Create, Edit, Convert PDF Files & Export As EXEs With PDFCool

We have covered plenty of PDF editors for desktop, web and mobile platforms like PDFzen for Windows, Web, iOS and Mac OS X that allowed editing and sharing PDF files in a collaborative manner. PDF Mod was a another comprehensive option for Linux. In a nutshell, there are many PDF tools out there, all offering their own feature-sets and functionality. Should you be looking for another one to try out, give PDFCool PDF Editor a go. It’s a free PDF viewer and editor for Windows that bundles a variety of PDF-related tools in the package.

You can edit existing PDF files, create new ones from scratch, or extract certain elements like images and text from existing ones. Likewise, you can insert your own images into the document currently loaded in PDFCool. In addition, it allows you to convert PDF files to various image and text formats and vice versa.
Unfortunately, the application comes packaged with bloatware in form of in-app advertisement for the developer’s other tools, which can continuously nag your workflow. This is one of the major annoyances I faced during its testing. The interface carries a toolbar at the top that lets you navigate the document and zoom in and out of it.

The menu bar further extends the tool’s functionality by providing features like bookmarking and document conversion. The Convert menu is one of the most promising features of the app, as it lets you access many PDF-related tools from one place. For example, ‘PDF to Any’ allows you to convert a PDF file to a host of formats like DOC, HTML, PNG, JPEG, RTF, TXT, XLS, PPT, POT, EMF, WMF, SVG – in short, whatever format you might need to convert a PDF file into, PDFCool has you covered. It also contains an EXE builder that can a convert PDF file to an executable one for viewing on any Windows computer regardless of whether it has a PDF viewer installed or not. And if your PDF files contains graphical elements like objects and images, you can make use of the ‘Create Graphical PDFs’ option.

Manage Images is another nifty little feature that instantly extracts user-specific images from selected pages in a document. This feature opens up in it’s own window and exports the extracted image files to a user-defined directory. Apart from images, PDFCool PDF Editor also makes it possible to extract selective pages from a document. The Page menu provides different options for trimming, merging, copying and duplicating pages.

One more nifty feature of the app is its ability to convert web pages into PDF, and even allowing you to annotate them before you do so! Just select ‘Create PDF from Webpage’ in the File menu to launch this window (that can be considered a mini browser of sorts), and enter the URL of the page that you want to convert. The application fetches all the required information from the page and lets you export it into the main editing workspace, from where you can add annotations  and convert the page according to your preferences.

Although it’s plagued with some annoying nagware that may incessantly disrupt your workflow, the sheer number of PDF-related features that it packs make PDFCool PDF Editor an interesting application of its kind. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions are supported.
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Create, Edit, Convert PDF Files & Export As EXEs With PDFCool

PDF editors come in all shapes and sizes, but not all of them (in fact, hardly any) allow you to easily annotate PDF documents and share them with others for collaboration. PDFzen from Docudesk will set you on a course that makes PDF manipulation a tad easier. It’s an HTML5 based web app (with Windows, Mac and iOS companion clients) that lets you perform basic editing and annotation on PDF documents before sharing them with friends or colleagues. You can share the annotated documents on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Reddit, or copy their source URLs. The service is fairly easy to use, and doesn’t require you to go through the hassle of configuring editing tasks and access permissions.

PDFzen automatically recognizes your device’s platform and loads the main interface, provided your device supports HTML5. To use the service, visit PDFzen (link given at the bottom of the post) and click the Open File button.

It enables you upload file from local drive or remote location via the URL. If you’re uploading the file from your PC, all you need is to drag the file over the upload box to begin the uploading process.

If you’re using Windows or OS X, then you may also upload the file directly from its desktop. When a file is opened in the reader app, click File menu and then select Send to PDF Zen option. Whichever method you choose, the upload process is pretty fast and efficient

The web interface houses a toolbar at the top, from where you select options for editing and annotating your documents. For instance, the Type Tool allows you to add additional text lines to the document file. Likewise, you may Highlight a selected area, add comments or simply Draw free form lines on the page. The toolbar also contains page zoom and size options including Fit Width and Fit Height.

Clicking Actions on the toolbar opens the file sharing console. As mentioned earlier, you may share the file on various social media services. The app allows embedding the file into your web page via the Embed Code option. The file sharing console also contains a Fax button, but for using this feature, you need to register an account. PDFzen lets you download both annotated and original files.

During testing, I also opened the documents via the share link on my iPad, and it worked without encountering any issues, whatsoever.

All the features of the app are free, except secure faxing, for which you need to purchase a monthly paid plan. Testing was carried out on Windows 7, 64-bit and iPad 2.
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