Introduction

The Portable Document Format, universally known as PDF, made its debut in 1993 and has been constantly evolving to meet latest demands for users from diverse backgrounds. To date, PDF is one of the world’s most popular formats with presence felt in governments and private sectors alike. However, while millions of businesses thrive on PDF as an integral part of workflow, its benefits still remain obscure to the average public.

 

 

The truth is you don’t need to be an IT professional to understand the powers PDF can bring to your work or business. As a beginner, a few keywords that you should eternally associate with PDF are: ease, accuracy, and security. Imagine: your documents now stay the same on any device, can be searched, reviewed and organized with security in check—and the list goes on further. If millions of businesses around the globe are using PDF to their advantages, you should learn why and how they do it, too.

Who uses PDF?

As early as 2000, the U.S. Federal Courts adopted PDF as their choice for archiving electronic document. Many people have seen PDF when downloading forms from the IRS or other organizations, such as US National Archives and the Australian government’s SmartForm. Notably, the European Union also set PDF 1.7 and PDF/A as standard interchange formats for electronic transfer of documents. To this day, the U.S Federal Government remains the largest user of PDF technology.

Why PDF?

In today’s world, the omnipresence of electronic documents is the major factor that makes PDF the go-to-format. There could be hundreds or thousands of them circulating around the office, among collaborators, or over the Internet, and they all need to be opened with the correct application on the receiving end. Inevitably, problems emerge because users don’t open it in an environment same as yours (e.g. an older version of software), resulting in more time and efforts to resolve differences; yet worst, certain people could possibly exploit unprotected documents and use the information for their purposes. To address the vulnerabilities stated, businesses choose PDF as the format to share and store electronic documents, saving considerable costs in the long run.

How do they use PDF?

Here are 6 common challenges people face at work and how PDF helps to solve them.

 

 

Once turned into PDF, the look and feel are preserved on any device running any operating system in any language, be it Windows, macOS, Linux, UNIX, Android or iOS. Conversely, other formats might not be displayed correctly due to OS incompatibilities or missing a language pack. PDF is self-contained and reading is considered a standard capability on any computer, so you can rest assured that your documents will travel anywhere without unintended change. For example, you can use PDF/A, a subset designed specifically for archival purposes, to store your electronical documents.

Create & Convert PDF

It takes only a few mouse clicks to create PDF from files, images, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), OpenOffice or Microsoft Outlook, and vice versa. Every format has their specific use, but when it comes to delivery and storage, PDF is the best choice to produce secure electronic copies of your files—and it’s fast and simple.

 

 

Once PDF documents are created, you can share them in any way you want, such as email, cloud services and corporate networks. For files converted from PDF, it is easy to reuse the content, saving you the hassles of looking for the original copies or tedious manual key-in.

Interact with PDF

PDF has been an extremely reliable format for display and printing, but one aspect of it is usually overlooked—the interactive PDF. From embedding audio tracks, video clips to adding checkboxes and hyperlinks, there are a lot of ways to enrich your PDF and impress your readers with contents far more appealing than just static documents. In comparison, PDF forms look better than those created in Microsoft Word, which is inherently unable to function like professional design software. So there is no need to sacrifice your brilliant design in exchange of compatibility—PDF simply does both for you.

 

Security

PDF is designed to support a lot of security features, such as passwords, watermarks and encryption. The risks of overlooking the protection of confidential information, whether visible or invisible, are continuously on the rise due to the omnipresence of mobile devices and privacy policies that grow increasingly stringent. Simply put, a document without protection is a document that could be exploited and lead to unforeseeable damages. But don’t worry just yet, there are PDF tools at your disposal that can help you build defense against potential breach.

 

 

Document authors and collaborators often need the security of knowing that their files can only be accessed by authorized individuals. With PDF and various built-in security features, you are in a comfortable position to safeguard information from those prying eyes.

Review Documents

There are two forms of reviewing a document: one is applying digital signatures to ensure integrity and sender identity, and the other is using annotations so that a team can quickly produce the final version. For businesses that seek to reduce dependence on papers and improve work efficiency, both are valid replacement options to their old-time counterparts.

 

Digital Signatures

Digital signatures are widely employed to replace traditional ink-on-paper signatures. To companies with a constant need to collect signatures across multiple locations, whether for document review or contract signing, today’s e-signing streamlines business process by making authentication easy. Moreover, once combined with PDF, they are secure, fit for archival and support legally binding electronic signatures*.

For instance, you can allow an individual to sign the PDF but prevent them from changing the content, e.g., contracts and agreements. Digital signature will indicate tampering if any data on any given page have been altered. You may also view signed versions and compare signed version to the current one.

 

 

Use annotations for review

Contrary to conventional reviewing process, doing the same job with PDF makes it interactive, responsive and eco-friendly. Common solutions often involve a certain degree of system reform and database integration, taking time, resources and eventually giving rise to maintenance concerns in the wake of installation. In contrast, PDF does not only offer familiar tools such as highlight, note and cross-out, but also enable users to share annotations and track review status—all of which are easy to learn and require no assistance from IT personnel.

File compression

One key element that contributes to the prevalence of PDF is its smaller size and uncompromising quality. Image-intensive documents, such as presentation or field report, can easily lead to storage and sharing challenges. Take a repair report for example, the technicians have to take a multitude of photos and compile a report for further assessment, but the significant size of the file poses problems as they try to send it. By using PDF and “Reduce file size” feature, the file can be shrunk to manageable size, making sharing, archival and organization much easier.

 

Easy Access & Edit

The P in PDF stands for portable, and portability means it will be displayed as intended whether on web browser or PDF reader. A common problem of using multiple formats at work is your recipients might not have the same version of application to read the file, and extra back-and-forth communication takes a lot of time. Therefore, it makes great sense to create PDF with just a few clicks and save you from further complications. You may even secure the PDF lest other people would use the content against your interests.

Another important feature of accessibility is PDF tags, which serves to deploy a document to mobile devices and help users with disabilities to read, as mandated by the authorities. Simply put, tags represent document structure, like which text is heading and which text is bookmark. The benefits of using tagged PDF also extend to text reflow on devices, reliable content extraction and better search engine detectability.

 

 

As an ideal final-form electronic document format, PDF is not known for editing capabilities and most users only regard it as a format for outbound documents. However, upon learning the benefits of using PDF, the next question from professionals should be: how do I edit a PDF file? After all, mistakes happen and users would need to correct the contents. The good news is choosing the right solution could save you valuable time changing the contents of PDF documents, such as Right PDF Pro.

 

Conclusion

PDF is a name that people often hear without understanding its benefits, which address some of the biggest concerns to today’s businesses: the sharing, security and archiving of electronic documents. While different formats serve specific purposes, PDF has proved to be the one that can deliver predictable results and is hassle-free. It is also important to note that PDF is a non-proprietary technology managed by ISO (International Standards Organization) as ISO 32000 and no longer under the control of Adobe, meaning you can choose from a variety of standard-compliant PDF solutions, rather than bloatware that costs an arm and a leg. Now is your turn to make a change for the better.

 

 

 

Get in touch with Right PDF today to discover a better way for your business!

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• Adobe, the Acrobat logo and Acrobat are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
• Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.