If you need a PDF program, Nuance's Power PDF Advanced (version 2) will handle pretty much anything you throw at it.
It will convert a PDF flawlessly to Microsoft Word and, after you add text, it will easily convert that document to a new PDF. You can add text to the PDF itself, too. PDF, by the way, stands for portable document format. After the good folks at Adobe released Adobe Reader free to the public, PDFs became the standard way to make files readable on just about any platform _ Windows, Macs and others. Once a PDF is created in a program such as Power PDF Advanced, for Windows, you could even write your own operating system, and the document would be readable.
But Power PDF Advanced goes many steps further than creating readable and editable PDFs. It will help you create comments on PDFs, highlight areas, search for words or phrases in a document and encrypt the PDF.
If you're using the latest version of Word, you'll find the ribbon in Power PDF familiar. The ribbon has been simplified in the latest version of Power PDF, and like the Word ribbon, it changes when you perform different functions such as inserting graphics. In fact, you can do word processing directly into your PDF documents, along with spell- and grammar-checking.
If you want to notify your workplace's accounting department that you've reviewed their latest dismal financial outlook in Excel, you simply stamp it "REVIEWED" and take the next flight to the Caymans. Wrapping text around either stamps or the limited clipart that comes with the program is easily done. Or you can have graphics simply plant themselves on the text, blocking out the text under it. You can import and scale your own graphics, too.
The only problem I had with creating PDFs was converting handwriting to text, but I doubt any PDF program could do that.
If you have a scanner, you can use the Paperport utility to scan and save files anywhere on your PC's hard drive. It will convert Excel and PowerPoint files to PDFs. You can put a smiley face on your PDF, if you're in the mood.
The program allows you to use Dragon Notes to dictate material into your PDF. It will help you create an index, too.
Much of the program is intuitive. A moderately software-literate user could get the hang of the rudiments in a few hours. After a day of intense use, that person could figure out most of the features. There are extensive online and desktop help resources, the program is handsome, and if there is a function involving PDFs that it can't do, it's probably not worth doing.
Then there's price: Its main competitor, Adobe Acrobat Pro, costs $450 if you get it on a disc. If you use the cloud version, it costs as much as $25 a month, less if you buy a yearly plan. PDF Advanced cost $149, but it's often on sale online for $100. There's a less-powerful version, PDF Standard, which costs $100, too.
If you work with PDFs and you want the flexibility and features of a program that comes off like a wish list for the perfect PDF program, Power PDF Advanced, version 2, is the one to buy.
