Announcing the Beta Download of PDF Converter for Microsoft

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Hot off the press..."Join the Beta to "File>>Open>> *.PDF" - from within Microsoft Office 2003!

ScanSoft and Microsoft have teamed to bring you a new plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003, one that allows you to instantly convert PDF into editable documents directly from within Microsoft Word 2003 - complete with the layout of the original. The ScanSoft PDF Converter for Microsoft Word unlocks the information trapped in PDF files, separating text from graphics, tables and columns. Now you can re-use information in PDF documents that you download from the Web or receive as email attachments. (No other software is required.) The ScanSoft PDF Converter for Microsoft is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office 2003 in two ways. First, Microsoft Word 2003 is extended with the ability to "File>>Open" PDF files. Second, ScanSoft has developed a Smart Tag that automatically converts PDF into Microsoft Word whenever a PDF is encountered in the Research area within Microsoft Word 2003.

ScanSoft and Microsoft are eager to get your comments and suggestions on this new product, and you can participate by completing the form at www.ScanSoft.com/PDFConverter/Beta Once you complete the form and download the software you will be provided with a Beta Program PIN and access to the software. All feedback to the Beta will be managed via the Web."

Note : i think it will only work for existing Beta 2 users - however it may work on previous versions of Word.

View: Beta Place

View: The PDF Plugin

View: Signup (Also signup for other scansoft betas)

This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on your system

Version 3.20 beta 4

1. WinRAR "Rename" command ignores file names containing characters
not allowed by Windows, for example, * and |.

2. Bugs fixed:

a) "Repair" command could crash, when fixing some types of damaged
archives;

b) RAR failed to copy the comment block correctly, when adding
files with encrypted names (-hp switch) to non-encrypted archive
containing the archive comment.

(3 replies) #1 Neobond on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:09

Adobe are gonna love this!

#1.1 Neobond on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:51

Neobond says: didnt some guy get tossed in jail for making a program that could edit pdf files? nw|voodoo says: yep

[IMG]http://www.neowin.net/forum/html/emoticons/shocking.gif[/IMG]

#1.2 nacs on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:59

[neoquote=#1.1 by Neobond]Neobond says: didnt some guy get tossed in jail for making a program that could edit pdf files? nw|voodoo says: yep

#1.3 Wickedkitten on 21 Apr 2003 - 21:02

[neoquote=#1.2 by nacs][neoquote=#1.1 by Neobond]Neobond says: didnt some guy get tossed in jail for making a program that could edit pdf files? nw|voodoo says: yep

[IMG]http://www.neowin.net/forum/html/emoticons/shocking.gif[/IMG][/neoquote] He got tossed in jail for cracking the security (copyright protection) on PDFs--not just for editting them. There are lots of PDF editing tools and they're legal.[/neoquote] yeah, but those are for actually editing a pdf file, not taking the pdf and exporting it to another format

#2 Mr magoo on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:12

heh - bit of competition will stir the beasts

(1 reply) #3 Darkwolven on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:14

Now if I only had Office 2k3... It's not even out yet, is it??

#3.1 docco on 21 Apr 2003 - 22:40

Works fine on Office 2000, Just tried it...

#4 Mr magoo on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:17

i think you can use it with other versions of word...

#5 excessdl on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:20

awesome..always wondered why they didnt make this readily available

#6 digidep on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:21

[url=http://www.scansoft.com/pdfconverter/beta/download/]Download[/url] 12MB

Last edited by 3369 on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:27

#7 kirk26 on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:29

seems to work ok in word 2000 here for me.

(1 reply) #8 semifamous on 21 Apr 2003 - 18:29

Um, does anyone know of a PDF reader for Windows that loads as fast as "Preview" does on the Mac? That would be nice. A small fast viewer that reads PDFs..... Anyone? =) PM me, since this probably isn't the place to ask anyway.

#8.1 DrunkenMaster on 21 Apr 2003 - 21:33

I don't know how fast it is on the Mac, but Jaws PDF reader is by far the fastest http://www.jawspdf.com/.

(2 replies) #9 nacs on 21 Apr 2003 - 19:02

And OpenOffice has had this built in for how long again?

It's pretty sad that MS refuses to accept the notion that the PDF fileformat is quite good and doesn't provide a [b]native/builtin[/b] ability to open and save PDF files. We now have to rely on a 3rd party solution (with a MS 'approved' tag on it) to finally be able edit PDFs in an [i]upcoming[/i] version of Office.

#9.1 JaggedFlame on 22 Apr 2003 - 02:45

Edit: Never mind, your sentence structure didn't make it clear what you really meant.

In any case, it's a beta version of an add-on that hasn't been released yet and is sure to have a successor, so be patient.

Last edited by 820 on 22 Apr 2003 - 02:55

#9.2 KvalCom on 22 Apr 2003 - 17:49

[neoquote=#9.0 by nacs]And OpenOffice has had this built in for how long again?

#10 Jerichohol on 21 Apr 2003 - 19:05

pdf files will now get more recognition. The end of adobe acrobat viewer - auto preview in the next version of windows.

(1 reply) #11 CheeseCow on 21 Apr 2003 - 19:07

And what about converting Office documents into PDF; that would be so much cooler. I'm going to have a look at openoffice.org, it seems a bit slow-starting ATM....

#11.1 eaglebtc on 22 Apr 2003 - 00:46

that's called "Acrobat" and it creates a virtual printer on your computer. You print to it and voila! out come PDFs.

#12 btallack on 21 Apr 2003 - 19:14

Corel Draw has supported this for a long time.

#13 Jerichohol on 21 Apr 2003 - 19:33

wrong thread

(1 reply) #14 Joshie on 21 Apr 2003 - 20:27

Sure, great, PDF in Office. Nice. I still think the pdf format is overrated. I always want to kick something every time some website links to a PDF version of a document as the only option, when I can't imagine how difficult it would be to just throw together an html format instead. I just don't see what's so great about PDF. Documents will always look exactly the same no matter what platform viewed on? Great. That'll be great for a few, limited applications. Like, oh, I dunno, the occasional hardware manual. The first thing I thought when I heard about this? "Finally! A simpler way to convert all these annoying PDF files into a format I can tolerate!"

#14.1 Jaxbulls on 21 Apr 2003 - 21:22

Ditto - exactly the way I feel. PDF has never seemed flexible to me and I never like the way they look on the screen. The biggest plus is they look great when printed.

#15 wuzz on 21 Apr 2003 - 21:09

AND IT WORKS

(1 reply) #16 Mr magoo on 21 Apr 2003 - 21:37

i use this if i need to make pdfs- free plugin for ms office- works in effect to winamp plugins; you "print" to it, and it converts it to a pdf... http://www.fineprint.com/products/pdffactory/index.html

#16.1 ir0nw0lf on 21 Apr 2003 - 22:11

Free? There a secret bonus area on their site to get it for free? I only see the "free" $50/$100 versions.

#17 Dessimat0r on 21 Apr 2003 - 22:17

I think PDFs are overrated - documents should be made using XML instead

#18 Makki on 21 Apr 2003 - 22:29

yep cool new tool i got the email too hehe

#19 Mr magoo on 21 Apr 2003 - 22:39

http://www.fineprint.com/release/fpnt480.exe

(1 reply) #20 acbd on 21 Apr 2003 - 23:03

cool, no more damn acrobat reader

that's one of the programs i hate the most

#20.1 PureEdit on 21 Apr 2003 - 23:53

Same here, it is CRAPWARE

#21 Angel Blue01 on 21 Apr 2003 - 23:21

Yea! Just time for pdfedit995! Free converter to PDF, and now free PDF editor!

#22 naap51stang on 21 Apr 2003 - 23:27

I've been a fan of acrobat for years. I use the full blown version of Acrobat 5 and love it, but, I've been using photoshop for years, so I'm familar with the querky way that adobe works its toolbars LOL. I'll download this and give it a try, maybe it will cut down on the number of people asking me how to do xyz with an acrobat file.....

#23 vu059 on 22 Apr 2003 - 00:14

This converter is good but not perfect. There are some formatting problems because I tried to convert an application form for some scholarship and it messed up some font and sizes and also some field to enter data. Nevertheless, this is beta software so I'll say it's doing pretty good, taking too long to convert though. 12 page on a 1.5gigz Athlon took 2min to convert. I also d/lded openoffice1.03 and tried to open a pdf but it's not working, is there a specific command or something to open pdf in openoffice? I think the openoffice's website is not very organized to look for information.

#24 eaglebtc on 22 Apr 2003 - 00:40

serial number isn't working guys. did they change the download link after you posted it? [edit] never mind! I typed b390a instead of b309a

#25 eaglebtc on 22 Apr 2003 - 00:47

I see that it just makes a very large bitmapped image out of the PDF. So you can't edit it, just type on top of it. Illustrator, on the other hand...

#26 FuhrerDarqueSyde on 22 Apr 2003 - 01:16

the pdf plugin for office 2003 sorta looks ugly, all i see is block commands and links where it should show href. kinda bleh. I never liked PDF anyways GO XML

#27 wired57 on 22 Apr 2003 - 02:08

works in office XP pro

#28 naner502 on 22 Apr 2003 - 02:48

Anyone try [url=http://www.pdf995.com/]pdf995[/url] ???

#29 xpablo on 22 Apr 2003 - 05:45

Well it works pretty good although it is really slow converting to doc format.

#30 suprfli on 22 Apr 2003 - 06:06

one of the main reasons i use phoenix and mozilla is b/c i prefer the way that they allow you to print preview and then shrink the pages to fit onto a regular piece of paper. in some cases when you print stuff "falls off" the printed page so you lose it. i like to shrink driving directions and other stuff down to fit on a single page or only a few pages. do the above mentioned PDF applications allow you to print to them like this through IE? i'll have to play around w/these apps listed in comments.

#31 params on 22 Apr 2003 - 06:30

Damn this is slow! Then to be told it can't convert som epages due to non standard encoding

ARRGGGHHH!!! A complete disaster on the docs I tried

#32 kaffra on 22 Apr 2003 - 08:29

great news, im downloading it now, hopefully i can get rid of acrobat soon

#33 n3Mo on 22 Apr 2003 - 17:26

I was a bit amazed when I read this, kinda looses the function of acrobat files. Parhaps that is what Microsoft want's so that xml will be the no.1 format since nobody owns xml but Adobe owns pdf licenses. Gonna be an intresesting summer..

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