Free PDF Conversion Software Until February 5

PDFZilla is a Windows application that converts PDF files into Word documents, HTML files, JPG images and a variety of other formats.  The program usually costs $29.95, but you can now get it for a grand total of $0, which we like. Our techie guru found this great offer, and we figured we would share it our colleagues who have been looking for an affordable PDF conversion tool. We downloaded it in less than a minute. 
To get started, go to the PDFZilla websiteThe program is free until February 5th, so you only have a few days to get the download.  It runs on Windows 2000 and more recent versions. At 6 MB, it is quite small. 

When you go to the website, you will be shown a registration code. Be sure to write it down (or copy it) before you begin the installation process.  Then, once installed (execute the program as administrator if you run on Vista or Windows 7), click the "Register" button and type (or paste) your code.  Your software will be fully licensed and ready to use. 


14 comments:

Silvia on January 27, 2011 at 11:30 AM said...

Thank you very much. I downloaded it.
Silvia

Rachel on January 27, 2011 at 12:21 PM said...

Thanks for the heads up! I have a nice PDF converter, but I always like to try out alternatives. And these kinds of deals don't come around every day!

Paula on January 29, 2011 at 7:27 AM said...

Thanks! I've been looking for a replacement for my current conversion software. Hopefully, PDFzilla will work even better.

Paula on January 29, 2011 at 7:28 AM said...

Thanks! I've been looking for a replacement for my conversion software. Haven't tried it yet, but the other -zilla software I've used is great!

Transpanish on January 30, 2011 at 9:44 AM said...

Great info! I am using Abby Fine Reader but I will git it a try.

Sophie on January 30, 2011 at 11:34 AM said...

Thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

Only problem is it messes up the UFT-8 conversion 6 times out of 10 so...

Best solution I ever found is the pdftotext command (Linux and OSX) and Acrobat X Pro (249 €) :( for Windows users

Kevin Lossner on February 1, 2011 at 2:32 PM said...

Try to use PDFZilla on an image PDF and you'll quickly see that it has no OCR function. I tried it on a PDF report and saw that every line had a line break. Really... we can copy straight out of Acrobat Reader and get better results.

How's that old song go? "You can tell it to the birds and the bees!" ;-)

For dealing with the full range of PDF files we as translators encounter, there is no getting around making a real investment in good commercial software like Omnipage or FineReader.

Judy Jenner and Dagmar Jenner on February 1, 2011 at 9:53 PM said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

@Transpanish: This tool is definitely not superior to Abby. If you have Abby; you are using one of the best tools out there.

@Anonymous: thanks for sharing the issue about UTF-8 conversion.

@Kevin: we hadn't tried an image, just a regular PDF. And yes, of course, some things are worth paying for -- like ABBY. ;)Agreed that you really need to make a solid investment (we bit the bullet and purchased ABBY), but this might be useful for those translators who rarely encounter complex PDF situations (lucky folks).

Paula said...

I have to agree with Kevin - sadly this software is not an improvement on the converter I already have. I guess to get something really good you do have to shell out a bit of cash...
Still, in an emergency something is better than nothing!

Kevin Lossner on February 2, 2011 at 1:54 PM said...

Judy, unfortunately image PDFs are all too common. I'd say about half the PDFs that get sent to me for translation are scans with no directly extractable text.

I once had the bright idea of putting together a little "sample set" of PDFs to use in evaluating tools like this, but unfortunately my exposure to some of the more advanced PDF variants through press translations for the PDF support organizations got my mind of on a much-too-complicated track and I put it off because I couldn't get the PDF/A samples I wanted. But this makes me think the idea should be revived.

POS Software on August 26, 2011 at 11:30 PM said...

Two thumbs up for this post, I have downloaded it. And it works. Thanks!

turkish translation services on October 21, 2011 at 10:57 PM said...

this is amazing. I try it. thanks

humberto on January 8, 2012 at 9:08 AM said...

There is another free one: http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf/

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