mashable.com — PDFs, the file format often used for “official” documents and typically opened with the frustratingly slow Adobe Reader, are starting to get much more manageable, thanks to companies like Scribd and Docstoc, which make them embeddable, and Google, who has built its own web-based PDF viewer into Gmail and Google Docs.
Oct 7, 2009 View in Crawl 4
nyxerebosOct 8, 2009
Cool story bro.
zip000Oct 8, 2009
I really don't have a problem with pdfs as long as they are being used for what PDF should be used for. My HR department and IT department both use these annoying ass pdf forms with text fields that you can - kinda - fill in. They have obscure not well defined requirements for what can go in the fields, they don't tab in a reasonable order, then you have to print the forms and walk them over to the appropriate department because they don't allow you to save the content on most of the forms. All sorts of annoyances.Use PDF when you have a document that needs to be stable. If its a form on a website - use a f**king html form!/rant
mavmavvOct 8, 2009
Death to the un-informed more like it.
ryebryeOct 8, 2009
I wonder what tools they are using for their conversion? Perhaps the popular swftools project?If they are using oss tools, I hope that they play nice and help out whatever project it is they are using. They use iText (java pdf creation library) extensively in their google docs and other projects but haven't done anything to help that project out (even going so far as to reject a request from iText for some basic support)
peaceninjaOct 8, 2009
I will remain unimpressed until they give us the ability to edit pdf's through a browser.
falstaffOct 8, 2009
Must be some pre-loading going on, because Reader 9 opens near instantly on my work computer as well, but after such bad experiences with previous versions, I can't test it at home.
rpgmakrOct 8, 2009
Man, adobe reader is the worst piece of software that I've come across. Seriously, that s**t is a memory hog and unresponsive. Many "amateur" PDF readers are of better quality than that s**t, there should be a reasonable explanation, anyone?
methodoneOct 10, 2009
I prefer Sumatra on Windows and Okular on Linux. Both readers are not bloated.
rakeshgmathurApr 25, 2010
Death to PDFs?!? not sure what it truly means, PDFs are in use all over the place - from PDF forms in HR to legal contracts resume's artcles, manuals... etc etc etc. But probably 'YES' to death of Adobe Acobat or PDF readers!Many softwares & techniques are underway - some for Free some paid.However make no mistake, every OCR that extracts text from PDF does not necessarily convert to error free text all the time, often there are errors that you need to fix manually, probably fine if your document is just a few pages but if your document is large fixing errors could be pretty cumbersome.'Yes' Good news is online without downloading any software at all. Click <a class="user" href="http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com</a> upload your document, convert to doc rtf or txt formats online & then save. Plus you have the advantage of errors being fixed by site operators if you chose to.Pretty convinient to use this site when you are short of time, OR you have largish documents and you don't mind external operators help you or edit for you at cents 50 a page or so.BTW Free sites often do not have manual support nor online 'after sales service' of editorial staff.
rakeshgmathurApr 25, 2010
Death to PDFs?!? not sure what it truly means, PDFs are in use all over the place - from PDF forms in HR to legal contracts resume's artcles, manuals... etc etc etc. But probably 'YES' to death of Adobe Acobat or PDF readers!Many softwares & techniques are underway - some for Free some paid.However make no mistake, every OCR that extracts text from PDF does not necessarily convert to error free text all the time, often there are errors that you need to fix manually, probably fine if your document is just a few pages but if your document is large fixing errors could be pretty cumbersome.'Yes' Good news is online without downloading any software at all. Click <a class="user" href="http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com</a> upload your document, convert to doc rtf or txt formats online & then save. Plus you have the advantage of errors being fixed by site operators if you chose to.Pretty convinient to use this site when you are short of time, OR you have largish documents and you don't mind external operators help you or edit for you at cents 50 a page or so.BTW Free sites often do not have manual support nor online 'after sales service' of editorial staff, support being such a strong point.