Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch
Did you ever notice how the default programs in Windows often aren’t always the best? The default PDF Editor is the Microsoft Edge browser. It is pretty basic. It is adequate for reading PDFs and making minor changes.
There are a lot of good alternative PDF viewers. The one that I usually use is PDF‑Xchange Editor from Tracker Software. Its design is clear and easy to use. The program has different tools for working with documents including typing text and editing, drawing diagrams, creating stamps, underscoring and styles, entering commentaries, notes and more. In fact, I haven’t personally used every free editing feature.
Here is a partial list of free features:
● Full Document Spellchecker
● Multi-Language document OCR
● Full Page Text Content Editing
● OCR image based/scanned PDF to fully text searchable PDF files
● Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings)
● Mark-up pages with text and objects
● Type directly on any PDF page
● Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats
● Extract text from a PDF page/File
● Fill and Save forms to disk, email or ‘post’
● Full Java-script engine included
● Plug-Ins for major browser
● Auto Highlight Fillable Form Fields
● Document Search
● Add/Edit Hyperlinks to pages
● Support for PDF File Attachments
● Send PDF files via email from viewer
● Undo/Redo functionality for text editor
● Add/Edit/Move Bookmarks
You can also extract or delete entire pages from a long PDF file and embed new content like text, images, blank pages or entire PDF documents. PDF‑Xchange Editor can also convert documents between PDF and Word formats. It even includes an OCR (optical character recognition) for converting scanned documents into editable text. Note: I haven’t tested the OCR.
Installation is simple and fast. When you run the program, you get every feature of the licensed program. When clicking on various items, a pop‑up window opens and informs you if you are attempting to use an enhanced feature. You can still use the feature, but any pages will be watermarked. This is a subtle method of getting you to purchase a license. If you do a lot of PDF editing, it might be a worthwhile purchase.
Like many programs, there is a “free” and licensed option. Very few free editors will let you add new content to documents. This alone is a good reason to make it your new default app for PDFs. You can download PDF‑Xchange Editor from the publishers web site. It is only available for Windows.
Thanks for reading.