Item: Tungsten Power PDF
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Almost exclusively, PDF formatted documents are used in the legal field for contracts, pleadings, and other very sensitive documents. Kofax PDF is so powerful, with so many options that I have yet to encounter any problem it cannot address. For example, sending a proposed contract to several parties but only allowing one party to alter the contract.

Pros and Cons

Internal linking to specific pages/exhibits in a Table of Contents, which is increasingly required in e-filed court documents. This could be made easier but is workable now.

Copying text should be a matter of selecting and copying. There should be a Right-Click actuated Select All, Select Page, and Select Paragraph in addition to simply highlighting and copying, similar to word processing programs.
Creating a Table of Contents to linked pages/sentences should be automated. One would place a cursor at a specific location, right-click, and "Add to TOC" The text displayed in the TOC could be "Page X" or selected text, but the user should be able to edit the text displayed in the TOC.
I'd like to see the Toolbars organized better, perhaps by functionality ("Edit Text", "Edit Images", "Security", etc.
I'd like the complete file path and name to display.

Return on Investment

I was already a user of Nuance PaperPort and its PDF product when Kofax acquired the product. I subsequently upgraded and was pleasantly surprised at the immediate improvements made by Kofax.

Ease-of-Use

The UI is not instinctive. Power PDF is relatively easy to use but the interface needs work. There is a longer learning curve than I think necessary. Better organization of the tabs and toolbars could go a long way. Not every user needs all functionality.

Support Rating

I haven't contacted support.

Key Insights

Do you think Tungsten Power PDF delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Tungsten Power PDF's feature set?

Yes

Did Tungsten Power PDF live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Tungsten Power PDF go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Tungsten Power PDF again?

Yes

Other Software Used

WordPerfect Office, Swiftpage ACT!, Apache OpenOffice

Features

Power PDF is an extremely powerful and feature-rich product with the potential to greatly improve document production and flow. Compared to other products, its clean-up and print engine is superior.

Likelihood to Recommend

Kofax Power PDF is very well suited to the legal field because of its power, functionality, and relative ease-of-use, although the latter could use some improvement. It would likewise be well-suited to anyone with a need to produce or process documents in PDF format.

Users and Roles

1 - I am a solo-practice Attorney and thus wear all hats in my organization. This includes document prep, documentstudy, document filing (using Kofax PaperPort), document distribution, responding to incoming mail and documents, billing, client development. I use Kofax PaperPort and Power PDF every day.

Support Headcount Required

1 - As stated in my earlier review, Kofax Power PDF is extremely powerful and can do virtually anything pertaining to PDF files. However, with such power comes complexity negatively impacting ease of use. There should be a simpler, smaller PDF reader that requires no training to use.

Business Processes Supported

Reading PDF documents
Extracting text from PDF documents
Creating PDF documents
Distributing PDF documents

Future Planned Uses

Client-generated forms and data

Likelihood to Renew

Power PDF is reasonably priced and does everything I can think of that could be required by any PDF document.

Solo Attorney Review

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Kofax Power PDF (formerly Nuance)