Alternatives to Adobe Reader - Comments Page 1

Is Foxit strictly a reader ? Does it allow form fill? How can Adobe be deleted and Foxit enabled as the default PDF reader ? Is this done in the download file ?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I just filled a form with Foxit, so yes it does that. When you open a document with Foxit, it will ask if you want it to be your default PDF reader. Or you can go to Control Panel and remove the Adode Reader.

How about Foxit on updates and security measures? I know that there have been problems with Adobe. Also, compatibility with Firefox?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm not aware of any security problems with Foxit Reader. There have been some Adobe exploits over the years, but they've been good about releasing patches quickly. Both programs have auto-update features. No problems here using Foxit with Firefox.

Most people do not care. Adobe makes it so easy to download, and invisible to use, there there is little need searching out an alternative. And of course Adobe always works great... Most users do not even know it is slow.
Foxit is faster, as are many others, but not many users like the job of hunting down and loading the alternatives... and dealing with all the little problems they create sooner or later.

Do you have any suggestions on programs that translate pdf files into Word Docs? There are a couple I've run across, but they don't work very well.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't have personal experience, but I've heard of Nuance, PDFZilla and DocSmartz.

Thanks Bob, I chose foxit right away. Big improvement!!

To Stan:
Now many OCR programs can convert pdf to other formats including MS Word. MFC or scaner comes with free OCR program. Among commercial programs I'd rank Abbyy Fine Reader as one of the best. Another oprtion is Cuneform. Originally they are Russian programs. Russians have Cyrillic alphabet, so their programs have to be ready to recognize more complicated source materials that gives them some advantages over others.

I use Foxit Reader and happy. It has some nice additonal functions. It works fine with Opera browser, but it is neccessary to make some changes in Opera settings manually. Maybe FireFox needs similar adjustments.

How do you get the foxit reader without the toolbar and ebay links? I began downloading Foxit Reader and when it got to the set up screen, it said if i clicked next that it would install it with a Foxit toolbar, so I did not go any further. Help! Thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I mentioned in the article, just uncheck all the boxes in the install wizard.

Thank you Bob. You fixed a big problem I had.
I work with Open Office, and had to distribute a spreadsheet. Most people could not read it. So I had it converted to a PDF file by Foxit, and resent it. Voila! Everybody was happy. It's a great program.

Regards.
Viggo.

Although I recommend Foxit over Adobe, I must say that I've been even more impressed with PDF Xchange viewer.

The best things in life are free.

I've been using Foxit for years. It's also USB stick portable, but in rare cases there have been a couple of pdf files it couldn't open. I also recommend Cute pdf or PDF creator for saving your document as a pdf file. I use them both (on different machines). As far as I can see they're both equally good. One use I've found for PDF files is to "print" a web page as a PDF file instead of saving it and getting an html file and a whole directory of picture and format files to go along with it.

I am thoroughly disgusted with computers; they always let me down when I most need them. A Realtor sent me a nine page contract to sign and return, unfortunately it is a PDF file. I downloaded Adobe Reader with my slow dial-up, and it opened the file, but my Epson Printer won't do anything because of one low color ink cartridge, even through I have a full black one and it is a text document.
Now, when I turn on my computer, I get an error message that Windows cannot find C;\ProgramFiles\NOS\bin|getPlus_HelperSvc.exe and to make sure the name is typed correctly. I have tried everything to get rid of that error message these last few days, to no avail. Uninstalling Adobe did not get rid of it.
So I am downloading Foxit reader, but it looks like I am stuck with this error message forever now.

I have been using Primo PDF a freeware PDF read/writer for a while now to both read and write PDF files with get success and no hassles

Greetings Bob! What did you do in IBM? I was a large system specialist for a while (best times of my life!), then worked at Research.

Re: Foxit. Seems that the latest version does not either convert the PDF to TXT nor allow you to copy-n-paste. sigh.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I worked in Poughkeepsie NY as a programmer. We supported a mechanical/thermal/power design group with CAD, database and expert system applications. Good times!

At the moment PDF-XChange Viewer is the best alternative to Adobe Reader. It works outstanding. Each of these features you can try to use, even if it is PRO feature. This is versatile viewer/reader for pdfs. It offers for Free most features (more that other alternative softwares), such as different works with XFA form pdf files, signing document... The option Search is multifunctional. I can find a word or its part even in Bookmark in many pdfs. It offers different features to create/edit/delete Comments, Stamps, Bookmarks. It has many little details that makes my work pleasant and differs efficiently from others. Also I can export pdfs in different graphic formats. This software has a friendly interface and it's easy to work with it.

There is also Nuance PDF Reader which is free. Nuance do several packages such as PDF Create, OmniPage, Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software etc. Sometimes if I print a document, from a word processor or database, to Nuance PDF create, Adobe reader cannot read the last page of the PDF, but Nuance PDF reader can.

Sorry, it comes back to me that the problem mentioned in my last post (Adobe Reader being unable to read the last page of a PDF) is not caused when I use Nuance PDF Create to create the PDF, but when I use the 'Publish to PDF' command in WordPerfect X3. (In almost all other respects I find WordPerfect miles better than any other word processing software I have ever come across).

I tried Foxit for a while and was quite pleased. But then I went to print some postage at the USPS site, and it failed. The USPS help line would not help in any way: you must use Adobe or we don't support your installation. I tried to figure it all out, but found that it wasn't worth fighting city hall over, and went back to Adobe.

PDF-XChange Viewer is wonderful! Recently I tried to send pdf-file using the button “Send” in this file, but couldn't do it from Adobe. Then I'd switched to free PDF-XChange and sent my file by e-mail. After that I looked on PDF-XChange in detail and find it very interesting. It offer much more features Free, OCR, edit Bookmarks, comments, work with forms. Nice handy customizable interface and very fast work.

Foxit Reader is vulnerable??? http://www.macworld.com.au/news/foxit-reader-security-flaw-reportedly-allows-attack-84340/

FoxIt has gotten a bit bigger I see. Gone from 3MB to over 15MB.