Reviewing PDF Converter Professional 4: A Complete PDF Editor
Introduction
Nuance’s PDF Converter Professional 4 creates portable document format (PDF) files from a large variety of basic and desktop publishing applications. These PDF files can be opened on your computer even if you do not have the software it was created in; all you need is the PDF reading software.
PDF Converter Professional 4 not only lets you read the PDF files but also create, convert, and edit them. With PDF Converter Professional 4 you can easily convert files from MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and WordPerfect into PDF files that can be easily read, shared, and printed. Further, even the reverse is possible; that is, converting the PDF files into MS Word, Excel, WordPerfect, and RTF formats. [See Images 1 and 2] All of these conversions are fast and easy, as PDF Converter creates the toolbar for these conversions within the software itself.
With PDF Converter Professional 4, you can also easily edit the text and objects of the PDF files. You can highlight the text, add images from your clipart collection or from your hard disk, and also add sounds.
PDF Converter Professional 4 enables you to protect your files with a password and encrypt them, thus ensuring complete safety of any important data. You can also combine a number of PDF files, or overlay them. If you don’t want to visually read your PDF file, you can listen to its audio by using PDF Converter Professional 4.
Price to Value (5 out of 5)
What’s Hot:
PDF Converter Professional 4 is available for $99.99 and if you purchase two copies, you get the third one free. This is much cheaper than the other PDF converting and editing software packages available from popular companies like Adobe. You get most of the functions offered by these companies for a much lower price.
If you indeed have to keep on converting PDF files to MS Word, WordPerfect, Excel, or RTF formats (or vice versa), then this software is absolutely worth it. The excellent thing about PDF Converter Professional 4 is that it creates a toolbar within these other programs that makes conversion a lot easier and faster. Of course, you can also open the files directly in PDF Converter Professional 4 and carry out a variety of editing tasks.
Installation & Setup (4 out of 5)
What’s Hot:
The installation of PDF Converter Professional 4 is very easy and highly intuitive like that of other popular software. The size of the software is whopping 414 MB and it comes with a Pando installer file. During installation you will be asked if you would like to do a complete or custom installation. With a complete installation all the features are installed, while with a custom installation you can install only the features of your choice.
You will also be asked if you would like to make PDF Converter Professional 4 the default for opening PDF files and if you would like to open these files in Internet Explorer. Finally, you are asked to activate your product, which is compulsory, otherwise it will stop functioning after using it a certain number of times. At this stage, you are also prompted to register the software.
What’s Not:
There is really no need to make the file available via Pando; this additional step could have been avoided. The size of the software is too large.
User Interface (5 out of 5)
What’s Hot:
The highlight of PDF Converter Professional 4 is its highly intuitive user interface with its modern graphics. Since PDF Converter Professional 4 offers a number of functions, it has a large number of icons that have been designed beautifully and given excellent color combinations. The functions are well organized, either in the form of the icons or the pop-up menus. Overall, it’s a good looking UI. [See Image 3]
One of the specialties of PDF Converter Professional 4 is that the icons are accompanied by their names. This is not the case with most other software where the name of the icon is displayed only when the mouse pointer hovers over the icon. In PDF Converter Professional 4, the functions can be understood directly by reading the text next to the icon as well as hovering over it. However, if you don’t understand certain features, there is a Help menu to guide you.
Another highlight of PDF Converter Professional 4 is the toolbar it places in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook along with the PDF option created in the File menu of WordPerfect. These enable you to convert the files created in these software packages directly into PDF files. You can also convert PDF files to the native formats of these programs. Thus, you don’t have to actually open the PDF Converter software.
PDF Converter Professional 4 can be opened in three different ways:
- If you want to edit a PDF file, you can open PDF Converter Professional with its host of editing and file conversion facilities.
- If you wish to convert a PDF file, you can open PDF Converter Assistant, which lets you convert the file to a Word document, WordPerfect document, Excel workbook, or rich text format file. [See Image 4]
- If you want to merely create a PDF file, “PDF Create! Assistant” helps you do that. [See Image 5]
Product Features (5 out of 5)
What’s Hot:
There are three main functions of PDF Converter Professional 4: creating, converting, and editing PDF files. If you want to create a PDF file, you can select “PDF Create! Assistant” from the Start menu. This helps you create individual PDF files, combine PDF files, or overlay PDF files. To convert a PDF file to a Word, WordPerfect, Excel, or RTF document, you can select PDF Converter Assistant from the Start menu. You can also carry out both these functions and many other editing functions by selecting PDF Converter Professional 4 from the Start menu. [See Image 6]
When you open PDF Converter Professional 4, you can create a new PDF file by going to the “New PDF” submenu of the “File” menu and selecting one of the following options:
- Blank PDF.
- From File.
- Create Multiple Files.
- Combine Multiple Files.
- Overlay Multiple Files.
The Touchup Text tool lets you edit text within the opened PDF document. To make changes in the images or other objects, you use the Touchup Object tool. Then you can also insert a text box by using the Text Box tool. [See Image 7 and 8]
There are number of tools for formatting the text like Highlight, Crossout, and Underline. For these tools you will have to select the text with Select Text tool. [See Image 9]
If at any point while reading the PDF file you want to refer to some other file, you can attach that file within the PDF file. You can also add the sounds at any point within the PDF file. The Note tools enables you to attach a note at any point in the PDF file. [See Image 10 and 11]
There are number of drawing tools in PDF Converter Professional 4 for drawing various shapes in the PDF file. These tools include line, rectangle, pencil, oval, polygon, cloud, and more. [See Image 12]
In the Organizer Panels, a number of insertion tools are available. You can add pictures readily available from the Clip Art or from the hard disk. [See Image 13] The Search tool allows you to search for specific text within the PDF file. You can password protect your PDF file and apply other security features from the Security panel. You can also add various types of Stamps and Watermarks. [See Image 14 and 15]
For easy and fast navigation through your PDF file, a number of navigational options are available within the Navigation Panels. From here, you can easily view attachments, bookmarks, comments, destinations, signatures, and thumbnails. [See Image 16]
PDF Converter Professional 4 also has a number of tools to create forms within your files. These tools include Button, Check Box, Radio Button, Combo Box, and more. You can turn static PDF forms into fillable PDF forms or MS Word forms. You can ask PDF Converter Professional 4 to read files aloud for you. You can also Crop any part of the PDF file. Many other features are available in PDF Converter Professional 4.
Performance (4 out of 5)
What’s Hot:
I used PDF Converter Professional 4 for a number of purposes. For example, I converted a PDF to MS Word and WordPerfect documents directly from these word processors as well as from the PDF Converter Professional 4. I also opened a blank PDF file and added lots of text and other objects. Additionally, I opened the previously created PDF file and performed a lot of editing in it. Whatever task was carried out, PDF Converter Professional 4 performed exceptionally with great speed.
When the PDF file was converted to the MS Word document, most of the formatting (objects, tables, etc.) were preserved. While making this conversion I also found that I can convert either all the pages or pages of my choice. A preview of these pages is also available.
Two interesting features that worked really well were combining a number of PDF files into one file and overlaying PDF files. Most of the time, accessing the features and using them was quite easy. I wasn’t able to understand the features of forms, but the Help menu cleared this up.
Images
Conclusion
PDF Converter Professional 4 helps you create, convert, and edit PDF files. It has great tools for those who have to frequently convert PDF files into Word, WordPerfect, Excel, or RTF formats. You can also create PDF files directly from Word, WordPerfect, Excel, and PowerPoint. PDF files can be created individually or in groups, and they can be combined or made to overlay one another.
PDF Converter Professional provides you with lots of tools that enable you to edit text and objects to include highlighting, underlining, added notes, bookmarks, images, stamps, and so on. You can protect your file with a password and apply other security features. You can also easily create fillable forms.
Overall, PDF Converter Professional 4 is great value at $99.99 per copy (and you can get an additional copy if you buy two). This is much less than the other popular software packages in this category.
Related Products
Adobe Acobat Professional 8, eXPert PDF 5 Professional, Foxit PDF, PDF Editor
