CutePDF

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Howard Kaikow, May 27, 2009.

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  1. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Opinions on CutePDF?

    Alternatives?
     
  2. CGA

    CGA Registered Member

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    I use doPDF, works perfectly.
     
  3. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    doPDF appears to allow only for printing,so it is not an alternative to CutePDF.
    \CutePDF does a lot more than just act as a printer.
     
  4. CGA

    CGA Registered Member

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    Sorry, my bad.
     
  5. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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  6. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Clarification: I am looking for PDF software than can, at least:

    1. Save edited PDF files.
    2. Insert a blank page wherever I wish.
    3. Convert PDF to Word and Ecel.
     
  7. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Clarification: I am looking for PDF software that can, at least:

    1. Save edited PDF files.
    2. Insert a blank page wherever I wish.
    3. Convert PDF to Word and Ecel.
     
  8. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    I have Nitro PDF Pro. It has at least the following issues:

    1. When installed in Win 2000, on at least 6 occassions, it blew out ALL the printers and I had to reboot to regain the printers.

    2. Does not convert PDF to Excel.

    3. For the one case I tried, does a poor job of converting PDF to Word.

    I have moved Nitro PDF Pro to a Vista system. Not yet used enough on the Vista system to see whether it blows out the printers.
     
  9. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    I think if NitroPDF isn't up to scratch with conversions, CutePDF might struggle as well.

    NitroPDF has this listed on their page: http://www.pdftoexcelonline.com/

    But it might use the same conversion software that's included in Nitro.

    Overall, I think it'll be tough finding something which converts a PDF to excel considering the amount of layers being flattened when converting to PDF. Programs will always struggle to extract data from PDF, especially if the user has used optimisation methods (discarding all data etc) to reduce the file size.

    If you find one, be sure to post your finding.
     
  10. Bob D

    Bob D Registered Member

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    Google ".pdf to .doc", ".pdf to .xls", and you'll find a plethora of softs that claim to convert.
    planetpdf.com is also an excellent source.
    Such conversions, however, are inherently problematic.
    "PDF-to-Word Conversion: Why it's so hard to do": http://www.planetpdf.com/enterprise...Conversion_-_Why_it_is_so_hard_to_do&gid=7837
    And for these conversions to work at all, original .pdf must be a "true" pdf, not a hybrid or raster .pdf file.

    Cheers
     
  11. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Thanks for the article Bob. And if a conversion does look accurate, there are sometimes problems in using the data. If I've had to convert data from a PDF, I spend a long time checking all the data transferred accurately to tables or spreadsheets. For example, all too often get the letter O instead of 0's (zeros) causing many errors.
     
  12. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Nuance's SCansoft PDF Professional does a relatively good job of converting PDF to Word and Excel, but ...

    I have version 4.
    Over the past year or so, I've had to uninstall and re-install te Scansoft product as the .exe would no longer work.

    Late last year, I was doing an uninstall, but I received a message that I could not complete the uninstall because I was not connected to the internet and the uninstall could not be completed without deactivating.

    At that dime, I was using dial-up.

    I called Nuance, they were of no Help.
    They told me that I did have unused activations left.

    On 11 May 2009, I switched to cable internet.
    A few daze late, the Scansoft product automatically tried installing itself.
    I guess tat it was trying to download an automatic update and realized that it had to be re-installed.

    So, I took that as an opportunity to uninstal.
    However, after re-installing, the progs would not run, pdfplus.exe gave application errors. So I uninstalled.

    Somehow, this screwed up my install of Omni Page (also from Nuance), so I had to uninstall, then re-install OmniPage. And OmniPage grabbed the PDF file type. I had to mannually change the default to Adobe Reader.

    I expect that I might be able to fix this by uninstalling OmniPage, then going thru the registry and deleting everything related to SCansoft/Nuance/OmniPage, then re-installing OmniPage and the Scansoft products.

    But why should I waste my time?

    FYI, I have a multiboot system, and was able to install the ScansofytPDF Converter Professional 4 on another OS on the same PC, but I have to boot to the other OS to use the product, not very convenient. So th issue was not of activation,but te refusal of Nuance to offer help on an uninstall issue turns me off on the company, not to mention teir overly aggressive email marketing.
     
  13. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Yes, I went thru this exercise about a year ago.

    One turn off is a the user manual for a particular product that uses a font not available in Adobe Reader 8.1.5. Other than the section headings, none of th text is viewable. The choice of using tat font has to make me wonder about the design of that product.
     
  14. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Nitro does not contain PDF to Excel option.

    In general, I will not use online products, such as pdftoexcelonline.
    I will only use products with a local executable.
     
  15. tony62

    tony62 Registered Member

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    Hi Howard
    Take a look at VeryPDF I have found some of their converters to be very accurate.
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2009
  16. Rock Smasher

    Rock Smasher Registered Member

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  17. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Hey, Howard!

    You should also point out the recently 15 June c2009) released version 6 of NitroPDF does not appear to offer PDF to Excel Conversion.
     
  18. Sputnik

    Sputnik Registered Member

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    @Howard Kaikow
    Don't waste your money on NitroPDF, their program plain [edit: ain't so nice] and doesn't work at advertised at all. While I'm not a great fan of Adobe products I'm afraid Acrobat is the way to go for PDF's though... (In therms of editing and conversion from PDF.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2009
  19. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Such a comment is not helpful.
    Why does NitroPDF "suck"?
     
  20. Sputnik

    Sputnik Registered Member

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    @Howard Kaikow
    I'm sorry. Personally I saw in NitroPDF the perfect Acrobat replacement, however I got annoyed by the huge amount of bugs it contained. Note that these were even present in the most basic program features. Editing an PDF often resulted in a corrupt file, PDF to Word conversions were plain useless (even free online converters did way better) and many more problems...

    A nice online converter is Zamzar, might be useful some day.
     
  21. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    If you look at post 8 in this thread, I had disasterous results wit Nitro PDF in Win 2000.

    I now have it in Vista, no problems yet. Scansoft PDF Pro 4 had realloy good PDF to Word and PDF to Excel conversion, but I willo no longer deal with Nuance/Scansoft for reasons I stated elsdsewhere, likely in this forum as well.

    FYI, it cost me $0, after rebate to get Nito PDF.\
    I may put NitroPDF back on my Win 2000 system, after uninstalling Acrobat 5 and Bullzip.
     
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