Ram & Reason: PDF Converter: The Next Killer App?

by Rob Rice

 E-mail, web browsers, audio players, word processors, these are all examples of “killer apps,” those software applications that helped to revolutionize computing and that no computer seems to be able to do without. While it may not belong in the class of a killer app, ScanSoft’s PDF Converter for Microsoft Word does have the potential to be one of those applications that no computer, at least those with Word installed, should be without.

No doubt you have encountered .pdf files, those documents that require Adobe Acrobat to read them. Used to convert documents, web pages, pictures and spreadsheets, etc., into a format that just about anyone’s computer can read, Acrobat itself is on the edge of being defined as a killer app. Acrobat, with free Adobe Acrobat Reader has made possible a much needed standard for a common file format with the sophistication and power to handle complex documents.

 

So what is the problem? If Adobe Acrobat works so well then why do we need anything else? The answer is simply that while the Reader is free, Acrobat itself costs in the neighborhood of $300 – $400 for a Pro version.

 

So what can you do if you are faced with having to fill out forms created in the PDF format? You can either print them and mail them via post, unless you are in a hurry; scan them with a scanner, convert them to a text document and then convert them back into a .pdf file with your word processor, which will hopefully have that ability and hopefully it will all hold together; or you could use a PDF to document converter. Having tried the other methods, I decided that I really needed the latter. And having tried the few available applications that claim to do this I have found only one that gives any level of satisfaction and that is ScanSoft’s PDF Converter for Microsoft Word.

 

ScanSoft’s PDF Converter is actually a plug-in for Microsoft’s Word. There is nothing to start or open, it just detects when you want to open a PDF file in Word and converts it to a .doc format so that it can be opened and edited--simple and exactly what I wanted.

 

ScanSoft, Inc. is one of the leading suppliers of speech and imaging software. Products such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, IBM ViaVoice, OmniForm, OmniPage, and PaperPort, all carry ScanSoft’s logo. As you can see by such a product line, ScanSoft specializes in digital document handling.

 

As for the PDF Converter, installation is nothing special, just pop in the disk and follow directions. Yet, be warned, registration is required and it is persistent and will disable the product should you fail to register. Here is a comment regarding the process from ScanSoft’s web site:

 

“Activation” is a means of activating a license of the product with ScanSoft. During the installation of PDF Converter, customers are prompted to “Activate” the product. This activation process assesses the hardware configuration of the installation PC and associates it with the software’s serial number.

 

Note: No personal information is retrieved. Hardware configuration "fingerprint" is transferred to the activation server.

 

I have not tested what will happen if your hardware configuration changes. This may be something to keep in mind.

 

So how does PDF Converter perform? As mentioned earlier, once the product is installed and registered, you can go into Microsoft Word and open a PDF document just as you would any other document. The conversion process is handled automatically. The package claims instant conversion, but the word “instant” is obviously relative. It took typically anywhere from 10 to 45 seconds to convert a document depending upon size and complexity. This was using a 1.45 GHz processor with 512 Mb of RAM. Once the conversion process was complete, the results were mixed. An application form with a font size of six came out garbled for much of the document. Elsewhere, on the same form, where the font size was eight or larger, the words were less scrambled. Size twelve was rendered with few errors.

 

Grabbing a copy of the Fredericksburg PC User’s Group newsletter, Electronically Speaking, I had greater success. Overall the nine page newsletter was reproduced with few errors, the most serious being a single paragraph that overlapped another. However, the photographs, tables, art, and colors were well-reproduced without any serious problems. Only the one paragraph seemed to give it trouble, as the rest of the text was very good.

 

Pulling out a copy of the Oklahoma City PC User’s Group newsletter, the eMonitor, produced a near flawless reproduction. The only errors were some additional white space between pages.

 

In a fourth test, I used ScanSoft’s own Quick Reference for PDF Converter. In this nine page document, which has screen shots, hyperlinks, text and graphics, I could see only two sentences out of place and some extra white space. The hyperlinks were flawless overall, a nice job done by PDF Converter.

 

There are some things that PDF Converter will not do and a few caveats that you should be aware of. For example, from the ScanSoft Web page:

 

 

I also had several instances where the program reported a problem yet was able to render the document in a usable state. In one instance, while converting the Fredericksburg PC User’s Group newsletter, it reported a problem, opened my Web browser to their support site and still made a good reproduction with the exception of the paragraph overlay.

 

ScanSoft’s PDF Converter for Microsoft Word reminds me of the early versions of OCR software, the program that converts your scanned document into an editable one. It appears to have many of the same growing pains such as properly rendering fine text. However, PDF Converter is a good product that I hope the company will continue to refine. While only in version 1, it does an admirable job and easily beats the competition. So, while it does not do so good a job at rendering PDF file formats as Acrobat does, at $49.99 there is no reason to hesitate in buying this potential killer app.

 

Notes: Please do not confuse ScanSoft’s PDF Converter for Microsoft Word with those applications that convert documents into .pdf files, as I saw one reviewer had. PDF Converter goes the other way, converting .pdf documents into Microsoft Word documents.

 

These tests were run using Windows 2000 and Office XP.

 

In last month’s Ram and Reason, I failed to mention that the version of NOD32 that I tested was a trial version. I was not able to adequately test its update features nor will I be able to provide you with a user’s update at a later time. Sorry about that!

 

ScanSoft’s PDF Converter for Microsoft Word - http://www.scansoft.com/

 

The Oklahoma City PC User’s Group (OKCPCUG) - http://www.okcpcug.org/ 

 

The Fredericksburg Personal Computer Users Group (FPCUG), Fredericksburg, Virginia - http://www.fpcug.org/

 

Rob Rice is a member of the Oklahoma City PC User’s Group and a computer specialist in Anchorage Alaska. Rob can be reached at articles@isp.com.