ActivePDFÒ Symphony

http://www.activepdf.com
(Reviewed by Fred Sabin, President, NJCC)

activePDFÒ Symphony is a combination of two software products,  activePDFÒ Composer that creates PDF documents, and activePDFÒ Maestro that edits PDF documents. These desktop products will allow you to easily create PDF documents (that can be read by the free Adobe Acrobat ReaderÒ) from anything that you can print. You can also markup PDF documents with notes, highlighting, underlining, strikeouts, bookmarks, etc. for future viewing and reference.

These products fill the gap between PDF programs that only create an image in PDF format that can not be edited, and the full fledged PDF programs that cost much more for extra features that you would probably never use. As such, they are an excellent compromise for those that want more than minimum requirements, but less than professional performance options.

activePDFÒ Composer will “print” any document and/or graphics to a PDF file in black and white or color; at resolutions from 72 to 2540 dots per inch; at 1 to 1,000% scale; in portrait or landscape mode (with 90 or 180 degree rotation options); on numerous sizes of paper. This PDF file can then be saved and used as any other PDF file. The file size will vary with the options selected, but I saved a ten-page, 60 KB MS Word document to a black and white, 300 dpi, PDF file of 104 KB. A website with numerous graphics that saved as a 320 KB HTML file was converted to a color, 300 dpi, PDF file of only 172 KB.

activePDFÒ Maestro will allow you to “markup” a PDF file as you would do with a normal document. You can highlight text in any color, underline it or put a strikeout through it, or you can add notes anywhere on the page that can be viewed as either a pop-up or when you put the mouse pointer over them. If you need a quick method to find a page or something on a page, you can bookmark it for instant access.

Text and/or images (or even boxed areas) from activePDFÒ Composer documents can also be selected to copy and paste into a word processor document (with the free Adobe Acrobat ReaderÒ 6.0). Unfortunately, the actual PDF document itself cannot be altered directly, or converted directly into another file format.

activePDFÒ Symphony requires a Pentium 50 MHz CPU computer with 26 MB of hard-drive space, and MS Windows 98 or ME with 32 MB RAM, OR MS Windows XP with 64 MB RAM.

This software is thus very flexible and powerful for the casual user, and I will be doing a demonstration of it at the May 12th NJCC meeting. The list price for activePDFÒ Symphony is $95. activePDFÒ Composer lists separately at $79, and activePDFÒ Maestro lists separately at $25. A discount of 25% is available for NJCC members on activePDFÒ Symphony and activePDFÒ Composer (but not activePDFÒ Maestro) by email order before June 12th directly to the activePDF Sales Department (sales@activepdf.com) using promotional code PCUG905F.

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