Nitro PDF Pro

The ubiquitous PDF format so dominates the digital publishing arena that most document workers find themselves having to muscle their way through the massive, multi-function Adobe Acrobat to make even the simplest documents. Billing itself as the first true Acrobat alternative, Nitro PDF Pro is an inexpensive and light (only 24.7MB) PDF maker, editor, and workflow manager that may be all most of us need. In our use, it opened and edited every PDF we could throw at it quickly and accurately.

The product is aimed mainly at office workers, who are starting to use Acrobat as a format for collaborative document writing and review. It marks up PDFs with highlighting and sticky notes, even approval stamps. It tracks comments by users in a sidebar as the document gets passed around. All of this is a lot less confusing to use than the massive Acrobat program, but the makers of Nitro PDF Pro do recommend Adobe Acrobat Professional ($449) for power users.

One of the things that we like best about Nitro PDF Pro is how it handles the more common office tasks. It integrates with Microsoft Office and adds a menu item that turns any current file into a PDF and e-mails it. Within the Nitro editor you can turn any PDF into a Word doc.

Our only complaint with Nitro PDF Pro involves stability. We encountered an occasional program crash when exiting, suggesting the new program needs some polishing. Otherwise, dare we say that for most everyday PDF users, Nitro PDF Pro may prove a bit lighter on its feet, and on your wallet, than the original Acrobat.

www.nitropdf.com
Publisher: ARTS PDF, Inc,