Trapeze converts PDFs into editable formats on Mac OS X, while PDF reDirect enables users to create PDFs from any application and append documents from different sources.There are those who yearn for more functionality in Adobe Reader, wondering when the company might power up more search capability or tweak its edit features.
And then there are those who don't like to wait. Behold, the freeware, shareware and low-cost utility developers.
Thanks to an abundance of programming savvy, there are numerous PDF utilities available from small development houses or individuals. Many of these can be had either free or at a low cost, and even those that climb past the $20 mark have a demo that lets users try before they buy.
Today, PDFzone looks at two such PDF utilities, Trapeze and PDF reDirect.
Trapeze
A drag-and-drop utility for Mac OS X developed by Mesa Dynamics LLC, Trapeze converts PDF documents into editable file formats, such as HTML, RTF, ASCII and plain text.
By default, the utility attempts to preserve as much of the original PDF layout as possible, but it allows the user to modify the conversion settings by providing options such as white space stripping, page break marking and paragraph rewrapping.
Mesa Dynamics created Trapeze after noticing that users were struggling with a number of issues, said Danny Espinoza, the company's president. "Our users generally fall into three categories," he noted. "Those who want to edit an existing PDF document to change just a couple of items but preserve the original PDF document's layout; those who want to quote extensively from a PDF document and don't want to endlessly cut and paste from Adobe Reader; and those who want to convert a PDF document directly into HTML to publish on the Web."
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To aid each type of user, Trapeze was developed as a document repurposing solution. PDF is typically regarded as an "uneditable" format, said Espinoza, which means that in order to reuse existing PDF content, documents need to be recreated from scratch.
Mesa didn't buy that idea and created Trapeze so its users could convert one or more PDF documents into files that can be edited in a word processing application like Microsoft Word or Apple TextEdit.
One thing that Trapeze is not is an OCR application, Espinoza noted, answering an oft-asked question at Mesa. The utility doesn't reassemble text from a scanned PDF document, he said, but does a simple task, and does it well: converts text from a PDF document that has been created electronically, such as from Adobe Distiller.
Trapeze is priced at $29.95, but has a free trial version that converts up to three pages of any PDF.
PDF reDirect
Sometimes, an application exists that does what the user wants, but some aspect of it is so annoying that it leads to development of an entirely new utility. That was the case with PDF reDirect, created three years ago after its developer, Michel Korwin-Szymanowski, had used PDF995 for a few months.
"At the time, [PDF995] was the only 'free' PDF option, and it worked well," Korwin-Szymanowski said. "But it also displayed an ad for itself every time it ran. That got old after a while, so I decided to write my own PDF writer."
The result was PDF reDirect, which is available as freeware and is currently the most downloaded free PDF writer, according to Download.com. It creates PDF files from any application and offers the capability of appending a PDF file to an existing file.
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The utility was updated in early 2005 to add two additional free features that Korwin-Szymanowski says no other PDF writer offers: 40-bit encryption, to create a PDF that is password protected; and the ability to append a PDF file to an existing one, which allows a user to combine output from two different programs.
Although the utility is a popular choice for freeware, Korwin-Szymanowski also offers a professional version for $19.99 (or $14.99 every August) that has additional firepower, including settings that apply stamps to the PDF, compress images in a PDF to reduce file size, attach files such as Word documents inside the PDF, and write text in a way that can't be "copy-and-pasted" out of the file.
Korwin-Szymanowski plans to continue updating both versions and expects that revamped PDF reDirect utilities will be released early next year. In the freeware version, new features will include the ability to incorporate navigation controls into the PDF, compatibility with Windows Terminal Services, and a live "preview" so a user can see what the PDF looks like before saving.
Trapeze and PDF reDirect are just two of the many utilities on the market. PDFzone would like to hear your thoughts on others that may inspire devotion. Got a favorite? E-mail us.
