Most people don't realize this, hardly known FREE PDF editing treasure which is almost never mentioned in PDF resource reviews, tips, and tricks etc... and even its author doesn't even make much mention of it, that the Draw app in the Sun Microsystem's Free OpenOffice.org Suite has the ability to edit PDF files. I went through install after install and trial after trial of products boasting of abilities worth paying for, and after reading software review after review only to be disapointed in what was being boldly marketed to be able to convert this and that and end up being more frustrating than practical dependable resources.

And after running the DRAW app, and then opening the various PDF files I had, I giddily played around creating custom manuals and maps etc... like I'd only dreamed of before.

After being impressed by that feature, I looked a bit deeper into the OOo applications and plugins/add-ons etc... (like being able to directly edit and save to & from Google Documents, OOo's compatibility with MS Office 07's new doc formats, WYSIWYG HTML editor, the list goes on...) And I realized that I had been overlooking the power, features, and ease of use of what I'd now consider the most practical and powerful free software suite in the world. I would now buy it instead of the price-inflated Office bloatware anyday (only I can't cause it's free).

Bellingham  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+71)

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The Good
* Straightforward and easy to use.
* Can convert PDFs in batch.
* Supports drag + drop.
* User can convert whole PDFs or define a specific portion of the PDFs to be converted.
* Supported encrypted PDF conversion.

The Bad
* Can't seem to properly convert PDFs that were created out of text files.
* Doesn't properly carry over spacing between paragraphs/lines.
* Doesn't give the user any sort of "heads up" if the PDF being converted is encrypted or not.
* Doesn't follow normal program "conventions", such as installing into the Program Files folder.
* "Sound Reminder" doesn't work.

Free Alternatives
A-PDF

For final verdict, recommendations, and full review please click here.

Ashraf  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+59)

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To do a PDF to Text conversion, you only need to do a copy and paste.

Adrian  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+28)

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Alternative: Open PDF reader. Hold down CTRL and press A, hold down CTRL and press C. Open notepad, hold down Ctrl and press V, Select file, save as... and save it. All done!

Wody  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+27)

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Dear Bellingham
You are right, and it´s useful and nice to mention the ability of OO-Suite Draw to edit PDFs...

BUT notice the restrictions, too: Draw is not very comfortable if you want to change a little bit more in a document! It provides (only) object orientated editing.

While todays giveaway is VERY limited, at least you can work with the text as a whole: all re-formating in one...
Even better: Other conversion tools and even free online services deliver sometimes rather good conversions to the .doc format (in reality: .rtf!). And this is much(!!) more comfortable for editing than Draw!
But for above mentioned purposes and for free, Draw is indeed a great tool!

ws  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+18)

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