PDF Converter Professional 5.0 [OLD VERSION]
by Nuance Communications, Inc.
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Software Reviews of PDF Converter Professional 5.0 [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: PDF Professioinal Converter 5
Summary: 1 Stars
This product would not work properly in a fully updated Windows XP Professional system and fully updated Internet Explorer 6.X.
It would open *.PDF files that had been saved to my hard drive but would not open *.PDF files that were accessed through links from Outlook Express. It would open some internet resident files that were accessed directly from Internet Explorer.
Both Adobe Reader 8.X and 9.X had no problem opening the same *.PDF files.
Great perseverance was required to return this product to its manufacturer, Nuance, without paying return postage.
Customer Review: WARNING! hardware changes to your PC can cause s/w to stop working!!,
Summary: 3 Stars
Update 11-01-2009 Be forewarned about activation & loss of product usage.
Attention !!!! WARNING !!!!
Nuance does things a lot different with their product's installation & activation.
A couple re-installs of your windows operating system due to windows issues; and/or a couple hardware upgrades like new video card or new hard drive, and PDF converter 5 could cease to function.
My installation had this problem recently.
At almost $100, you expect a program to function 24/7/365.
When mine stopped working, it really interrupted my work production.
So,
If you have this software installed and want to upgrade/changed ANY internal PC hardware, you MUST uninstall the pdf converter pro 5 software
"BEFORE you make ANY hardware changes" !!!
NOTE: UNinstalling the program in effect "DE-activates" your pdf converter pro 5.
Thus "releaseing" the license key and this doesn't count against your
"5 license activations", before product QUITS working!
I work with pc hardware and do pc repairs/upgrades 40+ hours a week.
On my work PC, I have upgraded my mobo 3 times this year. My hard drive twice.
(one of the perks of being the IT helpdesk guy) (last update was to an Intel i7 Core.)
Recently I had lost windows booting abilities, so I installed a newer, larger, hard drive.
So I installed the brand new hard drive and did a clean XP Pro installation.
As soon as I loaded PDF Converter 5 Pro, it wanted to activate.
Then it went online a few seconds and then an error window popped up saying I had exceeded the 5 activation allowances that Nuance allows.
I emailed Nuance the details.
I mentioned how I own 4 retail box copies of this s/w.
After going back and forth with support, they re-activated my license number.
But I could not make PDF files or about 2 days.
*****How to prevent this from happening again?****
If you are using PDF converter 5 on your PC, then ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS
do an UNinstall before changing ANY pc hardware.
The activation process takes serial numbers from the internal components and uses them for activation calculations. (probably the serial # of mobo and/or hard drives).
When a serial number changes due to new hardware, the s/w launches another activation attempt.
Five activations are allowed before the s/w is disabled.
You MUST UNistall the software before doing hardware upgrades, to keep the activation counter from decrementing one of the 5 activation allowances.
This is the sort of thing that should be listed on a neon colored label, on the CD's paper sleeve or jewel case. And/or on the box it comes in.
I told Nuance this, but I doubt they'll do anything about it.
Unforunately, it is not like there are a lot of choices for the
combination software of PDF maker with a PDF converters.
You have:
1. Nuance pdf conveter pro 5
2. Nitro pdf.
3. PDF tools [by solid documents]
Adobe's acrobat pdf maker is pricey and has no conversion abilities.It only creates PDFss.
Other single function s/w conveters are:
Able2extract
Docudesk
PDF conveter elite
Oh, and as far as product functionality, this software does okay.
PDF to word conversions do okay with text; but sort of crappy with images.
(But it seems to be this way with all pdf converter applications).
------------------------------------------------------------
I'm on day 1 of using this software.
Creating a PDF is working fine.
Converting an existing PDF to MS Word is working fine, so far.
Converting an existing PDF with a table inside it; into MS excel is working OK, so far.
Annoyances/problems:
1. After installing software onto my PC, an annoying "activation" NAG screen keeps popping up everytime/anytime I launch the program and/or toggle between CREATING a PDF vs CONVERTING a PDF.
Plus it decrements from 30 uses to none.
So off I went to ACTIVATE this whiner!
2. Activation:
a. I just went online, registered, and then activated it, but apparently it requires further MANUAL intervention by the enduser (lazy programmers at Nuance).
Because I am still getting the pop-up about not being activated.
b. License key & activation problems:
The setup/installation onto your PC works just fine with numbers and LOWER case letters . [For entering the alpha-numeric license code during installation of the software onto your PC].
But as soon as you get to Nuance's website and try to activate/register,
by using their "Paste-serial-number-from-clipboard" button, you get an error!
These boneheads keep kicking back your serial number as INCORRECT until you make it ONLY numbers and only "UPPER case" letters.
(why doesn't Nuance spend a couple bucks on a 5 minute programming "FIX" and let the stinking webpage AUTO correct a small issue like these)
Next, trying to correct a serial number which was already "pasted" into the Nuance webform box [but contained lower-case letters]. Whenever I'd click my mouse next to a lower case letter and try to CHANGE it to an UPPERcase letter, a wretched pop-up window keeps WHINING about using "The PASTE button function only".
For every 1 lower-case letter you try to change to upper-case; you have to answer 2 pop-up windows and make them go away.
[Hey tightwads, fix your website's serial number entry form).
[Go to Elance and hire a programmer for $2.00 an hour and FIX the problem with "YOUR" [NUANCE's] website]
I tried to be nice and contact Nuisance (whoops, I mean Nuance) about their problem.
(Starting off an end-user experience like this is NOT going to endear me to rush out and buy any more NUANCE products; especially if they can't make the registration & activation process easier, functional and more streamlined)
Here's a frustrating experience; Just try contacting these Tight-fisted pukes with a simple FYI, to tell them about a website issue of their's.
These pukes expect you to shell out $9.95 per incident just to contact them.
Sorry dudes, I'm not paying to fix YOUR website problems.
SUMMARY:
Pros - products looks/acts OK so far.
- cheaper than Adobe
Cons - Just hope you NEVER need to contact NUANCE for ANYTHING.
Or I should say; PLAN to NEVER contact them.
[you can't even throw them a bone about how to improve their website without getting hit up for $9.95]
-poor activation web setup
- Deceptive/hidden cost details about tech support :
- no mention on software box
- no mention inside box, nor in User manual
I bought this program for myself.
Once I test-drove it awhile, I was going to make recommendations to a large client about maybe switching to Nuance (from Adobe).
I really have my doubts now; especially regarding their "nickel & dime-ing" attitude toward their end-users.
09-24-2008 update:
I tried converting a bunch of pdf's to word, so i can work with the data within the pdf's.
The program goes fairly fast through the conversion process, until you reach 99%. Then it sits there for what seems like an eternity.
My core-2-duo is not pegged for CPU usage (only 25-50%), but the hard disk light is almost solid.
I found that this program really has a hard time with any text within a book's front cover. Mostly comes out as a mangled mess.
The text pages are decent in the translation.
But plan to run auto-format within Word, to get things cleaned up.
Customer Review: Great Value and easy to use
Summary: 4 Stars
Software installed easily and so far has done all I asked. We create PDFs for our products and also need to modify existing PDFs or pull individual sheets into our new literature. Also use it to assemble comprehensive files from mixed sources. We are still learning more features but have to say this is an excellent value so far.
Customer Review: Great product
Summary: 5 Stars
I was surprised with how easy the program is to use. The program places icons on the Word toolbar that you just click on to covert to or from PDF. Just point and click. LOVE IT! LOVE IT!! LOVE IT!!!Customer Review: PDF Converter Professional 5.0 Did Not Work
Summary: 1 Stars
From the get-go, this program crashed (in PdfCreateHook) on my Vista machine. Updating to the latest patch did not resolve the problem. Without this portion of the software working, it reverts to demo mode, putting watermarks over everything. No help from Nuance, either.
After reading the other reviews, I was no longer surprised, and was able to successfully return the opened packed to the retailer from whom I purchased it (kudos to them!) for a full refund. I plan to avoid all Nuance software in the future.
To all Retailers: Stop carrying software that doesn't work! Retailers pull a lot of weight--if you stopped carrying crappy software these guys would either wake up and fix things, or go out of business--either would be good for you and your customers.