PDFs are a popular medium of exchanging documents. Their easy accessibility on any platform means that we want to do more with them - such as editing metadata or extracting some or all of its contents and converting them into other formats while preserving the images, fonts, and other formatting elements. One tool that looked very promising in this regard was Able2Extract PDF Converter 9. I decided to check out its features and if it lived up to the promises it made as a powerful and complete PDF conversion package. Here's my review.
Able2Extract PDF Converter 9: For Whom
If you work with a lot of productivity applications including PDF documents and often:
- Convert PDF to Excel, convert PDF to Word, convert PDF to PowerPoint, or Publisher, AutoCAD, images, and other open source formats?
- Convert Excel, Word and other Office files to PDF
- Work on multiple platforms like Linux and Mac OS X
- Make minor edits to PDF pages and metadata information
- Secure your PDFs with password protection
- Specify how users can interact with your content
- Batch convert documents
- Track the progress of your PDF creation process
Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 is a tool that you need to take a look at. This tool has been around for over 10 years but its latest update (#9) has massively upgraded its capabilities.
New Features in Able2Extract PDF Converter 9
Able2Extract's latest iteration includes many exciting new features and UI improvements:
Create PDF Documents
The latest and smartest new feature in Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 is the ability to create industry-standard PDF documents. This means you can now not only convert PDF to Excel, Word, PPT or other formats, you can convert Excel to PDF, convert Word to PDF and so on. Just hit the Print button and select Able2Extract 9.0 Printer option to create high fidelity PDFs.
Secure PDFs
Adding security to your PDF documents is absolutely essential, especially when it contains sensitive or confidential information. The latest version of the PDF converter lets you use encrypted passwords to safeguard your content. You can also authorize which parts of your document are free for copying or printing and which parts are not.
Minor PDF Editing Capabilities
For the first time ever, Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 allows for editing of PDF meta data. You can also do some minor PDF edits such as deleting, resizing, rotating, scaling or moving of PDF pages.
UI Improvements
Of course, this won’t mean much if you have never used the tool before. But the UI of the latest version is much improved. The addition of the virtual Print Driver and the one-click Progress bar makes it easier to work with its creation and conversion tools and helps in better control over the documents.
Updated PDF to Excel Panel
Converting PDF to Excel is now more user friendly. The custom PDF to Excel panel has been updated so that the active tool buttons are highlighted clearly making it easier for you to see at a glance which functionality is currently active. The next time you customize your conversion, you’ll be in better control of the changes than before.
Improved PDF Rendering
The latest version also includes improvements to the Able2Extract PDF viewer. Images and text are now sharper and the content layout is more clearly defined offering a much better viewing experience.
Cross Platform Capabilities
Able2Extract 9 can now be downloaded on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora). The tool offers the same functionality and user experience on all the platforms.
Installing and Working with Able2Extract PDF Converter 9
You can safely download and install Able2Extract PDF Converter 9. There are no unwanted adware, spyware or bundled software hidden in the installation file. Once you launch the tool, you’ll get tips on how to use the software. Once you load up a document, you will instantly see the Ribbon interface come to life.
You have options to open create and save documents as well as a series of buttons to convert to any file type of your choosing. A menu bar at the top of the tool also contains plenty of additional file editing, viewing, converting and Help options. I also noticed a handy Search button to help you quickly find whole words or case sensitive keywords in your document.
As far as viewing goes, you have options to read your PDFs in single or double page view as well as in continuous view for both the above options. You can zoom in and out, view thumbnail of pages, select all or specific parts of the document for extraction and conversion, and batch convert documents - in just one or 2 clicks.
At the bottom of the Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 window, there are options to connect to the developer's Twitter and Facebook page, which have lots of nice handy tips on using the tool as well as announcements like giveaways and product updates. At the time of writing this post (Feb 10, 2015), I noticed a free giveaway details on their Facebook page, so do check it out!
In my use of Able2Extract PDF Converter 9, I was impressed with the functioning and UI. I did not notice options in the tool to open files other than PDFs and text files and would like to see more file formats supported in future. And I was a tad disappointed with its conversions to PowerPoint. That said, Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 was able to do an excellent conversion for most documents that I threw its way. The tool impressed me with its processing speed and ease of use.
Pricing
Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 is perfect if you are a small business owner. You can pick up an individual single user license for $99.95, a 5-user license pack for $499.75 and a 10-user license pack for $499.75. Should you be interested, Investintech.com is also offering a free trial version of the software for you to try out.
You can download Able2Extract PDF Converter 9 for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux by clicking the link below.
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