Customer Reviews

ScanSoft PDF Converter Professional 3.0 [Old Version]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Overall, this is a good product - with a few kinks. I agree with the one reviewer who commented on the lack of product support. The online PDF file just does not cut it. It tells you many things that the software can do but then fails to provide the "how to." Granted, it is a fairly simple program but the documentation is still lacking. The knowledge base is also less than adequate. As another reviewer mentioned, I also was unable to preserve links in any document conversion I tried - yes, I checked the document settings. When you go to the ScanSoft knowledge base and type in "link", you are presented with two solutions that simply do not work. I eventually found that the way to get the links to work - converting or printing from any source - was to 1) get the document converted over into PDF using PDF Converter Pro 2) manipulate and edit the document to your liking in PDF Converter Pro - they do have some get features here that blow Adobe away when you consider the price and the software footprint 3) save the document as PDF 4) then open the document up in Adobe Reader 7. Adobe Reader recognizes the links, PDF Converter Pro does not - this is a severe mistake on ScanSoft's part and you will not find this solution in their knowledge base (at least not at this time). For a while, I had PDF Converter Pro act as my default PDF reader, but then found it did not open links - went back to Adobe Reader - ScanSoft is now just an intermediary tool when they could have been a real challenge to Adobe. The two other things I don't like about ScanSoft is that 1) they charge $9.95 - which I refuse to pay - for technical support that should be included in a product manual 2) their registration procedure is not even disguised to look like they are actually taking in information for product affiliated reasons - it is a blatant market survey - and what is worse if you do try to register more than one product, they will ask you the same myriad questions each time. Other than that, it is a good product and does cut through a lot of the mess with document formatting and organization.

One last note - if you are going to upgrade - remove all previous versions first (along with the assistants) via add/remove programs, reboot, and then install - all windows apps need to be closed.

The advertising hype about this software sounds great. The truth is far less. Trying to convert PDF to Adobe there were so many errors, I could have typed it from scratch faster! Plus once it installs and takes over as your main PDF reader, WATCH OUT! Many pages won't load at all, others load much slower than with Adobe. Some just come up blank.

Deal around this waste of money and time!

I get a Runtime Error from the MS C++ Runtime Library. At first it was on some files, now it happens on virtually EVERY file. I may have to get my money back from the credit card company.

This product is simply not worth it. I had version 2.0 and then thought, "oh great, they've fixed the poor conversion issues." Well think again. Version 3.0 is really nothing different from the prior version. If a document does not come through correctly, Scansoft simply gives you the statement that it was an "irregular" PDF file or some statement like that. Conversion is what I purchased the program for. I have had better luck cutting the document into word and then doing some editing from there.

This product is dismal. It sure as heck is not worth what it is selling for. To its credit it does convert some documents decently, but those are in the minority. Back to the drawing board for Scansoft. I am done. By the time I waste all this money I could have spent a little more and purchased Adobe to begin with.

As with its other products, this company provides poor help
with the product (just a printable pdf document that should have
come in the box) and no indexed, searchable help by keyword or
topic. This full version should offer more "how to" assistance
without searching the web site (which searches badly--I searched
for "maximum size" and got a response saying I could not use words
like I, and, it, the, and the like, which was irrelevant (i.e.,
broken search engine). Nevertheless, it does some useful things.

The product is fine when it works, but after a while it crashed my system. I tried to get support from the company - they wanted to charge me $10????

I paid, but it left me with a bad feeling. I would probably look for an alternative if I did not already own this.

BEWARE - NO TRIAL VERSION! I should never have bought it

I read the reviews here and thought this would be good to use for PDF. It is SO SLOW when I even open a PDF, let alone try and do anything with it.

Question: What sort of company nowadays does not have any trial version?

Answer: A company with software that they do not want you to try because if you did you would not buy it!

I found this to be an amazing PDF product - but its not from Adobe. I have used Acrobat in the past, but this does things that Acrobat doesn't do - like turn PDF back into Word, and turning forms into fill-able forms. I use scansoft Paperport too, and this works perfect with the PDF files from scanners.

I purchased this even though I was leary of buying anything from Scansoft (Now Nuance). I have had the last few versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking and I knew how difficult it can be to get support from this company. But I got a good deal, and figured I didn't have that much to lose - if it worked well, great! If not, oh well, I can just uninstall it and go back to using free PDF converters like I had for a few years.

The truly maddening thing about this program is that when it does work as designed, it is amazing. Converting documents of all types into PDF files was easy enough - I had been using a licensed version of PDF995 for two to three years successfully. My real desire, though, was to be able to create forms that can be typed in from other hardcopy documents. For instance my mail-in prescription forms. They are PDF forms that I print from the company's website. Then I must fill in my medical history, all medications I've taken for five years, insurance information, etc. Every time I order medications - and I am on some long-term meds - I had to fill out these forms again. And the space they give you is not nearly large enough to fit the info they want. To be able to type it in once, and then just edit it when I need to sounded great.

And it works! Sometimes. On my notebook it works perfectly every time. However on my desktop PC it crashes each time I use it. It's like a race to see if I can get it done before it crashes. I thought maybe it was because my desktop is three years old and has a lot of stuff on it. Maybe there were just some software conflicts with other installed programs.

Last week I took delivery of a brand new PC. Figured I would have no issues at all with a nice clean install of PDF Converter Professional 3.0. Wrong again! The first time I used it the same identical error messages and crashes occured. The most frustrating part is that Nuance/Scansoft does not support this product at all after the sale. As for paying for support, I have so much difficulty reaching the company that I don't know if I will ever even get a chance to try paid support.

So the bottom line from my perpsective is that you are taking a chance with this program. If it does work well and error-free on your PC you will absolutely love it. But if it starts crashing with ZDPlus.exe errors, you are in for a very frustrating experience. If you get a special price, give it a try. Just be prepared to lose your money if it won't work on your PC.

This product crashed my PC on install and then I tried to get support from Scansoft/Nuance. I have left 5 messages on an answering machine in the last two weeks without a single reply. I have sent emails, numerous emails! And then finally ......

...... I get a reply and they ask me to pay another $10 for the most basic support!

Beware!