PDF Converter 2.0 Professional

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DF Converter 2.0 Professional is an amalgam of two ScanSoft PDF tools sold separately: PDF Converter and PDF Create. The former lets you transfer the text and images contained in a non-editable Acrobat PDF file into an editable Word document; while the latter installs a special PDF printer driver - to create a PDF, simply print your document to it.

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    $ 195.00 (AUD)

While Converter 2.0 is confined to Word, with PDF Create you can print from any Windows application. Installation is simple, but it requires product activation.

PDF creation is a smooth affair and batch processing of multiple documents into PDFs is handled by the separate PDF Create Assistant. The PDF conversion process is child's play: right-click the PDF and select Open PDF in Word. Word is then launched and the conversion process commences. Or you can open a PDF as if it were a native format. The conversion status box appears while the document is translated.

If the PDF has lots of pages it can take a minute or so to process, even on a moderately powerful processor. PDF Converter does its best to translate documents into Word format, matching typefaces to the closest available on the host PC. Adobe Reader 6.0 lets you extract text (but not graphics) from an unencrypted PDF and doesn't preserve the format.

On the whole, the fidelity of the converted PDF document is pretty good. PDF Converter only gets mildly flummoxed by complex things such as multicolumn layouts. When it does convert a form into Word format, it remains editable - a neat touch.

Click here to view a screen shot. of PDF Create - a batch processing tool is available for both the conversion and creation processes.

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