Showing posts with label acrobat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acrobat. Show all posts

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium Upgrade Review

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium Upgrade
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I'm a long-time fan of Adobe, and eagerly anticipated CS3. I hoped they would work out the many Macromedia bugs, but they managed to add a few of their own! And the promised product integration simply isn't there:
The Dreamweaver inteface is unchanged, except for renaming the Layers panel, and adding a new Objects tab. It won't correctly display interactivity in a SWF preview (the first click works; subsequent click are treated as a right-click, showing the FlashPlayer drop-down menu rather than the functionality in the SWF!)
Photoshop may be the reason most people upgrade, but its most touted new feature--non-destructive filters--is implemented very poorly. Rather than working like adjustment layers currently work, SmartFilters, as they are known, convert the underlying Photoshop layer into a SmartObject and places the SmartFilter on top. You CS2 users know that you can't edit a SmartObject in Photoshop--you have to go to the object's native application. So to edit the image under a SmartFilter, Photoshop opens it in a new document window (meaning you can't see its interaction with layers underneath as you edit it, and can't see how the various SmartFilters make the changed composition look until you save and return to the original document.
Flash was the reason I purchased this upgade: I was elated about importing layered PSDs and AI files. PSDs work great; AI files cause Flash to crash! (and Adobe tech support will not even respond)
Flash added a couple of new tools: shape primitives, which came from Macromedia Freehand: they allow you to easily edit the corner radius of a rectangle long after it's drawn--even editing each corner independently!
But do they offer a Primitive Star or Polygon tool like Freehand had (which allows you to edit the number of sides on stars and polygons)?
No.
Are the new Primitive Shape tools in Illustrator or Photoshop?
No.
Are the tear-off tool sets from Illustrator and ImageReady CS2 in Photoshop or InDesign CS3?
No.
Speaking of ImageReady, does it exist anymore?
No.
Can Photoshop CS3 open and edit multiple frames of an animated GIF?
No!(Don't delete ImageReady from your hard drive yet!)
Can you move the new collapsable tool panels onto your second monitor?
No.
Does Flash correctly auto-format ActionScript?
No.
Can you open an InDesign CS3 document in CS2 if no CS3 features were used (would be useful for all the non-early-adopters, such as printers receiving the jobs files)?
No.
Can you open a Flash CS3 .FLA with Flash 8, even if no CS3 features were used?
No.
Should you buy CS3?
No.
Not even at the academic price. It's a beta-version at best; wait for CS4.
UPDATE: A week later I'm STILL waiting for Adobe's reply, even after opening a second support case! It's like they outsourced their software development and support to Microsoft.

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Adobe CS3 Design Premium Mac Upgrade.Upgrade from Creative Suites Premium or Standard or Studio 8.

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Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 Student & Teacher Edition Review

Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 Student and Teacher Edition
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(More customer reviews)
Be aware that if you make the mistake of buying this edition of this company's software you will be put through a real hassle by some company called Ident-e that will want everything but your grandmother's birth certificate and a note from your teacher to verify that you are actually a student or teacher. Unlike the more straight forward methods used by Microsoft and others they require picture ID's, which can be difficult if your course is online, fee bills, etc. They are also unresponsive, taking 48 hours or more to answer queries. The kicker is that after 30 days they threaten to refuse to activate the software at all and you cannot get a refund. Welcome to Adobe.
I bought this overpriced software because the University of South Alabama convinced my wife, who is attending a grad course, that she needed Acrobat to submit her documents. I know that you can use free programs, like PDF Creator, and alternate software like PDF Factory and numerous other pdf suites that are both cheaper and more flexible than Acrobat. I use those myself but in the interest of my wife's confidence in her system I decided to spend the extra bucks and buy this version, for which she certainly qualifies. I regret that decision and will never again do any business with or recommend any Adobe product to anyone. This is one disgusting and arrogant bunch to deal with.
I am still waiting for the response and serial number for the software I paid them for and will update this as needed.
BTW: They needed no verification to charge my card. Guess they figure that ends their responsibility in this matter.

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Adobe Dynamic PDF technology enables you to connect, interact, an engage in powerful new ways. Streamline how your team works, collaborates, and creates high-impace communications--all with the reliability, visual fidelity, and control you expect from Adobe. Designed to meet the needs of today's businesses, Adobe Dynamic PDF helps your team get more done--easier, faster, better.
Deliver professional documents Easily organize content from a variety of sources--including documents, e-mail, images, spreadsheets, and web pages--in a single searchable PDF Portfolio, compressed for easy distribution. Use professionally designed templates that can be branded with your company logo and colors. Quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add polish to communicate clearly and effectively. Share information with anyone using free Adobe Reader software.

Create and manage forms Simplify the creation and completion of forms to efficiently analyze and use data. Convert Word and Excel documents or scanned paper to PDF forms with automatic recognition of fillable fields. Or use Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES software, a professional form design tool included with Acrobat 9 Pro software, to further customize and automate dynamic XML forms. Extend Acrobat functionality to Reader users so virtually anyone can participate in the workflows you initiate. Use the Form Tracker to see when forms have been completed and who has completed them. And easily export data to a spreadsheet for analysis and reporting.

Manage document reviews Accelerate the exchange of ideas with colleagues, extended teams, and customers. Through easy-to-manage electronic document reviews, participants can see and build on other reviewers' comments as they are being made, so you can quickly gain the input and consensus you need to efficiently develop and complete work. Enable virtually anyone using free Adobe Reader software to participate in reviews, and use the Form Tracker to monitor progress and participation.

Help protect sensitive information Control access to and use of PDF documents, assign digital rights, and maintain document integrity. Set document permissions to define whether a file can be printed or changed. Apply passwords to help restrict document access. Use redaction tools to permanently remove sensitive information. Digitally sign and certify documents to validate they came from a trusted source. Create and reuse document security policies to precisely manage who can print, save, copy, or modify a document.



Top reasons to buy to Acrobat 9 Pro
Deliver a compelling branded experience using PDF Portfolios Bring multiple files together in a single organized and interactive PDF Portfolio. Use professionally designed templates that can be branded with your logo and include descriptions to guide recipients through the contents.

Help protect your documents Use passwords to control access to PDF documents. Use permissions to restrict printing, copying, or altering. Save passwords and permissions as security policies that can be easily applied to new PDF files.

Easily create and manage electronic forms Build dynamic forms, distribute and track forms and responses, and easily export data for analysis and reporting.

Manage and track electronic document reviews Gain the input you need through interactive document reviews that enable participants to see and build on other reviewers' comments, which can be sorted by author, date, or page. Use the Form Tracker to monitor progress and participation.

Include Adobe Reader users Enable users of free Adobe Reader software to digitally sign documents, participate in shared document reviews, and save forms locally. By extending Acrobat functionality to Reader users, virtually anyone can participate in the workflows you initiate.

Synchronize document views Provide clarity and enhance discussion by e-mailing a PDF document and walking recipients through it in real time by controlling the exact page view they see.

Remove sensitive information Use redaction tools to black out sensitive text, illustrations, or other information, permanently deleting the content from the PDF document. Inspect PDF documents for metadata, hidden layers, and other concealed information, and remove before distributing to others.

Compare PDF documents Automatically highlight the differences between two versions of a PDF document, including text and images, so you can quickly and easily identify what has changed.

Improve print processes Help control costs and reduce errors with automated output controls to preview, preflight, correct, and prepare PDF files for high-end print production and digital publishing.

Create and validate accessible PDF documents Ensure your PDF documents are optimized for people with disabilities. Quickly evaluate, correct, and automatically tag PDF documents for optimized accessibility and reflow.


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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional Upgrade Review

Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional Upgrade
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For just about every user, it's more than likely that one would be better off saving the money and not getting this upgrade. Functionality hasn't changed, many other glitches that have existed since 2.0 still abound. Save your dough and wait until they drastically upgrade.
What the importance of this particular upgrade amounts to is the few operations that have been made easier (working in conjuction with AutoCAD, etc.). But the all around use of the program is essentially unchanged. Do your research first.

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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional software allows business, creative, and engineering professionals who work with graphically complex documents to exchange business-critical documents accurately and efficiently. Convert any document to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), and with one click from Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Project, as well as from Microsoft Visio and AutoCAD, preserve document layers.
Combine multiple documents-including large-format technical drawings and page layouts-into one compact Adobe PDF file in a single step. Automatically initiate and manage document reviews using intuitive electronic tools. Create forms that can be exchanged with colleagues and customers, and archive your project files as searchable Adobe PDF files.
View, navigate, and comment on large-format documents with tools that eliminate the need for paper-based reviews, making it faster and easier to meet critical deadlines. Streamline proofing cycles with robust tools that let you automatically track, manage, and incorporate electronic feedback. View detailed artwork or large-format documents with intuitive navigation tools. Output PDF/X-compliant files, and help eliminate surprises at the printer by preflighting files and previewing and printing color separations.
Note: This is an upgrade version.

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Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 Review

Adobe Acrobat Professional 9
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I used this product just long enough to discover that the Mac version does not support rich content when converting Word .doc or .docx files to PDF. Internal links (cross-references to bookmarks in the same document), for example, are not converted. For that, I was told after several support calls, one needs the Windows version, which is supposed to come with PDFMaker for use in such conversions.
All that was several weeks ago. It took that long, working faithfully with the call center from day to day and from week to week to sort out (1) who I am - I had an older customer ID associated with a purchase made years ago, and it took several calls to figure out the customer ID under which my Acrobat 9 purchase was made; (2) make them realize that I'd uploaded my software destruction agreement as a prerequisite to the license swap that would get me the Windows version; (3) confirm shipment. The Windows version is due to arrive this week. All I can do is hope that I don't have to call back and start over at the beginning.
Adobe makes great products and is uniquely situated in today's ebook marketplace as the purveyor of PDF, the new preferred format for the Kindle DX. They won't have to do much to ride the wave of success built on quality and market positioning made all the more profitable by this new wave of good fortune. There isn't much in this mix to motivate a more efficient customer support organization, and it shows.
The call center people are very sharp and helpful but mired in a disjointed business model. They do the best they can.

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Adobe Acrobat Professional v 9.0 Mac

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Scansoft Omnipage 15 Professional Upgrade Review

Scansoft Omnipage 15 Professional Upgrade
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(More customer reviews)
Buyer beware on this "upgrade." As a long-time customer of ScanSoft products who has been highly satisfied with the OmniPage software, I purchased my upgrade directly from ScanSoft and discovered:
1) If you want to set new styles in the Text Editor window, it must be done each time the software is started; the new styles do not save for me. Instead, they disappear each time I exit and I have to re-establish them each time I use the software.
2) When saving a scaned document to MS Word (using the function which automatically opens Word), the directory must be selected before the file name is entered because changing directories clears the file name box. The file name should not vanish. This is not a problem with Version 14.
3) When selecting text zones, the selection order is no longer relevant to the scanned results (this has also proven to be a problem with Version 14). Pre Version 14, the zones were numbered and they would be presented in the Text Editor window in that order. For at least the most recent two versions, if you scan parallel columns and select no formatting, whichever column's top border is higher on the scan path will be placed in the Text Editor window ahead of the other column(s). I scan recipes for my wife and reformat them to a standard format for her recipe collections; many recipes present the ingredients and/or instructions in parallel columns. It is not useful to have the baking instructions end up before the ingredients or the mixing instructions.
4) The automatic de-skew function is now weaker than in the past, as well. Many document now need to be manually de-skewed whereas Version 14 was almost foolproof.
I've spent hours on the web searching both the ScanSoft knowledge database and researching the above issues through various searches. The ScanSoft support is weaker than ever and, apparently, Version 15 is too new to have generated any truly useful support from other sites.
Although ScanSoft grants free technical support for one incident, their support is M-F, daytime, only. Additionally, they have shown no inclination to extend the free support to deal with defects they have (albeit, inadvertently) built into their product. I strongly believe that if the defect is in my use of a good product, then I should pay for my ignorance; however, if the defect is in the product in spite of my good use, ScanSoft should support the fixes and explanations without additional cost.

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The continued use of paper slows people down. The wasted time in which information is re-created from paper documents is a drain on both productivity and profits. OmniPage eliminates paper and digital inefficiency by improving productivity, enhancing responsiveness and reducing storage and material costs. Organizations save significant time and money by leveraging OmniPage's OCR accuracy to instantly convert documents into usable formats. The latest version of the world's best selling OCR software, OmniPage 15 Pro is the most precise way to convert paper and PDF files. Accurate OCR technology, advanced layout analysis and intuitive editing tools allows paper and PDF files to turn instantly into editable electronic documents that look just like the original complete with, tables and graphics. Robust new tools allow completion of tasks faster and more efficiently than ever before. OmniPage is more than 99% accurate, its improved speed and intuitive proofing combine to make document conversion faster and easier than imagined. Sharing information is limited to inefficient and costly processes such as postal mail, courier or fax machines Critical documents are not backed up electronically for effective disaster recovery System Requirements -Intel Pentium III equivalent or higher processor, Microsoft Windows 98 SE, 2000 with Service Pack 4 or higher, Me, XP, or Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended), 200 MB of free hard disk space for application files and sample images plus 40-45 MB working space during installation, speech module (343 MB in total for nine languages), 5 MB for Microsoft Installer (MSI) if not present, 800 x 600 pixel color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card, CD-ROM drive for installation and compatible scanner with its own scanner driver software.

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Readiris Pro 7.0 Review

Readiris Pro 7.0
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Waited almost a year to get this product at a sale price.
When I got it, the joy of finally acquiring it very quickly passed.
The first problem occured during setup.
You are asked to choose your scanner "brand" from a drop-down menu list.
They had tons of choices for:
- HP
- Agfa
- Black widow ?
As for the rest of the scanner world:
1 choice for umax
1 for microtek
1 for Niscan
1 for Canon
1 for Silitek
As for VISIONEER; NOTHING! Zilch! Zip! Nada !
Unbelievable!
One of the most marketed scanners in office stores or online, and readiris can't see fit to include even ONE driver choice;
not even a "generic visioneer" choice.
I figured they had at least added a "patch" or such at their website. NOPE!
Nothing over at their website [support section] either.
I have owned like 4 visioneers over the past 6-8 years.
And 1 canon and 1 umax.
The point being, Visioneer is EVERYWHERE !
They might not be the world's BEST scanners, but they are a large part of the "middle-of-the-road" consumer marketplace.
Perhaps IF readiris was some sort of "worldclass" product,
then maybe [a BIG maybe], they could get away with such a "primadonna" sort of attitude.
But common-sense business practice says to "market to the masses". [Anyone that doesn't better have such a whiz-bang product that they are backlogged with orders and customers are beating down their doors. I doubt Readiris has either such situation].
Anyway, the evaluation :
1. driver choices - poor.
After choosing a "twain-generic" type of scanner choice, I was able to scan my test page.
2. OCR ability - The OCR capabilities was one of the lamest I have ever used.
I even chose a different scanner "type" or driver, but no improvement.As for OCR, I have done better with the "bundled" software that came with any of my scanners. Meaning, those "Limited editions" that the scanner companies include. [not full versions, normally].
3. rating of packages I've personally tested:
I have used a lot of different packages and here is my list of grades, from worst to best:
1. worst - readiris 7 pro
2. middle of the road -
"bundled softwares" - that come with scanners
3. Above average - omnipage, Textbridge, Pagemanager
4. Very good - the Adobe Elements 2.0 bundle that came with my Canon Lide scanner.
5. 5-star favorite.
ABBYY Finereader Pro Version 5
I used only the older version 5 pro, so far.
WOW ! I was blown away by the accuracy of OCR.
It even beat out omnipage 8 and 9.
Co-workers/friends that saw my finereader pro vs their omnipage were equally impressed. They immediately asked their supervisors to get it for them. Luckily ABBYY offers "competitive upgrades", from ANY brand OCR software to finereader pro. [ABBYY finereader is VERY liberal in competitive upgrades. ANY OCR product qualifies. Now THAT is A+ customer service and marketing].
Maybe Readiris will improve, but version 7 was a dismal showing.

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Readiris Pro 7 is OCR software that converts your everyday printed documents,such as letters, faxes, magazine articles, and columns in a newspaper, intoeditable text files with a high rate of recognition accuracy. Readiris Pro 7features a number of easy-to-use tools to convert documents into electronicfiles, including PDF files. The new OCR engine in version 7 increases the OCRaccuracy by 40 percent above Readiris Pro 6.
It features automatic detection of font mode, improved recognition of light text with brokencharacters, improved recognition of dark text with touching characters,improved recognition of text with speckles, and improved recognition ofunderlined text. Readiris Pro 7 recognizes documents captured with digitalcameras, documents scanned in color, including text on color backgrounds,and saves pictures in color. It detects the orientation of the scanned documentand automatically rotates the page for the best OCR accuracy.

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Adobe Acrobat Standard 9 Upgrade Review

Adobe Acrobat Standard 9 Upgrade
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(More customer reviews)
The upgrade requirements aren't mentioned here, but according to Adobe's website you can upgrade "from Acrobat 6.x, 7.x or 8.x Standard".
The license allows an additional install on a laptop or home computer, provided you don't use that copy at the same time as the main install. From the license: "... the primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed ('Primary User') may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided that the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer ..."
The product requires activation, which includes sending license information to Adobe.
According to Adobe's website, it is OK to move the software between computers you own, but you need to manually deactivate the software on the old computer before the move. You can launch deactivation using the Help/Deactivate menu item. (You may need to wait a minute or two after Acrobat starts before this menu item appears.)


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ACROBAT 9 WIN UPG ST -ST RTL DVD

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Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0 Review

Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0
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(More customer reviews)
Please see reviews of the previous version 7.0. The Adobe activation process can cause a lot of continuing problems for legitimate users of this software. Too bad such good software is hampered by such a process. Being in the software business, I don't mind companies worrying about piracy and taking some measures but this is a bit too much. You might need to allow the software to access the internet regularly to keep your activation (and not bother you with notices of reactivation) but that also means you open it for Adobe to do their push marketing into their software. I have used Adobe products for over 15 years and have always liked them. Too bad, they have lost the customer focus in their rage for software piracy and greed for intrusive marketing.

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With Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard, you'll have an essential business information management tool that no business should be without. It enables professionals to reliably create Adobe PDF documents from Microsoft Office, Outlook, Internet Explorer, or any application that prints. Easily convert and optimize documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, and websites to more secure Adobe PDF files that preserve the formatting and integrity of the original files. Share information with anyone using free Adobe Reader software. Protect sensitive information with passwords and permissions, and conduct collaborative document reviews by e-mail or server.Enhanced OCR capabilities -Scan paper more accurately to generate searchable PDF documents Take advantage of improved functionality for saving Adobe PDF files as Microsoft Word documents, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting, and tables Take advantage of enhanced review and markup tools for easier, more accurate placement and resizing of markup items Create documents in PDF/A, the new ISO standard for long-term archiving of electronic documents

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Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard Review

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard
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Having purchased and been very happy with Acrobat 4-6 standard editions, I am sorry to say Version 7 is real step backwards for Adobe:
-- The program will not read many pdf documents Acrobat 4-6 will (this may some sort of font copyright problem or just a flaw in this version of the software).
-- The Activation process is tedious, difficult and prevents you from using your own software, even if you only install it on one machine.
Having purchased this software almost a year ago, I uninstalled it because it did not read files Acrobat 6 does, as mentioned above. I thought this might be a bug in the program which Adobe would fix. So I installed and uninstalled it several times, each time the program would not work. Now the program tells me I have activated it too many times, though I have no working copy of the program. The software tells me to call Adobe customer support, but after keeping me in a computer loop for 10 minutes I learn the "call center" is closed, or there is simply no answer after 50 minutes.
If I could return this software I would. It does not work. I can't return my copy, but you don't have to buy a copy. Stick with 6.0 or the cheaper Scansoft program. Acrobat 7.0 does not work, and after a time Adobe won't let you use, even if you buy it, full price.

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Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard software is the quick and easy way to create and share Adobe PDF documents. You can convert files from applications such as Microsoft Office into Adobe PDF documents that can be read by anyone using free Adobe Reader software. Combine spreadsheets, presentations, images, and other files into a consolidated Adobe PDF document that others can read but not alter. Offer reviewersfamiliar commenting tools to quickly gather input. View comments and feedback from multiple reviewers, and then generate an Adobe PDF file with advanced security features that accurately represents the original document.

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ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional 3.0 Review

ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional 3.0
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Overall, this is a good product - with a few kinks. I agree with the one reviewer who commented on the lack of product support. The online PDF file just does not cut it. It tells you many things that the software can do but then fails to provide the "how to." Granted, it is a fairly simple program but the documentation is still lacking. The knowledge base is also less than adequate. As another reviewer mentioned, I also was unable to preserve links in any document conversion I tried - yes, I checked the document settings. When you go to the ScanSoft knowledge base and type in "link", you are presented with two solutions that simply do not work. I eventually found that the way to get the links to work - converting or printing from any source - was to 1) get the document converted over into PDF using PDF Converter Pro 2) manipulate and edit the document to your liking in PDF Converter Pro - they do have some get features here that blow Adobe away when you consider the price and the software footprint 3) save the document as PDF 4) then open the document up in Adobe Reader 7. Adobe Reader recognizes the links, PDF Converter Pro does not - this is a severe mistake on ScanSoft's part and you will not find this solution in their knowledge base (at least not at this time). For a while, I had PDF Converter Pro act as my default PDF reader, but then found it did not open links - went back to Adobe Reader - ScanSoft is now just an intermediary tool when they could have been a real challenge to Adobe. The two other things I don't like about ScanSoft is that 1) they charge $9.95 - which I refuse to pay - for technical support that should be included in a product manual 2) their registration procedure is not even disguised to look like they are actually taking in information for product affiliated reasons - it is a blatant market survey - and what is worse if you do try to register more than one product, they will ask you the same myriad questions each time. Other than that, it is a good product and does cut through a lot of the mess with document formatting and organization.
One last note - if you are going to upgrade - remove all previous versions first (along with the assistants) via add/remove programs, reboot, and then install - all windows apps need to be closed.


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ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional gives you everything you need to create, convert and edit PDF files — all within a single, easy to use application. Create high-quality PDF files from any PC application, complete with full color, watermarks and bookmarks. Turn existing PDF files into fully-formatted Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and Corel WordPerfect documents, complete with text, columns, tables and graphics. And for the 1st time ever, static PDF forms can be turned into fillable forms — all with a single mouse click. What's more, you also get the amazing ability to quickly and easily edit PDF files — from moving graphics to replacing text to adding highlights and sticky notes. Combine all of this with the new PDF Converter Professional mark-up tools, commenting and cutting-edge security features, and you truly have "Better PDF for Business” more productively and efficiently compressed file sizes, font embedding, full color support, page merging and much more!

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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard Upgrade Review

Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard Upgrade
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(More customer reviews)
"Acrobat 6 Standard" came bundled with my new PC. I tried it for a week but found myself disappointed with it for all the same reasons given in the other unfavorable reviews here--disappointed enough to remove it from my new PC and to replace it with the Acrobat 5 that I'd been using on my old PC.
I haven't much to add to what the other reviewers have said, but I'll go ahead and state the following:
6 is too different from 5 in its menu structure. The difference would be acceptable if the purpose were obvious--say, to make 6's menus better resemble those of other, high-volume applications such as Excel and Word. But the menu differences between 6 and 5 seem to be completely arbitrary.
Many of the sophisticated yet useful features that were standard in 5 are now, evidently, premium in 6. I say "evidently" because can I only assume that these features are available, at extra cost, in the Professional verion of 6. I think one such feature perhaps is "Tools->Locate Web Addresses->Create Web Links from URLs in text". I use that feature all the time in Acrobat 5, but I don't remember seeing it in Acrobat 6 Standard.

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Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard software lets business professionals quickly and easily convert any Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, or other paper or electronic document to a reliable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Adobe PDF files preserve the visual integrity of documents so that they can be e-mailed to colleagues and then viewed and printed on a variety of platforms using free Adobe Reader software.
Acrobat 6.0 Standard software’s intuitive review tools allow business professionals to comment on documents electronically and make it easy to track, manage, and incorporate feedback into original documents. Acrobat’s full set of features help you streamline communications and reduce the costs and inefficiencies associated with paper-based review processes.
Password protection lets you secure files to prevent unauthorized users from opening and viewing sensitive documents. Apply permissions with 128-bit encryption that control whether users are allowed to view, edit, comment on, sign, or print Adobe PDF files.And with digital signature support you can approve final documents, verify authenticity, and build a list of trusted certificates.
Note: This is an upgrade version.

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Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 Upgrade from Acrobat Pro Review

Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 Upgrade from Acrobat Pro
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I bought this to put on a brand new, virgin MacBook Pro. I already had a full version of 8.1 on my previous MacBook which is why I bought the upgrade. Being new to Macs, I installed this and all of my other initial software under the watchful eye of a "Genius" at a local Apple store. We were both suprised when the 9.0 upgrade installation did not demand proof of the 8.1 full version.
A few weeks later, I discovered that I was unable to print PDFs from my other applications. They would appear to print but I was never asked for a filename and they ended up jammed in the Adobe printer's print queue never to be coaxed out. I got an Indian support person on the phone first thing in the morning. She was clearly reading from a script and either incapable of or uninterested in listening. After 25 minutes of muffeled heavy breathing she decided that my 9.0 installation CD was somehow corrupted and put me in another queue to get a replacement sent to me in "about a week".
Meanwhile, I needed the missing functionality. I tried several itterations of installing and uninstalling 8.1 and 9.0 in different orders. Finally I uninstalled everything, put all adobe installation folders in the trash and started fresh with 8.1. After all, it worked on my former MacBook which was only a little more than a year old. It should work on this one right? Wrong. Same problem.
I called Adobe technical support again. After 28 minutes on hold, they hung up on me. I called back. After 55 minutes on hold, I got another Indian who told me I had been waiting in the wrong queue. The person she transferred me to (after another 5 minute hold) told me that, since I was asking for 8.1 support, whe would have to initate a "support contract" and charge me at least $39 to talk to me.
No more Adobe products for me. Never!

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Adobe Acrobat v.9.0 Professional - Upgrade Protect documents and accelerate information exchange with PDF Communicate and collaborate more effectively and securely. Unify a wide range of content in a single organized PDF Portfolio. Collaborate through electronic document reviews. Create and manage dynamic forms. And help protect sensitive information. Deliver professional documents Easily organize content from a variety of sources-including documents, e-mail, images, spreadsheets, and web pages-in a single searchable PDF Portfolio, compressed for easy distribution. Use professionally designed templates that can be branded with your company logo and colors. Quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add polish to communicate clearly and effectively. Share information with anyone using free Adobe Reader® software. Create and manage forms Simplify the creation and completion of forms to efficiently analyze and use data. Convert Word and Excel documents

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Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional Review

Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Adobe comes out and delivers another fine Acrobat product. While I purchased this for the sole purpose of creating PDFs and forms we could email our customers, have them fill out, save and email back, the brief touches I've had with the automatic form generators have left me impressed. The user interface is well thought out and clean which is a touchy subject for me personally as a programmer who specializes in UI design. Everything is movable, hide-able and customizable in a new sharp looking set of toolbars that should feel right at home in Windows Vista.
But, while it's a fine product that loads quickly thanks to a pre-loader when Windows starts, it does suffer from it's share of problems. The new user interface, while fancy, is glitchy, and has crashed out the software on more than one occasion. Simple innocuous tasks such as dragging a form element into alignment can suddenly leave you staring dumbfounded at your desktop as Windows defends itself from some index out of bounds fault. Is it entirely stable? No, but sadly, it's up to par with 99% of the industry's X.0 release software standards; which means it's 98% usable, but don't hand your boss an unpadded deadline that doesn't take into account a few crashes here and there.
Finally, yes, while the price of RAM continues to decrease, the memory (and hard disk) footprint of software continues to increase to obscene levels. Make sure your office equipment is on the more modern side because it'll take up 20meg+ of your RAM just when the computer starts; which is in this IT professional's opinion, a hefty price to pay just to look at PDFs in my web browser or on my hard drive without a 20 second load-up delay. Load it up and create a PDF of a simple Word 2003 document that contains only a page of text, and task manager tells you it's now eating up 50 meg. In short, it won't run well on the bargain-basement Intel Celeron, 256meg Windows XP machine.
As a final note for those who aren't heavily into IT looking to buy this product for their small office, you need to be connected to the internet when this is installed and be absolutely sure you install it on the computer it's going to permanently reside on. Like most expensive modern business software, Acrobat requires an activation in the name of Digital Rights Management that records it's serial number and the hardware ID of the computer it's installed on and keeps it on file at Adobe. One copy of the software will let you install it on exactly one machine. Try to install it on another machine (even if the original machine got obsoleted, kicked the bucket or transferred to different personnel), and you'll be met with a "this is already installed, please buy another copy" message. DRM forces forethought in these modern times.
Overall, it's excellent software, and for the faults I listed, I still give it 4 stars because it's an extremely solid product that'll work hard for you. Expect the crashing issues to clear up as Adobe silently releases 8.0.1 and onward as free patches that will be downloaded automatically thanks to Adobe's built-in upgrade manager. While executives balked at the idea of office personnel with 1 gig of RAM in a common desktops a year ago, in reality, that's the working minimum these days for your office's power users who may have eight things open and/or running at once. It's a $50 upgrade that to a power user, saves about 5 minutes of worktime on every hour of computer use. Do the math and get them the tools they need because software like this won't be getting less bloated anytime soon.
Finally, if all you're looking at is to create PDF files, there are many smaller, cheaper programs out there that can easily do the task. You might want to hit up Google and investigate further.

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Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional software enables business professionals to reliably create, combine, and control Adobe PDF documents for easy, more secure distribution, collaboration, and data collection. Combine files from multiple applications, collaborate on documents via e-mail or server, and collect information with electronic forms. Protect sensitive information with passwords and permissions. Enable users of Adobe Reader software (version 7.0 or 8) to participate in document reviews, fill and save forms, and digitally sign documents.

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Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended Review

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended
Average Reviews:

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Adobe Acrobat 9 comes in three versions: Standard, Pro and Pro Extended. I've been using the Standard version for about a year and have been very pleased with it (I reviewed the Standard version a while back). The Pro Extended does everything the Standard and Pro versions do, but adds in several new features, most notably the ability to "wrap" a variety of formats, including video, into a PDF.
So why would you want to do this? Basically it makes distributing multimedia files much easier. As an example, I had a bunch of real estate info including photos, documents, and a movie file that I wanted to distribute. Rather than send all the info in different formats and hope that the person who wanted to see them had all the right plug-ins, I used Pro Extended to convert all the files into PDF format, then created a PDF portfolio that encompassed all the parts. Now, all the end-user needs to view all the content is the Acrobat Reader version 9. Simple to use and the PDF portfolio looks fantastic! There are a variety of templates you can select that make the final product look very professional.
You can do the same type of packaging with PowerPoint files to add video and audio, and distribute it as a package that the end-user can view with just the Reader. Pretty straightforward to do, but you have to use PowerPoint 2007 - does not seem to work with older versions. It also has the ability to work with maps, geospacial data, and CAD files (I don't use those so I didn't try it out).
I spend a lot of time working with Acrobat forms to collect research data. The Standard version handles the basics - you can create a static form (also called an AcroForm), put in logic, scripts, etc. The Pro and Pro Extended versions allow you to use LiveCycle Designer to offer flexible forms that are far more interactive. Rather steep learning curve, but I'm getting the hang of it. Really powerful capabilities that allow you to bind data to fields and create a form that adapts to the users' needs.
As with many Adobe products, this is complex to use. I've been using Acrobat since version 5, so the basics of creating and manipulating PDFs was not a problem - there are more choices, but the workflow is basically the same. Using some of the new features, such as converting a MOV file to a PDF, was pretty straightforward. It also allows you to clip just the portions of the video you want to use very easily - I just followed the prompts. But, to get the most out of the package I'll be buying either a book or perhaps signing up for a class. Adobe offers a lot of education that is excellent, but also pretty pricy. My complaint with this, as with all other Adobe products, is that I think the company should offer some type of manual or book when you purchase the product. There are webinars offered at no charge, but a manual would be nice given the product price.
This version of Acrobat is highly specialized and not for everyone. If you just want to create a PDF from a Word or Excel document, or mark up/edit a PDF, you can get by very well with a third party PDF creator. This is intended for more intensive (mainly business) needs. For example, those in legal offices will appreciate the ability in the Pro versions to permanently redact info from a PDF.
Also, keep in mind that the Standard version of Acrobat 9 is pretty capable - it will handle all the basics (including form creation) at about one-third of the price of the Pro Extended version. There is a matrix at the Adobe site that compares the three version. Be sure to check that out before you purchase anything to see if the features you want to use are available in the cheaper versions.
No compatibility or install issues. I'm running this under XP with SP3, 2GB RAM, Core2 Duo at 3GHz. Good performance for everything other than video work, which bogged me down a bit. If I find myself doing more video now that I can package it into a PDF, I'll probably get a faster machine.

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Take advantage of the complete feature set in Adobe Acrobat 9 software - plus Adobe Presenter and Adobe LiveCycle Designer - to deliver the richest, most engaging PDF communications. Unify the widest range of content - including documents, spreadsheets,

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Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional Upgrade from Professional Version 6 Review

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional Upgrade from Professional Version 6
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Don't take my word for it that's a quote from the title of a recent post excoriating this irritating and increasingly bloated product on Slashdot.
Be warned: Adobe has not learned its lesson, and despite the outcry that followed the release of version 6, this latest release of Acrobat continues Adobe's aggressive trend of intruding into your desktop environment, again, as in version 6 without providing an easy way to undo the damage once its done--in fact, it's now nearly impossible. Like earlier releases, this version of Acrobat adds startup macros and new toolbar buttons to your existing applications and adds menu entries to your desktop "right click" menus. Adobe argues that these are conveniences, but they are entirely unnecessary (for most of us "printing" to Adobe PDF achieves the same result, is much more convenient, and a more natural model), and clutter what for most users is either a too-crowded user interface (for those who don't have the knowledge or patience to customize it) or a carefully tuned one (for those who do). Unlike many well-behaved applications that provide obvious ways of avoiding this kind of intrusive and disruptive behavior (e.g. through a simple checkbox option in a settings dialog), Acrobat's "option" for disabling this behavior, once deeply hidden in the setup process,is now almost completely absent. To disable the "Convert to Adobe PDF" button that mysteriously appears in the Outlook mail editor, for example, one has to be sure to choose "this feature will not be available" from the "Microsoft Outlook" option under "Acrobat PDFMaker" under "Create Adobe PDF". Simply deleting the button using Outlook's toolbar customization feature will not work: it comes right back when the editor is next opened. Similar problems arise in Word, Excel, Visio, Project, and Internet Explorer. And there's simply no way to get rid of the never-used "Convert to Adobe PDF" and "Combine in Acrobat..." entries in that appear in the desktop context menus for files (even if one installs none of the Acrobat PDFMaker features).
For the technically inclined wishing to repair some of the damage that Acrobat 7 does, there are complex but largely effective step by step instructions available on the web, but even the authors of these are driven to despair by version 7: ("Adobe has really pushed the boat out with Acrobat 7 and managed to screw Word royally") .
In short, Acrobat will make a mess of your working environment, there's no way to completely fix it, and even the partial fix is a pain (and not well documented). (This may seem a minor issue, but if every application followed Adobe's reckless example, our working environments would start to look like strip malls, crowded with features screaming for our attention to the point where it is hard to find what we need when we need it. One of the great strengths of the personal computer desktop is that users can configure it in ways that suit their needs; no application should interfere with that.)
Experienced Acrobat users will also notice that this version continues another frustrating trend for Acrobat (and most other Adobe applications): it is yet again slower to launch than the previous version. In fact, on my 2 GHz Pentium 4, it takes longer to launch than the entire Visual Studio .NET development environment, and longer than the boot sequence for Windows XP!
There are other minor problems as well (arbitrary rearrangements of menu and tool bar items, etc.) but these two major flaws are more than bad enough. Unless you really need the latest Acrobat features, you should probably avoid this upgrade. And if the "improvements" in this release are any indication of where Adobe plans to go with future releases, it may be time to start looking elsewhere for a tool for digital document management.
Fortunately, there's no reason at all to upgrade. Version 7 offers no usefully new features, so you can (and should) avoid this one (at all costs).

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Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional software is the advanced way to create, control, and deliver more secure, high-quality Adobe PDF documents. Assemble electronic or paper files—even Web sites, engineering drawings, and e-mail—into reliable PDF documents that are easy to share with others using free Adobe Reader 7.0 software. Manage document reviews, synthesizing feedback from multiple reviewers while preserving document format and integrity. Extend commenting capabilities to anyone using Adobe Reader 7.0 and design intelligent Adobe PDF forms that include business logic, such as calculations and data validations, to help increase the accuracy of data collection while reducing the costs of manual data entry.

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Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Review

Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Version 5 has features I dreamed about in 3.0 and 4.0, but despaired of ever seeing. Adobe made my dreams come true. Here are the highlights that make this an essential tool if you work with PDF files or transform other documents into PDF format: You can now save files in rich text format (RTF), which can be directly opened and edited in Microsoft Word (and other applications). I was able to do this in version 4 with an expensive third-party plug-in that did not always produce the results I was looking for. Version 5 does not need the plug-in and does a much better job.
Two other features that I love are the ability to extract images from a PDF file and save them as Tiff, JPEG or PNG graphics. This is really powerful. A nice touch is the user interface, which now makes Acrobat's tool bars look like those in Microsoft Office applications. I thought this was a quantum improvement over the confusing interface in previous versions.
Adobe touts added security features in this version, but the only thing I found different is the 128-bit encryption. Version 4 gave me total control over protecting documents from alteration, selecting and copying text and printing. As a consultant I sometimes need to provide clients with intellectual property that I need to protect, and the features that I enjoyed in version 4 have been fully carried over in this version. Another nice feature that has been carried over from the previous version is the ability to open a web page from within Acrobat and save it as a PDF file. I have grabbed many pages from many sites for off-line reading using this feature and it still works without a problem in version 5.
Other features that are interesting, but I have not tried, include the ability to create and publish dynamic forms online, and support for XML form data. When I get time I plan to play around with creating and publishing the dynamic forms because I can think of a dozen uses on my web site.
Overall this is a solid product that did not cause me the same pain I endured when I moved from version 3 to 4. Everything works as advertised and some of the new features are plain wonderful.

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"* Convert any document to Adobe PDF * Share documents across a broad range of hardware and software * Approve and vomment on ducuments from within your Web browser." "SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: * Pentium class processor * Microsoft Windows 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6, Windows 2000, or Windows XP * 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended) * 120 MB of available hard-disk space * Additional 30 MB of hard-disk space for Asian fonts (optional) * CD-ROM drive * Additional Acrobat 5.0 requirement: Internet Explorer 4.0.1, 5.0 or 5.5 required for Windows NT users." " What good is a document you can't open? Whether you create business plans, spreadsheet, graphically rich brochures, or Web sites, Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software lets you convert any document to an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Anyone can open your document across a broad range of hardware and software, and it will look exactly as you intended---with layout, fonts, links, and images intact. With Acrobat 5.0, you and your team can increase productivity by approving and commenting on documents from within a Web browser." "Preserve documents exactly as intended: * Easily convert any document to Adobe PDF so anyone can open it across a broad range of hardware and software. * Convert Web pages or entire Web sites to Adobe PDF files with all links intact for office viewing, comments, and archiving. * Produce interactive Adobe PDF forms complete with pop-up boxes, buttons, and text fields that include automatic calculations and operations. * Efficiently process Adobe PDF files using batch capabilities to rotate, crop, and insert pages." "Work smarter as a team: * Quickly approve Adobe PDF files with e-signatures. Or add comments with electronic sticky notes, highlight and strikethrough tools, and more---right from your Web browser. * Save time by easily repurposing the information in Adobe PDF files: Simply save your PDF files as Rich Text files..." [from box]

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Nitro PDF Professional Review

Nitro PDF Professional
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Nitro PDF Professional
Acrobat and PDF have been a mainstay in our electornic document workflows for many years.
Since Nuance's PDF Converter and Nitro PDF were both released earlier this year, I have had them both installed within our organisation in order to rate them for prospective roll out through many more seats than what we currently have Acrobat installed on.
The first thing we noticed was that they both used the same base technology that provides the viewing, creation and editing functionality. (As such some of the reviews comparing the two seem somewhat odd!)
There were however differences.
Nuance PDF Converter includes a tool called 'FormTyper' which basically assists you in adding form fields to your PDF documents. The upside is that it can save you some time when building your interactive PDF forms, but you can also use the standard form tools to add form fields (I found this to also be in Nitro).
Nitro PDF includes a comprehensive set of neat new plug-ins that we have found really beneficial to our business. The Optimize Document feature (like the PDF Optimizer in Acrobat) allowed us to dramatically reduce the size of our PDFs, and the Split File feature breaks down some of our massive PDF files into smaller individual files.
Furthermore, Nitro PDF has released a number of updates to their product since we purchased. Some have fixed bugs and others have added functionality. The next to last release led to us having trouble with activation even though we had the product for more than 5 months. Since then they have released a new update which has rectified those problems and added further functionality. Not all updates have been perfect, but we prefer to have software that is continually being improved. There have been no updates to Nuance PDF Converter since we purchased.
FWIW We have just decided to roll out Nitro PDF because the feature set worked better with our day to day requirements for PDF workflow.
I would recommend trialing both products in order to decide which you would use.
Hope this helps.
=====================
Update: Jan 2008
Nitro PDF released a new version (5.3) of the software late last year. I have been testing the new version since. The biggest difference is that Nitro PDF is no longer based on the same technology as it previously was. While the functionality is little changed, there are some major differences:
1. The product is far more stable than both the previous versions of Nitro PDF and Nuance PDF Converter that we had tested. After speaking to the Nitro PDF support team on a regular basis (they were helpful) over the last year or so, it is obvious that the developers have taken note of some of the issues with the previous version. This is a big tick!
2. The interface has changed. Frankly, I am somewhat lukewarm to what they have done. It does use the new Vista ribbon interface though, so some may find its progression a good thing ....
3. This version runs a lot faster on my PC than the previous version. Particularly when creating PDF files which is a good thing.
All in all, it is well worth upgrading to this version. Nitro PDF continues to work hard on improving their software
=====================
Update: May 2010
I have updated this review on the page for the new version 6 Nitro PDF Professional V6


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Create, Convert & Edit PDF Documents 300% Faster than Adobe Acrobat. Nitro PDF Professional is everything you need to create, convert and edit PDF files. All files are 100% industry standard and compatible with other PDF viewers. FEATURES: Fast, High-Quality Document Conversion. Convert any kind of file to PDF - alone or in batch. Convert PDF files back to Word while retaining text, graphic and pages. Combine multiple documents into one PDF. Convert Word, Excel®, and Powerpoint® to PDF with one click. Convert paper to PDF by scanning and converting documents. Comment and review PDF documents just like paper documents. Insert sticky notes - just like Post-it® notes - on your PDFs. Highlight, underline, and strike-through text on your PDFs. Use pens, shapes, and other drawing tools and apply stamps like “Approved” or “Draft.” Take charge of the PDF document review process - record, view, sort, and import and export comments. Quickly edit any PDF file with the best-in-class manipulation tools. Insert, edit, move, resize, and delete text and graphics in PDFs. Shuffle pages to create client-ready PDF files. Apply headers, footers and watermarks. Insert text, numbering, and graphics in your PDFS. Generate PDF hyperlinks and bookmarks automatically. Protect documents with passwords and digital certificates. Protect your PDFs with powerful 128-bit encryption. You decide if your PDFs can be printed, edited, copied, commented, and more. Use digital signatures and digital IDs to ensure the integrity of your PDFs. Profiles make it easy to apply the right security to your PDFs, every time.

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