PDFelement Reviews

I use PDFelement daily - to open, covert, edit, OCR, combine etc. files and love it. When you have the paid version, you can do almost everything you need to work with various document types. I like the insert/extract page feature. It helps me during my day-to-day job. When I need to translate a pdf document, first, I try to convert it to word, then start the translation process. In 7 out of 10 times, it really helps.

I do not like that I cannot purchase the software license - I can purchase a subscription only. The software has a lot of updates and due to that, it sometimes crashes if the update is bad or needs improvements.

The interface is a slick as it gets. Very intuitive and clean. I can hardly believe it is so pleasurable to use. Good software community forums will almost always find an answer to any questions you may have. Support was within usual norms. I did not try calling support - just email.

Lacking in really good documentation. You will need to set up your own previewer for Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Explorer. While there is a solution to this, they refuse to acknowledge it, and removed it from their blog (marked as spam) because it mentions a competitors product. When the inquiry was sent to their email support, they did not recommend the solution either just saying it is not supported. I had to find it on my own. Initially, I had removed my Adobe and had to reinstall it and make a tweak to the settings so that I could view PDF's from within those programs. I'm not sure what to do with those html files. I guess you have to put them on a server and link to them but it doesn't really tell you.

Interface is relatively straightforward and easy to use.

Stability problems dealing with larger pdfs, started getting worse when version 7 launched and the developer decided they needed more revenue. We will probably not be buying the upgrade.

Affordable options for either subscription or license. Compatible with Mac. Professional options for more advanced editing of documents. Team options and ability to purchase for 20+ users.

There is a small learning curve if you are used to using Adobe Acrobat for so long. But it is a very small curve. No notable cons.

Without being inundated with useless features, PDFelement provides exactly what I need; a quick download with every feature and function I need to customize sales collateral, on the fly, for various industries.

I have yet to encounter something I don’t like

PDFelement allows you to insert text and image you want without the hassle. It has also a very simple yet user friendly interface, which allows you to easily navigate the entire software. The price is also competitive, given the functionalities it has which is at par with some of the leading PDF editor software in the market.

There are times however that the software crashes especially when the file size is large. This prompts the user to restart all over again due to the technical error, although this is an isolated case only.

Hi Ivan. Thanks for sharing your experience and we appreciate your recognition of its function and interface. Regarding the crash issue when you are processing large files, please update to the latest version to check if it helps. If not, you may drop an email with more details at customer_service@wondershare.com. We'll put your case in the 1st priority and do the needful assistance for you ASAP. It is our ultimate pursuit that users can use our software happily! So we hope there would be a chance for us to further look into your issue and fix it, thanks again!

Easy to use. Powerful editing feature with almost any fonts. Annotations such as underlining, highlighting, arrows are great. Converting to Excel or MS Word will often give excellent result, especially when the PDF originated from MS Office.

It is not almighty: some PDF from scanned documents cannot be properly processed by OCR. Some documents from infographics software result in badly constructed PDF and cannot be edited. Some PDF tables are too complex to be converted properly to Excel. Perpetual license entitles you to keep your version, but does not entitle you to major upgrades.

This is a great piece of software that is an awesome substitution for Adobe Acrobat. It works well and the compression is nice, but it is not that lossless. It works, but it does downscale some graphics.

The licensing model really needs to be improved. There is a charge for every upgrade, although at the time of purchase, nothing like this was mentioned. Being that there are lots of licenses that were involved, this upgrade fee would be quite expensive.

The product gives me almost everything I need to convert content from our organization's magazine to text for use on our web site. The interface is simple and direct, and I use it daily.

Because I am converting from a magazine layout, I sometimes have to cut and paste a great deal to get the text into the correct order. The software doesn't recognize the breaks that occur when text is wrapped around graphics in a magazine layout.

PDFelement is a good PDF editor and reader, with many helpful features that anyone can use easily.

This software is not as good as Adobe, the quality of the OCR results is not high enough and you must have a good scanned document to use the OCR, and converting to word or excel doesn't give high results.

PDFelement provides the best ability to create fillable forms that I have found. I use it all the time to facilitate data entry and collection.

I feel the learning curve could be a bit less steep.

Thank you so much for your amazing feedback! :) We do try our best to offer the best support we can, then try improve on it more. Let us know if you need any help! We are here for you.

Our office loves the fact we can really trust on the OCR tool. We then sign the documents and keep all the text saved in a external server for AI processing.

This is a great software that works well in different platforms that I am unable to cite no issue.

Hi Helia. Thanks for sharing your high recognition of the OCR tool and other features. It really encourages us a lot!

PDFelement's value for money has been a large pro for me. Moreover, it does provide all the needed functionalities and goes beyond other PDF readers. I particuarly get frustrated when some readers mess up the original documents and provide no way to edit. Yet, PDFelement just does the work. Some features like digital signatures, watermarking, covering photos into PDF and etc. are really nice as often not available in free software.

I often find those services frustrating because of poor customer services. However, PDFelement's customer services are good and rapid. Of course, you don't meet always what you want due to several reasons, but they still try to solve. Hence, so far I don't have any problem with it.

Thank you so much for your amazing feedback! :) We do try our best to offer the best support we can, then try improve on it more. Let us know if you need any help! We are here for you.

Intuitive user interface and no learning curve if your familiar with Adobe Acrobat. PDF editing feature is easier that that of Adobe Acrobat. The mobile application is not as heavy as Abobe's, loading faster.

The signature feature is not as sophisticated and advanced as the competition. PDFElement is still highly priced and their free applications that can provide most of the features even if they are not all features.

Hi Christian. Thanks for your comprehensive review regarding PDFelement. If it is possible, would you please provide us with some similar examples showing the signature feature you want to achieve or customize? You may drop an email with more details at customer_service@wondershare.com, then our product team can improve it in a more targeted manner. Thanks a lot for your time and patience!

Everything that I look for in Acrobat without the ridiculous price or rental fees. It's fast and efficient and well thought out. Some of the layout could use tweaking but everything takes time and I'm very satisfied with how it works.

There are a couple glitches that can be frustrating. Although the software is updated regularly, upon each update/upgrade it loses its file association to PDFs. When printing from an application to PDF, very often if PDF Element is not open the print does not complete although the application does open. Obviously you can print a second time, but it is something to take note of. I keep a desktop folder of PDF files that gets updated daily and when using PDF Element is opened it defaults only to the desktop and not the same folder. There doesn't appear to be a setting for this default. And the biggest con for me that is the most annoying is that it does not support WIA or TWAIN and you cannot scan directly into the application to PDF like you would normally do with Acrobat.

Hey Brian, Glad to hear that you had an easy transition! Thank you for your detailed notes on printing PDFs. I've reported it to the developers who will take a look. Best, Rebecca

I used to be an avid Adobe Acrobat fan, however I started to use the free version of PDF Element to try and get at features which were not available on Adobe. I enjoyed the product so much that I purchased PDF Element 6 Pro and have been very pleased with its performance and capability. It has taken a bit of effrort to get used to working PDF Element 6 Pro, but I am pleased that I persevered with it, as its functionality is hands down better than Adobe who seem to have lost its way. As time progresses, the team at PDF Element have improved the functionality even more, and it is a joy to use. I have recommended this product to others whom now also enjoy its benefits.

Difficult to navigate around initially but gradually getting used to where controls are at. This only arose as a result of being such a long time user of Adobe, but today, I am finding it easier to navigate my way around this application. It has been worth while learning to use this application properly.

PDFelement is very easy to use. I can combine numerous documents and submit these under one category when submitting supporting documents with loan applications. Another positive is being able to rearrange / delete pages. This is especially helpful when sorting pages of a scanned document that was printed on both sides.

I haven't found too many 'cons', it does all I need it to do.

I love PDFelement, I use it on both Mac and Windows, it has a very nice design and is easy to use, its functions are interesting, you can even add our signature to a document!

The only thing I can talk about here is that I would like to have an "eraser" tool, so that we can remove any highlights that we have made with the program.

This software is a great alternative for anyone that is looking to function with .pdf files. The Adobe suite keeps creaping up in price and this software works very well as a functional alternative!

I haven't found any items that I dislike. So far it has been working great.

Thank you so much for your amazing feedback! :) We do try our best to offer the best support we can, then try improve on it more. Let us know if you need any help! We are here for you.

I do like being able to edit my PDF, I happy that you added the Signature Feature. Another good feature is being able to convert to more than just Word.

I feel the prior version has less bugs than the new version and I wish I had made note of them all. Trouble locating the new options in the edit menus i.e. "Signature" is under "more" in "Comments" not quite intuitive and the program crashes a lot. Still not able to effectively manage fonts because I can pick on font and get something completely different when it prints or after saving.

PDFelement has definitely surpassed other well-known PDF readers for me. It has more possibilities within its feature. Digital signatures, watermarking, conversion of text photos into PDF and other more features that is not available in other software. It looks cleaner as well, making reading PDFs easy for the eyes.

There are a few glitches which are annoying, like how it would suddenly crash. And it is a little expensive for personal use, although pdf reading is free, other features can be used upon sign up.

PDFelement is serving many of our document management needs such as getting documents signed by our clients electronically. Our branding has improved because of integrating PDFelement as part of our doument management.

This software still needs to work on image recognition capabilities as there is ample room for improvement. Once we upload an invoice (say in jpg format), we expect the software to convert the same into text format with better accuracy.

Cost is the primary reason for using PDF element, versus other options. It does reasonably well at combining & editing files.

It is still somewhat buggy, and does not always work intuitively. The most annoying bug is that despite setting the default text size & color, it will not automatically use that default. I prefer a red color font for adding text. However, it always wants to use black, forcing me to edit the color afterwards.

Easy to use. protect document for email sharing

difficult to re-install on new devices. key do not work readily.

thanks for your support and distinguished feedback. I will record and forward it to the relevant department and update this as a customized option. Any further problems or concerns please don't hesitate to submit a ticket to http://support.wondershare.com/#/contact. The customer care team will email you a solution within 24 hours.

Better user experience than most of the other PDF software I've used. One-click access to the stuff I use the most often, with clear menu options (nomenclature makes sense) and options where I expect to find them. Super-solid at enabling form fill.

A little slow to load and opening some PDFs takes a second or two longer than some other competitors. Not a big deal, but probably worth knowing if you're opening a lot of PDFs every day.