This assumes that the original PDF is in a layout that Word can adequately replicate.
Anything produced in InDesign, Quark XPress, Pages, -- even Excel or Numbers -- or more specialised tools like music notation, accounting software, drawing packages, and many others: these app can all produce output that is far beyond the capabilities of Word.

Editing PDFs can mean many things: colour correction, text editing, adjustment of print attributes, resizing, page re-ordering, adding watermark text or image, form filling, adding of elements like bookmarks, hyperlinks, media files; also Javascript, etc, etc, etc.

There are several different tools available to achieve these various tasks, depending on what you want.

However, any "serious" reforming of the content or layout would be best served by going back to the original artwork files.

Try this pdf editor. It gives you an opportunity to edit and save all PDF files, without using doPDF or any other print-emulation programms.

Windows software in an Apple-focused forum? That's usually spam.

Is it really, when you consider that these machines also run Windows? Recommending Windows applications may also be as valid as recommending Apple software unless there is a particular application OS specification for the problem.

I understand what you're saying here, but nothing in this thread suggests someone is looking for a Windows-based solution. The references to Windows solutions in this thread originate with people registering and recommending them, and those posts showed no acknowledgement of the costs and inconveniences associated with Windows software being run on a Mac. More broadly, where do we draw the line? Should we be recommending Linux options when applicable even though a poster says, "I'm looking to do X on my new iMac"?

Personally, I use the site name as my primary guide, and to me that clearly suggests Mac-focused solutions until someone specifies otherwise. I wouldn't visit the Windows 7 Hints forum and suggest the Mac-only Quicksilver as an option for someone since there's a chance they are running Windows on a Mac.

Admittedly, I'm just one person with an opinion and an approach, and I'm not trying to suggest I am the one correctly assessing these considerations. I've tried to use posters who've been here longer than me as my guide, along with the forum rules, but that doesn't mean I'm doing so perfectly. So I'm open to hearing other nuances I may be missing and approaches worth adopting, both specific to this thread and to these forums in general.

Adobe Pro is expensive but good.
When making small corrections/edits I prefer using Photoshop. Save it as a eps file and then use Adobe Distiller to compress the file to a PDF.