In this review we will take a look at SwifDoo PDF, an all-in-one software for creating, editing, signing, converting PDF files and much more! Let’s find out in more detail
PDF files are among the most common and are used a lot for exchanging documents, presentations and other content in digital format. The Portable Document Format was created in 1993 by Adobe, almost 30 years ago, and today it is a full-fledged ISO standard. Thanks to standardization, PDF has reached an enormous diffusion in the world and is used practically every time it is necessary to exchange digital documents. The PDF file can contain text, images, hyperlinks and even video, audio and other multimedia content.
As you well know there are plenty of free applications to open and read PDF files, however if you make it need to change its content, convert it to another format or simply sign the document digitally it must be done with specialized software. This is exactly what SwifDoo PDF, the protagonist of our review, takes care of. Here’s what we can say after trying it.
Graphic interface | SwifDoo PDF Review
Let’s start with the graphical interface of the software. At first glance we can be very satisfied. SwifDoo incorporates the style of modern Microsoft office software, so you won’t be blown away when you go to use it. Above we find the bar with the tabs of the various features and just below the corresponding toolbar that change according to the selected tab. In a bar on the left side we have quick access to bookmarks, notes, search, etc.
Everything you need is displayed on the toolbars, so you don’t have to navigate the menus. Symbols sometimes don’t speak well, but there are subtitles and text descriptions – just hover the mouse pointer over the symbol. The most advanced tools, such as conversion tools open a pop-up window where you can customize the settings. Overall the software is well organized and after some practice everything will become immediate. But even for occasional use, you won’t waste too much time.
However, we have some critical points of SwifDoo to report. There are some small bugs that make it a bit annoying to use. An example is when you select an instrument and then switch to another: the software does not allow you to do this directly. You have to close the current tool with the appropriate button and switch to the other one. A useless waste of time that is easily avoidable. There are also some graphic gaps that make the use less intuitive. For example, when we insert an image we do not see any preview or indication, we only see the standard mouse cursor. The image will appear only after one click. Even if they switch to a minimized window there are some problems: the bar with the functionality tabs disappears.
Functionality | SwifDoo PDF Review
Surely the strong point of this application are the features it offers. It is a very wide range that ranges from viewing to editing, passing through conversions. Obviously we cannot detail everything that can be done with SwifDoo, however we will try to make a quick overview of the main features, highlighting strengths and weaknesses below:
Visualization
The visualization tools are the classics that we find in the most popular software. You can choose zooming, how to arrange the pages of the document and even a dark theme (not very effective). Some useful tools are split-screen to place side by side two documents to be compared and the tool to capture screenshot integrated.
Edit
The most interesting features are found under this heading. It can easily edit text, add images but also notes, underlines, arrows, links and so on. Really a set of useful tools to review the document or to take notes. Unfortunately the freehand drawing tool doesn’t work very well with the pen, a shame! You can also reorganize the document by separating it into sub-pages or convert it via OCR.
Conversion
Conversion tools are also really powerful. It can convert PDF file to any of various office file formats such as Word, Excel, PPT. But also other formats useful to the most geeks such as HTML, TXT or CAD. Of course, you can also do the reverse. We have not encountered any problems, apart from the conversion time a little too long even for small files.
Page
Under the “Page” tab of SwifDoo we find a series of specific tools for change the layout of the pages: we can merge, divide, insert or replace pages from different documents. Also you can change the format. You can also change the title pages, the footnotes, the number of pages. You can also rotate pages, here is a guide on how to rotate a PDF. Also in this case we complain of a limited reactivity.
Advanced
Finally, in the last tab we find a series of advanced and heterogeneous tools. It will be possible here encrypt the document and protect it with a password or add a watermark. But perhaps the most useful function is the one for create a digital signature (can be done by hand or upload a file). We also find tools for PDF compression.
Conclusions
So, let’s take stock of SwifDoo. It is a good software to manage PDF files. Net of some bugs and limitations, we can be satisfied. In fact, this software has a very low cost compared to many competitors. Let’s talk about 8 euros per month or 40 euros per year. A more than decent price. We can recommend the use of SwifDoo to all those who do not want to spend about 4-5 times more and are willing to accept a few small bugs. That’s all from the software section, keep following us!
Good, but it can be improved
Points in favor
- Intuitive graphical interface
- Lots of tools
- Price
Points against
- Some bugs to fix
- A little slow at times