PDF Annotator for $20

[vbclown]

I don't have any association with these guys, other than I use PDF Annotator happily on my tablet.

I received this e-mail from them today:

24h SALE: GET 60% OFF ON PDF ANNOTATOR!





This Thursday, we will have a 24 hours sale with our partner


BitsDuJour. If you don't know BitsDuJour, they offer one


great software deal a day. It's Bits (anything digital) of the Day.


Every weekday, they feature one program or service at a substantial


discount.





And on August 9, they will feature PDF Annotator at a


discounted price of $19.90! So tell your friends or grab a license


for yourself!





About PDF Annotator: PDF Annotator lets the user open any PDF file


and add annotations, using the keyboard, mouse or a Tablet PC pen,


directly on the PDF file's pages. The annotated documents can then


be saved directly back to PDF format.





Bits du Jour</font>

If you want a program that lets you mark up PDF's with your pen and then save the results as a PDF (i.e. sign PDF docs, etc...) then this might be a good deal for you.

[tableteer]

I would like to get some feedback on the advantages of using PDF Annotator as opposed to printing to OneNote, and marking up a document, and exporting it as a pdf.

I have downloaded the free trial and, time permitting, will play with it today. Any input on the benefits of PDF Annotator over OneNote will be greatly appreciated.

[K0LO]

Don't get me wrong; I love OneNote and use it daily, but importing pdf files is not one of its strong points. OneNote 2007 will import a multi-page pdf document as one long page instead of breaking it up into separate pages. Also, the resolution of the imported document suffers; it just doesn't look as crisp as the original. So those are disadvantages of using OneNote for this function.

Documents appear with somewhat better resolution in PDF Annotator. There are some compromises with the pdf rendering engine used. The best document quality is achieved with Adobe's pdf reader or the full version of Acrobat. However, inking on pdf documents with Adobe Acrobat's pen tool is absolutely horrible. PDF Annotator does the best job with this.

There are some things that I don't like about PDF Annotator, but they are minor. I'm going to break down and purchase a copy today at the sale price.

[FilmSlate]

First _ thanks for posting the bits du jour sale!

Tableteer, As Kolo Mentioned, One Note will not retain the look of the original document through the process. If all you need to do is mark up a document for your own viewing, One Note will do just fine. But if you have to print or send your document to anyone else you will have an altered form of the document. If you've never tried printing a marked up file from One Note, or saved from One Note to pdf, do a test print. You'll see exactly what we're talking about.

[K0LO]

I'm going to break down and purchase a copy today at the sale price.

I'm glad that I did. The program has improved a lot since I last tried it out a year ago. Now if only Oliver Grahl would change the "Fullscreen" view function to allow a choice of 'Fit to width' or 'Fit to height' (currently it only does 'Fit to height' and this does not work well when projecting a portrait format document onto an LCD projection screen), then he'd have a real winner of a program!

[Big Wes]

Hey Mark:

You should try emailing Oliver with your feature request. I suggested that he implement the "lasso" selection method, and he was very receptive to my request. I would like to see a fit to width option also!

Wes

[K0LO]

Wes:

Right on. I did that last year and he was receptive to the idea but couldn't promise when he'd get to it.

He even told me an amusing story about attending a weeklong session at Microsoft for tablet PC developers. The presenter was using a portrait-mode tablet and projecting the image on a landscape-mode screen and the image was sideways. The presenter asked the audience to turn their heads 90 degrees to see the screen!

Landscape presentation to fit existing screens is the forgotten stepchild of tablet PC apps...

[tableteer]

Thanks for the feedback. I have made my purchase. I know I won't regret it.

[K0LO]

I should have read the manual more before posting criticisms. [img]smileys/smiley18.gif[/img]

If you start with a landscape-format document, then when viewed in fullscreen mode it does indeed 'Fit to width'. You can specify landscape from the "New" menu or open an existing landscape-mode pdf file.

For a portrait-mode pdf, like a Word document saved in pdf format, you can choose 'Fit to width' in fullscreen display mode by pressing [Ctrl+0]. So this is an improvement.

Just one small problem for tablet PC users -- if you have your tablet in slate mode then you can't type a [Ctrl+0]!

But a workaround is to tap the text tool button on the Full Screen menu and tap the screen with your pen. This will bring up a text entry field and the TIP icon. Tap the TIP icon and type a [Ctrl+0] and voila!

Edited by: K0LO

[sierra]

Another thanks for posting this sale yesterday. I didn't get a chance to try it yet, but based on reviews and my upcoming PDF annotation needs, I went ahead and got a copy. For $20, I think it will be well worth it!