Scansoft's PDF Converter addresses the problem of extracting editable text from portable document format (pdf) files. This is a tricky operation even using the full version of Adobe's Acrobat software for which the format was designed.

In fact pdf files were intended less for data exchange than as a presentation tool allowing a richly formatted document to be viewed on a variety of platforms - in some applications text extraction is disabled to preserve copyright.

But as the use of pdf documents increases, so does the need to process the information they hold. The latest free Acrobat 6 reader is much improved in this respect, so any paid-for rival must be judged by its standards.

PDF Converter scores in that it translates documents directly into Word format, matching typefaces to the closest available on the host PC. It is basically a Word plug-in: you open a pdf as if it were a native format and a Scansoft status box appears while the document is translated. Or if you right-click a pdf file from within Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer you get the option of opening it in Word. This is an improvement over Acrobat Reader 6, which allows you to extract text but not the full formatted document. But neither utility does a good job with very complex multi-boxed, multi-column layouts, although PDF Converter coped with the pictures, captions and text of a brochure.

Contact: Scansoft 0870 870 8085
www.scansoft.co.uk

System requirements:

• Pentium PC
• 64MB of Ram (128MB recommended)
• 30MB of free hard disk space
• SVGA monitor
• Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP/NT4/SP6 or higher