pdf

If you need to convert JPEG images into PDF files that you can open in any PDF viewer, you can buy a big-box program for a big-ticket price, though that may be overkill, especially for individual users. You can try one of the free converters out there, but those can be underwhelming since many of them lack basic features and options. In between you'll find some affordable shareware that can do the job with a minimum of fuss and without sacrificing features or the extras that make them worth the cost, starting with technical support. That's the case … Read more

Nitro PDF's PrimoPDF is a free tool that converts all kinds of files into PDFs that you can open, edit, and manage with your usual PDF application (Nitro has a free reader, too, if you don't already have one). Some free PDF converters are more like print drivers and only create documents from the Print command. But PrimoPDF also has a handy desktop icon you can drag and drop files into for rapid automatic conversion. Whichever method you prefer, PrimoPDF gives you the choice.

Clicking PrimoPDF's Drop Files icon opens the main interface, which is where you … Read more

After upgrading Mountain Lion, you might find odd problems such as Safari crashing, or the system not showing the appropriate cursor at times, either in Safari or in other programs like Microsoft Office. When you might expect to see the standard arrow as the mouse pointer, the cursor will instead look like a crosshair or another alternate cursor.

This problem is not widespread by any means, and seems to be rooted around the user installing an incompatible Adobe PDF viewer Web browser plug-in.

Since Safari provides built-in PDF compatibility, for most people there has been no real need for an … Read more

If all the stored PDFs were printed out, we'd be tripping over the piles of documents. While you won't find as many PDF tools as PDFs, it sometimes seems like it, especially lightweight freeware designed to make quick work of handling PDFs. PDF-XChange Viewer Portable from Tracker Software is a fine example of the breed. It can view Adobe-compatible PDFs, perform a variety of functions on them, and export PDF data in several file formats. With editing, annotating, searching, and printing capabilities, it's neither too sparse nor too big and unwieldy to be useful. It's totally … Read more

Plenty of people don't want or need a big PDF app just to do something fairly simple, such as split or merge a handful of PDFs. Those people have many choices. For example, there's 7-PDF Split and Merge, a freeware version of the German software developer's premium tool. It has all the features of the Pro tool, but it will split only the first 50 pages and merge only five PDFs. We tried a fully portable version of the software, 7-PDF Split and Merge Portable.

As with similar tools, Split and Merge has a compact, all-in-one style … Read more

As its name suggests, Quickoffice Pro HD is a mobile office and productivity suite for use on the go. It lets you create and edit office files, and even sync them to your favorite cloud storage service.

If you're a fan of Google Docs like I am, then you've probably noticed that editing files from your mobile device can be a bit of a pain. The Google Drive (download) app (which recently slurped up Google Docs) doesn't offer a very robust menu of formatting tools, which makes workflow more complicated than it should be (especially when dealing … Read more

Adobe isn't for every situation, whether it's hardware (bricks) or software (PDFs). If you need to create PDFs that you can view and use inside of the many free standalone PDF viewers, there's a versatile, compact alternative in the form of printer-based PDF tools such as Doro PDF Writer. Doro adds an additional printer to your system, but instead of connecting to an external device, it formats your documents and saves them as PDFs. You create PDFs simply by selecting Print and choosing Doro from your print menu. Doro PDF Writer is freeware.

Doro PDF Writer installs … Read more

According to The Economist, the average American consumes almost eight 40-foot trees per year in paper. Even if you're not environmentally minded, reducing the amount of paper you consume has many benefits, including saving money and reducing clutter.

To help you get on the path to living a paperless lifestyle, here are six tips to consider:

Switch to paperless billing If you're still getting paper bills in the mail, consider switching to paperless billing. Many companies, banks, and utilities offer paperless billing options. The bills will typically be in PDF format, which you access online. When the new … Read more

The default options for viewing PDF documents in OS X are Apple's built-in rendering technologies available in Safari and Preview; however, there are times when some documents will not display properly in these programs. In these instances, you can use Adobe Reader and its accompanying Web plug-in to usually view these documents with success.

For those who use Adobe's Reader and Acrobat programs, Adobe has issued an update that fixes a couple of security holes in the program that could cause the program to crash and allow arbitrary execution of code. While this reasoning has been regularly issued … Read more