It can be frustrating to receive an important electronic document only to discover that you do not have the appropriate software to open it.

This is a problem if the type of file is unusual or, sometimes, if files are being sent between a PCs and Macs.

Perfect PDF Creator can get around the problem by allowing users to save any document as a PDF file that can be opened by any computer on which the free Acrobat Reader program is installed.

Once the software is installed, converting a document to PDF is a simple matter of taking the usual steps to print the document. Select the Perfect PDF Creator option in the print options of whichever program you are working in and click on Print. This opens the PDF Creator software and creates a PDF version of the document which should look identical to the original. It installs as a printer in Windows so it can be used with any Windows program that is able to print.

The user is then given the option to save the document or to edit it - a wide selection of effective editing tools are available. For instance it is possible to edit the text of documents or to insert images and watermarks. We were impressed to find that we could edit a complex web page whilst maintaining the native fonts and layout with which it had originally been designed.

PDF Creator offers a variety of ways to enhance a document such as adding pop-up annotations. Documents can also be encrypted and password-protected. You can specify a password for both viewing and editing and even prevent readers copying and pasting content. The program also allows forms to be inserted into the document so that information can be submitted over the internet.

The program is equally useful for extracting information from downloaded or emailed PDFs - it can convert them into text documents or save all the images they contain, for instance. Perfect PDF Creator not only eliminates the problem of compatibility when sharing documents, it also offers a powerful way to manipulate this flexible format.

Vista compatible: Yes