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