Need to find out who's reading your PDFs, but don't have the scratch for a policy server? Use this free online service to keep tabs on your readership.If you're the least bit curious about your PDF readers and what they're reading, then let the tracking begin with pdftracker.de.
To use this free beta service, users simply upload a PDF file to the server for the Java embedding, and then download it again after the file has been processed. The new file returns with Javascript code embedded in the PDF for you to track its viewing and usage. Unfortunately (and this really is unfortunate), the links in the PDFs are not available in the finished document.
After downloading the "enhanced" file, users assign the document ID with a unique name that will be used for accessing the tracking reports associated with the file. You also can choose whether you want the PDF to send an e-mail.
With the tool, users can track the id, sessionid, timestamp, local date of client, IP address, host address, forms version, operating system, language, URL and the number of plug-ins available to the viewer.
For a test drive go to the company Web site.
The pdftracker.de site also gives users detailed directions on how to disable the tracking features in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
