PDF or Portable Document Format is one of the most widely used document formats. It is mostly used for creating read-only documents, such as scanned contents, books, forms, tickets, and invoices. It is also one of the most widely supported formats. Most devices and browser support opening PDF files. In many office printers, PDF is the only document format that is supported for direct printing. PDF files can store the layout of text and graphics very efficiently. They can compress images for smaller sizes, or also store lossless images for high-quality prints. PDF is one of the most versatile document formats that are available. However, PDF is not easily editable with conventional word processing software. The latest version of Microsoft Office comes with support for editing PDF in Word, but then again, the document is converted into a Word document first and the conversion may cause changes in the text or layout. Editing PDF is easier in Adobe’s own Acrobat Pro DC, but that program comes with a subscription model, is generally quite slow and can be difficult to use for many. This is where most third-party PDF editors and readers excel – by being simple and lightweight. Among the many that are available, Wondershare PDFelement is truly the new king of the hill, especially with the latest updates and the redesigned interface. In this review, we will not only describe the program but also compare it with the popular program from the creator of the PDF format – Adobe Acrobat DC.
WonderShare PDFelement Editions
PDFelement 6 has two editions – standard and Professional. The Professional edition comes with automatic form recognition, OCD, Bates numbering, form data extraction, PDF file batch processing, scanning to PDF files, support for PDF/A, file size optimization and more. The Standard edition just comes with all the tools that are needed to edit an existing PDF file. However, when it comes to creating a PDF file from scratch or optimizing it, then the Professional edition is a better choice.
Download and Installation
Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional can be directly downloaded from the official website. An online installer downloads and installs the product. After installation, it can be activated with the license key. This is a much simpler alternative to installing Adobe Acrobat DC that uses a cloud-based subscription model. Moreover, you need to install a desktop client that will download and install Acrobat DC for you. This makes Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional much easier to get started with. Moreover, the requirements of Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional is quite minimal. It works on Windows XP and higher, including the newest version of Windows 10. It takes only 512MB RAM and can run even on a 1GHz processor.
Interface and Ease of Use
When it comes to UI, Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional is the clear winner. It sports a modern UI that is visible all across Windows 10. It uses a familiar ribbon UI for the menus that are present in the newer versions of Microsoft Office.
When you open the program, you will be pleased with the flat and clean UI. You will have the option to open a recent file, edit a PDF, create, convert or combine PDFs. Moreover, you can batch process files or use PDF templates to create a new file. All the options are neatly organized in the form of tabs. The ribbon UI keeps the menu uncluttered. From the menu, you can make changes to the text, the graphics, add comments, change view settings, add attachments, perform OCR and more. You can also pin or unpin the ribbon if you want. The entire UI feels very similar to that of Office 2017 and later. The design and the user experience feel like Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional is a native Windows 10 program.
Notable Features
Besides being extremely easy to use, Wondershare PDFelement 6 Professional also comes with a plethora of features that are not present in most other PDF editors. Besides the ability to edit text, PDFelement can also be used to edit graphical content within the program itself. You can transform, scale, reflect or crop the image right in the document itself. You can add, remove or reorder pages, make the link between pages, watermark pages and more.
PDFelement also comes with annotation tools that allow you to draw or highlight right on the document. With support for PDF forms, you can directly fill out forms or sign them using PDFelement. You can also stamp and comment on them.
Managing PDFs is also quite easy. You can compress them in batches, merge files to form PDFs, protect PDFs with a password, extract images, add files as attachments or print PDFs using advanced options – all are provided in the package.
With version 6, PDF form recognition is improved drastically, with the ability to covert forms into spreadsheets. With PDFelement, you can batch extract information from similar forms into a single CSV file.
Who is it for?
So, should you get Wondershare PDFelement 6? If you are a freelancer, or you are part of a small or medium-sized business where you need to handle a lot of PDF files on a daily basis, then you should invest in PDFelement 6. Even for regular users, this is a great program to have. Not only is this lighter on system resources, but it is also much easier to use. One of the biggest advantages of Wondershare PDFelement 6 is the pricing. It is available both as a one-time payment or based on quotations. Most users will go for the one-time payment option. At less than 60 USD, you get a one-year license. Not only is this much cheaper than Adobe’s solution, but you get a program with a better interface, complete functionality and compatibility, and minus the frills.
