Number 276 - May 2006

PDF - Portable Document Format PDFNitro Reviewed
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D.*,
How many of you were aware that Adobe's PDF document format was shorthand for "Portable Document Format"? It has certainly lived up to its name since it was released in about 1992. The availability of the free Adobe Reader since 1994 has contributed to the widespread use of this format. But it was really the growth of the Internet and the need for a document format that could be easily read by different computer systems that lead to the ubiquity of this format. Computers running Windows, Macintosh and Unix (Linux) operating systems, can read Adobe's PDF format. Another benefit of the PDF format is that PDF documents retain all the appearance and formatting of the original document.    PDF is a page description language in that it describes how a page looks so it can be viewed or printed. The PDF language is an extension of the PostScript language also developed by Adobe. However, PDF requires only a simple interpreter and does not use any of the more complex programming features of PostScript. The simpler form of the PDF format allows for smaller file creation and more rapid generation of graphics objects.    With the availability of the free Reader, reading PDF documents is not a problem. However, the creation and editing of PDF documents requires the use of Adobe's Acrobat software or something similar. For a number of years the only software capable of creating PDF documents was Acrobat. However, Adobe has made the PDF document an open standard. They have allowed other companies to produce software that can create or modify PDF documents without having to pay royalties to Adobe. They do sell software development kits that allow developers to produce software that can edit, create, or otherwise manipulate PDF documents. This has opened the field to a number of companies that now produce software that competes with Adobe Acrobat.    Over the years I have found it advantageous to be able to convert documents I've created with various word processors to a PDF file that can be read by anyone. This is especially true now that I have pretty much settled on Open Office as my standard word processor. The latest version of Open Office can convert its documents to the PDF format without requiring the presence of Acrobat on your computer. This applies to spread sheets as well as to text documents. This provides very simple way of producing PDF documents that can be emailed or posted to the web with little effort. It is also a simple process to edit the original document in order to make changes.    (This is a disclaimer to notify you that the remainder of this article is in the form of a software review. If you are not interested in reasonably priced PDF creating software, then you can stop here. Otherwise, read on.)    Another PDF creator that I have recently become acquainted with is Nitro PDF Professional. This not only creates PDF documents; it allows you to make direct edits without having to go back to the source document. Admittedly, if you have a large number of edits to make, it is easier and quicker to do them in the source document. If you have a spelling correction or another minor change, then it can be done in the PDF document. As it typifies the current generation of PDF creators, I'll take a look at it in greater detail.    Most of the third-party PDF creators that I have worked with are setup on your computer as an additional printer. So when you want to create a PDF file from whatever you are working on you simply print to the PDF printer. Nitro PDF Professional works in the same fashion allowing you to create PDF files from any program from which you can print. However, it also has some other capabilities. For one it can be added to the Microsoft Office toolbar allowing for one click creation from within a Microsoft Office application. You can also drag and drop files on the Nitro PDF Professional icon and the program will open with the PDF document already created. This can be done with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, HTML, RTF, text and Word Perfect documents. It can also be done with JPG, bitmap, GIF, TIFF, PhotoShop and eight other major graphics formats. With Nitro PDF Professional you can create a blank PDF. You can add text, graphics, drawings etc., to this blank PDF by copying text or objects to the clipboard and then pasting them into the blank PDF.    If you want to copy material in a PDF to another application, Nitro PDF Professional allows copying of text and graphics. It has a text selection tool and an object selection tool. These	provide a simple means of selecting and copying text or images from a PDF to another document. Something that I have not found in other PDF creators. There is also a select area tool that allows you to capture a snapshot of an entire page for copying. Nitro PDF Professional is able to edit graphic images. Using the select image tool you can select and edit any image in a PDF file. Once the image has been selected then you can use the image editing tools to make changes. You can change the size, the resolution, the image type, brightness, contrast, color saturation, etc. You can move, scale, rotate or flip the image from the image tools. This provides an amazing graphics ability from within a PDF file.    Bookmarking is another attribute that is common to most PDF file creators. However, Nitro PDF Professional carries this a step farther. The usual bookmarks allow you to jump to other pages within the document. With Nitro PDF Professional you can link to other documents or to specific web pages. You can also setup a form-filling link to allow information from other locations to fill in fields on a form by clicking a button. Completed forms can also be submitted by a single button click. And, you can use JavaScript to define just about any action you want carried out. In the list of bookmark actions there is a choice, run JavaScript. When you select this, the JavaScript editor opens and you can write any JavaScript code needed to carry out the action; a bookmarking choice not found in other PDF creators to my knowledge.    There is another tool in Nitro PDF Professional that I have never seen in other PDF creators or viewers. This is the Loupe tool. When you click on this icon on the tool bar a rectangular box opens in your document. This box enlarges the text and graphics within it. You can increase the size of the box, you can move it to other locations on the page and you can change the magnification up to 1600%! So you can be examining pages in whole page view while looking a specific region under higher magnification. I find this very useful when reading PDF documents.    All in all, Nitro PDF Professional has many more document/image functions than you will find in other PDF creators. It is also a viable editor for these documents.    One of the best things about Nitro PDF Professional is the help file. It is a bookmarked PDF file and is more complete than most software documentation. Using it as I learned about and tested functions in Nitro PDF Professional was just like working with a good tutorial. I am very impressed by the quality of this file.    Nitro PDF Professional also has a search function, the same as can be used with any PDF file. It will search for words or phrases. This search function can be used to search within the current document or for documents anywhere on your hard drive. And, as I found in using it, it is much faster than the Windows XP search function. Granted that's not saying a lot, but it is fast and quite useful when working with PDF documents.    For anyone who needs to share documents of any kind by e-mail or web posting, the PDF format is the one that everyone can read. With software like Nitro PDF you can also make comments, changes, etc. If you don't want others to be able to change your document, you can prohibit all change and even prevent printing.    If you are interested in creating and/or editing PDF files or forms, I suggest you check out Nitro PDF Professional on their website (www.nitropdf.com). It has a retail price of $99.00 or you can download a 30-day free trial of the software. It is also available from Amazon.com for under $70.00.    *Dr. Lewis is a former university & medical school professor. He has been working with personal computers for more than thirty years. He can be reached via e-mail at bwsail@yahoo.com.    Copyright 2006. This article is from the April 2006 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication.
Number 276 - May 2006