Over 330 million people worldwide make use of PDF documents on a day-to-day basis. PDFs have emerged as the backbone of modern corporate work operations, especially with the rise of the remote work culture.
They’re easy to use, store, and work with. However, you need to be using the correct platform to process them. Many PDF software are rigid to use and rely on third parties for basic operations.
Pick a PDF software that processes PDFs without putting a strain on your system. Let’s take a look at some of the essential features to consider when choosing a PDF software.
Portable Document Format (PDF), as the name suggests, is a digital document format that contains information that can be processed, secured, and shared with ease electronically. It has emerged as one of the most prominent cornerstones in the digital workspace of today.
Any and all corporate operations require extensive use of PDFs being created, edited, and shared across platforms. As a business in the digital era, you’ll need to make use of PDFs on a day-to-day basis.
For that, you need a PDF software that is easy to use and offers features that suit the nature and scope of your business operations. We’ve come up with the most essential features to consider when choosing a PDF software. Take a look.
The first and most important feature you need to be looking at in your PDF software is if it offers conversion of the PDF document into various other formats such as word, such as Word, Excel, PPT, JPG, etc.
This is because PDF files are notorious for being rigid to editing and flexible usage. Businesses often need to rely on external tools to extract the optimal usage out of PDF files. Using a software that allows conversion on the go eases the workflow.
You can easily convert PDF to Word with Smallpdf’s tool and the word document back to PDF to suit the usage of the document. It makes sharing and processing the document on various platforms easier as you can change it depending on what’s accepted on the platform.
PDF software are everyday tools that ease the workflow of operations in an office. They don’t need to be complicated tools that require a learning curve for employees to use. A PDF software should be easy to use so that everyone can make the most of it.
A user should be able to edit documents and scan them with ease. Look for the OCR feature, i.e., Optical Character Recognition as it turns images into text by recognizing the text in the image. This helps turn PDFs into editable documents that can be processed on the go.
Other than that, see that the software solution offers templates that can be used to speed up your work process. When you have templates ready to choose from, you don’t have to create documents from scratch or spend time on aspects such as design and layout.
PDF software solutions are usually available as SaaS products, meaning you will have to purchase them on a monthly or yearly subscription basis. As it's a tool that companies use every day, they often opt for lifetime subscriptions as well.
The price and licensing of the PDF software play a major role in your buying decision. There are PDF software that are available for free and offer basic and sometimes great functionality. While others offer a plethora of exclusive features for a higher price.
The solution you choose depends on your budget and the usage you need out of the tool. List out your needs and the budget you can allocate to make the final decision. If the solution offers a free trial, take the opportunity to assess whether the tool will be compatible with your work structure or not.
Another important feature to consider when choosing a PDF software is its compatibility with third-party platforms. A PDF software will have to collaborate with other platforms for various tasks. For example, allowing multiple participants on a document.
Similarly, a PDF document should be able to be accessed from various platforms with ease. The software should provide the flexibility to allow PDF documents to be used by multiple parties at the same time.
Around half of the web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Everyone from your employees to your associates are likely to be using a mobile device to access and work on the PDFs. So, it becomes important to check your software solution for mobile usability.
Your PDFs need to be editable on the go. This means that a user should be to work on them the same way from their mobile device as they would from a desktop. This puts a special focus on the readability and adjusting of the margins.
Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have smaller screens, so the software should be able to adjust the document’s dimensions without compromising the readability of the text. If the document has been compressed, its quality should not get affected when opened on a smaller screen.
One of the major reasons PDFs have become the go-to format in corporate spaces is the security they offer. Not everyone can access or edit them. They can be easily shared across the world without compromising the content inside them.
The PDF software you choose needs to offer top-notch security to protect the confidential information in your documents. Look for features such as password protection that helps you restrict who can access a document.
There are unique permissions that allow you to choose who can read or edit a document. Advanced security features allow you to restrict or revoke access after a document has been shared with a user so that they can have no further access to it.
While PDF software are inherently easy software solutions to use, your provider still needs to make sure that you can make use of it to its full potential. See that the software provider equips you with tutorials and guides on how to use the solution.
There need to be FAQs to help you resolve simple issues with ease. Moreover, there needs to be instant customer service to help resolve bigger matters. To know about the quality of the service a provider gives, check their reviews and what the users say.
It will give you a realistic idea of how efficient your provider is at resolving issues. Moreover, you can always ask the provider itself about their customer service to get a basic idea about the extent of service they provide.
Cloud-based PDF software solutions are some of the most commonly opted ones by companies. This is because of the simple reason that they are lightweight solutions that are quite easy to use and grant access to.
You don’t want your PDF system to be heavy or slow. Moreover, a slow system can bog down your entire flow of operations with its sluggish processing. A cloud-based system is quick, agile, and flexible to use as well as easy to access for a majority of users.
The eSignature option has emerged as the need of the hour as more and more businesses are conducting virtual businesses. You simply cannot send physical documents to a party and wait for days to receive them back with their signature.
Your PDF software should have an eSignature tool that allows users to digitally sign a document and return it back with its quality intact. It helps speed up transactions between parties and makes processes much more efficient.
Automation is a need of any corporate process, especially if your business operates on a large scale and you need to process a large number of documents on a daily basis. Look for automation features in your PDF software to be able to make the right choice.
Automation features such as drag and drop tools and find and replace tools helps you accomplish your task faster and with ease, without scope for errors. Annotations and markups will help you edit PDFs faster.
It will make it easier for the next user to process them faster as well as they will know the points to look for instantly. This way, they can process them in no time.
PDFs have emerged as the go-to file formats for corporate operations. Choosing the correct software solution to process and manage them will help you bring out the best in them and bring ease to your daily operations as a business.
Look for features such as on-the-go editing and cross-platform collaboration in your PDF software. It should offer top-notch security while being lightweight and easy to use for all kinds of users.
Let us know in the comments what you think is the most important feature a PDf software should possess to help you bring ease to your operations.
