Nuance PDF Reader 7

Why would you install a different utility app to view Adobe PDF files than the one from Adobe itself? There are a couple of reasons: Maybe you don't want to endure Adobe's frequent updates or the long time it takes to install and load. Maybe you've heard about security issues with Adobe Reader. Besides Nuance, popular alternatives include Foxit Reader, and Nitro PDF Reader. Most of these companies, including Nuance and Adobe itself, hope that you'll love their reader software enough to purchase their PDF creation software. Nuance, mostly known for its voice recognition software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but it also offers PDF Converter ($49.99), for document creation.

Signup and Setup
In order to download the free software installer, you have to enter your name, country, and an email address. Only after receiving the confirmation email can you download the 31MB file. One unusual choice during the installation is whether you want to enable JavaScript or not. Enabling it opens you up to more security vulnerabilities, but if you don't, you won't get all PDF functionality, like forms and dropdown lists. You can then decide whether to set Nuance as your default PDF reader, and choose between US and International English.

You need to make sure your browser isn't running, or else the installer will pause without any notification of what's going on. One advantage of installing Nuance is that it doesn't try to install any other software alongside what you want?Adobe by default installs a version of McAfee security software when you install Reader, and Foxit installs a browser toolbar. Even without this, Adobe Reader takes quite a bit longer to install, and takes up far more space?about 115MB compared with Nuance's 52MB. But Foxit has both beat, with the smallest, quickest install process and only a 31MB memory footprint.

Interface
You can either view PDFs on your desktop in the program's own window, or within your browser's window. The program correctly displayed most typical PDFs, though a page using complex typesetting techniques showed some boxes instead of characters, whereas Adobe Reader flawlessly displayed the mock handwriting font on the test page. Along the top of the app's window are large clear buttons for opening a file, converting, printing, emailing, searching. I could move toolbars around easily, and one of these let me select text or images, or switch back to the panning hand tool. Another handy tool let me highlight, cross out, or underline text in my document. Along the bottom are helpful viewing buttons, including rotate, back and forward a page, zoom, and full screen.

At the left side of the main window is a "navigation panel" that normally displays ads for other Nuance products, and but I could change this to show Attachments, Bookmarks, Comments, or just close this panel. The Pages choice here showed thumbnails for each of my PDF document's pages, similar to Adobe Reader's default view.

One advantage of the competing Foxit Reader is its tabbed interface. Though Nuance PDF Reader will let you tile or cascade app windows, you don't get the modern convenience of Foxit's browser-like tabs for multiple PDF documents. In general, Foxit's interface feels more up-to-date, and sports less advertising.

Using Nuance PDF Reader
When opening a PDF from within a Web browser, Nuance PDF Reader's window was exactly the same, minus the standard program menus across the top?File, Edit, View, and so on. This wasn't a problem, though, as the buttons let me do everything I wanted with the PDF. The one exception here was the Convert option, absent in the browser version. When it comes to marking up documents, Foxit adds a bunch of shapes you can overlay to the highlight, cross-out, and underline of the Nuance reader.

The converting option requires processing on Nuance's Web service, and creates a Word, Excel, or WordPerfect version of the file you upload. It also needs a password, and its result is sent to an email address you specify. The recipient can download the file if he or she has your password. When I tested this by converting a 6MB PDF to Microsoft Word format, the 5.26MB result was mostly correct, though some text from images turned out garbled. Adobe has a similar service.

Another capability you get with Adobe Reader is the ability to digitally sign PDF documents. But the Nuance product can store your contacts' digital signatures so you can verify that a doc comes from them. Foxit can also verify digital signatures, but Adobe, the inventor of the technology, is the clear winner here, since it lets you create digital signature as well as just verify others'. Nuance PDF Reader told me that a sample signature was invalid.

Nuance PDF Reader lets you email documents using your default mail client from within the app, but Adobe Reader does this too, and offers its SendNow service for large files, but you'll have to pay a monthly fee (starting at $9.99) for files over 100MB. Foxit goes this one better, with Facebook and Twitter sharing built in.

Performance
One of the prime reasons people would want to substitute Adobe's official PDF viewer with one like Nuance's is speed, especially speed of just loading the reader software when opening a document in their browser. With the latest version of Adobe Reader X, my tests show that the creator of the format can respectably go head-to-head with the upstart competitors.

I tested by opening the same locally stored file from my hard drive within Firefox, with three different PDF readers?Nuance's, Foxit Reader, and Adobe Reader X. I tested both cold (after a reboot) and warm (after the reader had already been run) on a middling-powered laptop with a 2.53GHz dual core CPU and 3GB RAM. Here are my results for how long it took a simple 9.3MB PDF file to display:

Software	Cold PDF Load (seconds)	Warm PDF Load (seconds)
Adobe Reader X	8.2	2.0
Foxit Reader 5	7.8	1.8
Nuance PDF Reader 7	8.3	2.3

So, as you can see, with the latest version of Adobe Reader, the differences are no longer as stark as they used to be. And Nuance doesn't set itself apart on this speed measure, while Foxit does show a slight advantage.

The Nuances of PDFs
If you need a lighter-weight PDF reader than Adobe's bulky Reader software, you could do worse than Nuance Reader (Sumatra PDF Viewer comes to mind). Nuance PDF Reader's clear toolbars, highlighting, comments, support for digital signatures, and conversion to Office formats are all worthy capabilities. But Foxit is even smaller and quicker, and brings a bit more security, the interface nicety of tabs, more markup options, and a more modern-looking interface. Neither of these substitutes, however, offers the full range of PDF capabilities supported by Adobe Reader X, though either would serve the vast majority of users' needs.

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