My favorite free PDF converter is NONE of them. Actual Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro can be had surprisingly inexpensively. As we’ve written about before, you can go to eBay and buy a full copy of Acrobat 6 very inexpensively (anywhere from $30-$70) – that will entitle you to upgrade to 9 Pro from the Acrobat upgrade page for only $160.bu Another way also gets you a great scanner – Acrobat 9 Standard is bundled with Fujitsu’s popular ScanJet S510 which you can get for between $300 and $400 depending on available rebates and online discount codes (and then you can upgrade to 9 Pro, again for $160). Or with Fujitsu’s Mac ScanSnap S510M, you actually get Acrobat Pro 9 for OS X. There are few better software deals than inexpensively acquired Acrobat 9 Pro on the planet. Why?

• Security
• Security
• Did I mention security – you should secure all PDFs you create that are text-based to prevent recipients from altering or lifting your text and using it for God only knows what purpose
• Commenting and markup including stamping your signature, digital signatures, etc.
• PDF packing – think of it as the “electronic three ring binder” function – unbelievably useful
• PDF Optimizer to crunch down really big PDFs
• Bookmarking – invaluable, I use it EVERY day
• Bates stamping – tremendously flexible
• Headers and footers
• Secure redaction (to prevent nitwitted black highlighting from being revealed)
• Organizer – one click leads to addiction
• Fill-in form creation
• The Typewriter function (jaw-droppingly useful)
• Full-screen slideshow mode
• Creating searchable PDFs from scanned image PDFs (one at a time or in batches)
• Web page capture
• 
  

  And the piece de la r

  
  

  ésistance, Acrobat integration with MS Office components and ESPECIALLY the integration with Outlook for saving entire mail folders with all their contents including attachments in a wonderfully organized, hyperlink bookmarked, searchable PDF file.

Have I been drinking the Acrobat Kool-Aid – you bet and it deserves to be lauded – most people SERIOUSLY underuse it. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to offer my Legal Acrobat training class as a webinar soon (just let me know).

It just seems that if you want to penny-pinch, it might be better to do it on something else.

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