Edit PDF's on Windows 7

[coffee]

I have a client that I replaced their computers from XP to 7pro. They had Adobe Acrobat Standard 7.0 on the old computers but they did not retain their registration information for it. I see now its up to version 11. They use it basically to convert files to pdf they tell me.

I tried booting up one of their old computers and looking for registration serial numbers and starting up the application on one of their computers seemed to show a serial number when it starts up - (xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx) However, In trying to do a test install on my windows VM it fails and says its not a valid registration code. It looks like they will have to buy 7 licenses for it. This is pretty darn expensive stuff at about 309.00 bucks a pop - 6 computers.

Is there any alternative to this? I am going to run magic jelly bean on one of their computers and see if it finds the registration code.

coffee

 

[Mainstay]

Just to make the pdf's or to edit them as well?

We put cutePDF on all systems that need to output PDF.

I also found that Nuance makes a cheaper PDF editor that works quite nicely.

 

[HFultzjr]

Not sure of any EULA on these, so proceed at your own risk.

If the old version works for their use, and they are legit, try and get them to install. If necessary, contact Adobe and get clarification on how to do it. It seems you need to de-activate the old one first. They will (should) be able to tell you the legal way to proceeed.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1362941?tstart=0



Use and alternative, as mentioned. Or, google "Adobe Acrobat" replacements. Check the reviews and most have a trial period to try first before you spend the bucks.

Personally, I've never had the need for one, so not much help for suggestions. I'm sure others will come along with suggestions.

As for me, If they are comfortable with the old version, I would try and get it to work. Legal way of course. Then how much for an upgrade?

 

[Calx]

Check out foxit

 

[coffee]

Thanks everyone.

Turns out they had one legit key and had it on about 6 computers. So, Told them I would not do it because its illegal.

I did use keygrabber and recovered their registration key and then got on the net and found Adobe Acrobat Standard 7 and put it on their server, Emailed the key to my contact. What they do is up to them.

Thank you for all the suggestions

coffee

 

[Markverhyden]

Yep, Foxit and cutePDF are two great options. The full Adobe product is overkill for many users.

 

[glricht]

If all they need is to create PDFs from a file, then Acrobat is probably overkill. Any of the print-to-PDF programs will work fine. We use PDFMachine http://pdfmachine.com/genp/overview.html (PDFMachine White is free).

 

[coffee]

Yep, Foxit and cutePDF are two great options. The full Adobe product is overkill for many users.

This is the deal after talking to the secretary a bit today:

they download forms from the local government (city) and then keep copies. These copies they use and edit to fill in information when they need to use one. They are a law firm.

Thanks for the reply Mark

coffee

 

[JustInspired]

For printing to PDF from any print-enabled application I use Bullzip Free.

For editing I like Nitro PDF as I find it handles a lot of the elements in weirder formatted documents that Foxit editor and others have issues with.

 

[Markverhyden]

Your welcome. In that case I might guess that the forms they get are the "fillable" ones created by Acrobat. See that all of the time with various forms I download. In those cases they can use Acrobat Reader to fill in the allowed fields. But if they need more then the paid versions will do the job. At any rate your left them on their own, as it should be in a case like this.

On occasion I may have a bunch of PDF work to do. But it's easy on my Mac. Just use Preview to fill in fields and paste in text. No muss, no fuss.

Did you happen to hint at the irony of a law firm violating a software EULA? I know I would have hard a hard time not saying anything.

 

[JustInspired]

Did you happen to hint at the irony of a law firm violating a software EULA?

LOL. Indeed!

 

[Moltuae]

For future reference, PDF24 Creator is a great free solution for editing and creating PDFs, especially if the main requirement is to rearrange/remove pages from an existing PDF file, or to merge pages of multiple PDF files.

http://en.pdf24.org/downloads.html


You can even customise it to add your company logo, etc I believe:
http://en.pdf24.org/designCreator.html

 

[NJW]

In those cases they can use Acrobat Reader to fill in the allowed fields.

No doubt it depends on how the form was created (e.g., permissions), but French govt forms, for example, can be filled in and printed from Adobe Reader, but not saved (with additions). Which is a pain for repeated use, where only some of the form fields need to be changed from last time – presumably what the OP's client wants to achieve.

This is pretty darn expensive stuff at about 309.00 bucks a pop - 6 computers.

Ask them how many billable hours that represents ...

Edit to add: They may only need one copy of Acrobat, to open the downloaded form, enable full user access and re-save locally. Not sure if v7 will be good enough, though.

 

[nlinecomputers]

This is the deal after talking to the secretary a bit today:

they download forms from the local government (city) and then keep copies. These copies they use and edit to fill in information when they need to use one. They are a law firm.

Thanks for the reply Mark

coffee

If that is the case then any free PDF READER will do the job. They are not creating PDFs just filling forms.

 

[nlinecomputers]

If you really need to edit them I use SodaPDF. $50 per license and can do just about all of what Adobe Acroboat does at $450.

 

[Metanis]

When I encountered this recently I used the free version of Belarc System Advisor on the old systems. Belarc can extract the Adobe license key info. Then I ran Adobe Pro on the old machines and de-activated the licenses. When it was time I installed Adobe on the new systems and used the existing keys to re-activate them. Also, Adobe has a utility to fix a key in case you get a message that it's not valid.

 

[acscva]

nlinecomputers,

Thanks for the tip on SodaPDF as I have been looking for a replacement for Nuance as I can't stand their marketing tactics to my customers and don't have a great reseller program.

 

[SAG]

What I have run across quite a bit in the past, is people that buy Adobe (or insert PDF "maker" here) just to convert a Word document to PDF,not realizing that their version of MS Office can do it natively.