October '07 Tools

The Adobe family of programs are the industry standard for the creation of PDF files. However, purchasing Adobe programs can be an expensive proposition when you just need to be able to do a few simple PDF tasks.

PDF files are widely used because they are the only way to be sure the text, graphics and formatting of a document can be presented in a way that won't changed on any computer. Following are three programs you'll find very useful in creating, reading, and working with PDF files

The first program will allow you to convert any printable document into PDF format. The free doPDF program works by installing a virtual printer driver that can be used with any program on your computer. In other words, anything that you can normally print out on your printer can also be converted to a PDF document just by choosing the doPDF printer instead of your print-to-paper printer. doPDF, available only for Windows, has conversion features including customizable resolution, page scaling, predefined page size and quality settings. doPDF is a fantastic program that's very easy to use. Just download, install and print anything to PDF.

Go to => http://www.dopdf.com

PDF forms are convenient to use, but very few of them have been modified so they can conveniently be completed before being printed. Unless they want to purchase an expensive PDF editor, all users can do is print out the blank form and then fill it in by hand. If you complete a large number of PDF form, purchasing a PDF editor could be a good investment. If you only need to fill out occasional forms, you can go online to PDF Filler to complete them. PDF Filler is quick and easy to use. After the form has been processed, you just click and type wherever you want to complete a section. Printing and saving is as easy as clicking a button - but it will cost you a very small $1.99 fee before you can do so. The site offers a money back guarantee.

Go to => http://www.pdffiller.com

The last PDF program is a lean and mean PDF viewer with a handy fast-launch feature. While the Adobe Reader program is free, it's also become a very bloated, memory hogging program. At only 1.5 MB, versus Adobe's 20 MB file size, the free Foxit Reader is a small, efficient PDF viewer and printer that includes an interactive form filler, JavaScript support, add-on downloads, and more. You can even make notes on PDF documents and convert PDF files to text files.

Go to => http://www.foxitsoftware.com