There was a time, way back in the pre-digital stone age, that most information was stored on paper. These days physical documents are becoming more and more obsolete in favor of digital. The main reasons for this change are that digital files are easier to edit, share, and backup. PDFs are one of the most popular forms of digital file. Many businesses and organizations favor them because they are extremely portable.

What is a PDF? PDF is short for Public Document Format. PDF is a file format that was developed by Adobe is 1992 to be portable, as well as able to contain both text and images. Over the years it has become extremely popular primarily because of its portability. In one way or another the majority of us have had to deal with working with PDFs.

Have you ever needed to edit or sign a PDF? SwifDoo promises to do both of these things and more. Let’s check it out and see if it lives up to the promise. We are going to go over what SwifDoo PDF Editor is, some basics of how to use it, and my thoughts about the application.

What is SwifDoo PDF Editor?

SwifDoo is an all in one PDF tool. It is a PDF viewer, editor, and management software. They call themselves the “All-in-one free PDF software”. They do offer an impressive array of features. Here is a list of SwifDoo’s features, the system requirements to run it on your computer, and their pricing.

 

Features:

• Open PDF files
• Edit PDF files
• Create PDF files
• PDF file conversion
• Encrypt PDF files
• Compress PDF files
• Add watermarks to PDF files
• Share PDF files
• Print PDF files

 

System requirements:

• Windows XP or above
• 1 Ghz processor or above
• At least 150 MB of free drive space
• At least 1 GB RAM

 

Pricing:

• When you install SwifDoo you get a 30 day free trial. With the free trial you can use SwifDoo on one device. Though you get access to all of the program’s features, you do get limits on file size and number of pages. While you are in the trial period your PDF must be less than 20 MB and within 200 pages.
• With a monthly subscription you will pay $8.00 a month. It was $20.00 a month but at the time of this writing the price has been reduced. With this plan you get access to all of the program’s features. Though you can only use SwifDoo on one device at a time, you get unlimited device switches. You also get free upgrades and tech support.
• With the annual subscription you will pay $41.40 a year. The price was $69.00 a year and has been reduced. You get access to all of the program’s features. You can use SwifDoo on two devices at a time and get unlimited device switches. You also get free upgrades and tech support.

 

The monthly plan is perfect for someone that only needs to use SwifDoo on one device at a time. The yearly plan is great if you have two or more devices that you need to use it on. Keep in mind that the yearly plan does save you around $54.00 a year.

 

How to Get and Use SwifDoo PDF Editor

Now let’s get into the application itself. We’ll start with installation.

 

Download and Install SwifDoo PDF Editor

 

Download SwifDoo from their website.

 

 

 

Open the file that you just downloaded.

 

 

 

Agree to their Service Agreement and click “Install Now”.

 

 

 

Click “Start Now”.

 

 

 

The installation is pretty straight forward and doesn’t try to get you to install any other programs. When SwifDoo first starts it asks if you would like to sign up for an account to get more benefits like free support. I would highly advise you to go through the SwifDoo PDF User Guide that is included in the installation.

To take a closer look at this app we are going to go over the steps to edit and convert a PDFF.

 

Edit a PDF With SwifDoo

 

Click “Edit PDF”.

 

 

 

Navigate to the file that you want to edit and click “Open”.

 

 

 

Click “Edit”.

 

 

 

When you are done editing save your work.

 

 

 

Editing with SwifDoo is so easy that any user should be able to pick up on it pretty quickly. I was impressed with the editing features that I found like highlighting, inserting text on images, and file conversion. When editing you have a lot of options. I will go over the highlights of what you can do.

 

View

Just like Microsoft Word and a bunch of other Windows programs, this is where you adjust the view of the file that you are working on. It allows you to customize how you see the pages, how the page fits on the screen, rotate the PDF, change the theme of the interface, take snapshots, view the PDF as a slideshow, and tweak the interface.

 

 

 

Annotate

Here you can add notes to and highlight parts of your PDF. You can highlight (with a large selection of colors), insert text (including on images), underline words, strike-through words, add carets, add arrows, add lines, add shapes, write on the PDF, add notes, add stamps, and erase stuff that you want to remove.

 

 

 

Edit

You can do edits, white-out, insert images, add or edit links, crop, resize and change the orientation of the page, split the page, and work with OCR.

 

 

 

Convert

Either convert a PDF to other file types or other file types to PDF. I will get into the process a bit later in this article.

 

 

 

Page

From here you can rotate, delete, and insert pages.

 

 

 

Advanced

You can encrypt and decrypt your PDF, add a watermark, electronically sign your PDF, extract the table of contents, compress your PDF, and convert it to a scanned copy.

 

 

 

Share

Share your PDF via email, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

 

 

 

Help

Check for updates, provide feedback, edit shortcut keys, and access SwifDoo’s settings.

 

 

Convert a File With SwifDoo

You can choose to convert your PDF to either Word, Excel, PowerPoint, image, scanned copy, CAD, or HTML.

 

Click either “PDF to Word” or “PDF to Image”.

 

 

 

Choose the type of conversion that you would like to do.

 

 

 

Click the big PDF icon to choose the file that you want to convert.

 

 

 

Navigate to the file that you want to convert and click “Open”.

 

 

 

Fill in your preferences and click “Start”.

 

 

 

Click “Open” to open the converted file’s directory.

 

 

 

You will find that every page of your PDF, that you chose to convert, has been saved as the file type that you selected.

 

Learn more about how to use SwifDoo PDF Editor:

• Go through the SwiftDoo PDF User Guide that comes included with the program.
• Go to the SwifDoo PDF News Center page.
• Go to the SwifDoo PDF Blog.

My Thoughts on SwifDoo PDF Editor

 

Pros:

• A user guide that comes with the application
• An impressive array of features
• Ease of use
• Open PDF files
• Edit PDF files
• Create PDF files
• PDF file conversion
• Encrypt PDF files
• Compress PDF files
• Add watermarks to PDF files
• Share PDF files
• Print PDF files

 

Cons:

• Though the sharing options will cover what the majority of users need, it would be nice if there were more ways to share.
• To convert a PDF you either click “PDF to Word” or “PDF to Image”, then all of your conversion options will be presented. It might be clearer to the end user of what their options are if it was one button rather than two.

 

Ease of Installation and Use

Honestly, I couldn’t find any real cons except that It would be nice if there were even more options in sharing and the conversion buttons setup. But even those aren’t a big deal. If you want to upload your file to a different cloud service, just upload it there from your computer. If you want to share to someones mobile, do so from your device. On the conversion buttons, it won’t take users long to find the option that they are looking for.

 

Appearance

The appearance is modern and clean. The interface is laid out in such a way that it is easy to find what you are looking for. Just remember that there are more conversion options than you see at first glance on the home screen.

 

Features

SwifDoo is full featured. It’s features should meet the needs of the majority of users. I especially liked the ability to perform file conversion, encrypt a PDF, and even add a watermark. With these and the many other features SwifDoo has to offer, I believe it would be accurate to describe this application as solid.

 

Verdict

Is SwifDoo PDF Editor a good program? Yes it is. I would say it definitely delivers on the things that it promises to do. If you need the advanced features that SwifDoo offers, I have no problem recommending that you check it out. With a 30 day free trial you have nothing to lose.

Should you install SwifDoo? It boils down to what you need as a user. If you need to edit, sign, and perform other advanced tasks with PDFs, then it is a great program to check out. If all that you need is a basic PDF reader, then you can save some money by going with a free option like Foxit PDF Reader or save yourself from having to install anything at all by using your web browser to read PDFs.

Do you use SwifDoo PDF Editor? If not, what is your favorite PDF editor? Let me know down in the comments.