Last year, I reviewed Xodo, an excellent online PDF editor well worth checking out (you can read my review here). But did you know Xodo also offer a desktop version of their service for Macs, Windows and Linux?

After testing some of the best PDF editors and best free PDF editors, I was keen to see how the downloadable Xodo PDF Studio desktop version compares to its online counterpart, as well as other big players in the PDF space like Acrobat.

Xodo PDF Studio: Pricing & plans

• A choice of subscription or perpetual licence is always welcome, and should be praised. The free trial is very short, so run the tests you need quickly to decide if it’s worth paying for

Whether you opt for Xodo’s online service or its desktop version, it’ll cost you the same if you opt for a yearly contract (which would be the equivalent of around $10 a month per license). Choose to pay on a month by month basis, and the value changes to $13 online, and $20 for the desktop version.

If you’re sick to the back teeth of subscriptions, Xodo have you covered, offering you a perpetual licence for the Desktop app, for $240 per seat.

Curious about the service but don’t want to financially commit just yet? Then grab their 3-day free trial. All its features are unlocked and hopefully three days should give you enough time to check out the software, and decide if it’s right for you or not.

You can check it out over on the official Xodo website by clicking here.

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

Xodo PDF Studio: Interface

• Offering multiple ways of accessing the same tool is a very good thing… only the way the app’s menubar is setup could be given a little more love

Launch Xodo and you’ll find the interface to be… fine. It doesn’t scream ‘modern design’, nor does it bask in unwanted 90s nostalgia. It’s just… ok. All the tools and icons you need are located at the top of the window, in a basic black and blue minimalist style. It’s fine, really. It’s just not… that appealing.

What is a nice touch however, is that the first time you launch the app, it will automatically open a PDF which explains what its interface does. and where to find what you need. Full marks for that.

You’ll find the tools are accessible in multiple ways. For instance, by default, those you see are from the ‘Home’ menu, and pretty much all the ones you need are there, from selecting text, to searching inside the document, adding a comment, highlighting a section, even editing the PDF’s content, and adding shapes, among others.

However, above these large icons is a thin menu bar, which lets you focus on specific categories of tools, even though you can also access most of them from ‘Home’ already. For instance, if you want to add a comment, in ‘Home’, click on the ‘Comment’ icon to reveal a drop down list bearing multiple options. But if you were to click on ‘Comment’ in the thin menu bar instead, those icons are replaced with a new set, showing you all those that were in that drop down list we just saw.

It’s all the same tools, just available in different ways. It can get a tad confusing, especially as the selected menu in that thin menu bar only has a subtle blue line underneath it, which can be easy to miss, which can make you wonder why the icon you’re after isn’t displayed… until you realise you’re in the wrong menu.

Mac users have a third option, through the system’s own menu bar, from which you can also select all the tools you need. Don’t get me wrong: options are good, and being able to access the same tool in different ways is a good design decision… I just wish the app’s selected menu was at least more prominently highlighted to reduce possible confusion.

• Interface: 4/5

Xodo PDF Studio: Tools

• Numerous tools, all incredibly easy to use, even if their layout at first can feel awkward

To start using the tools, take a quick trip to the ‘File’ menu to open an existing document, either from your computer, or directly through one of various online storage services, such as OneDrive, DropBox, GoogleDrive, or Xodo’s very own XodoDrive. This is also the place where you can create a new document, either from scratch, or by importing various files, like images, a scanned file, collate multiple files into one, or convert docs from MS Office or AutoCAD.

Once you’ve got a document loaded up, you’re free to annotate and alter it to your heart’s content. It’s actually pretty easy to make notes, highlight, draw on the PDF itself, add shapes to mask areas (although redaction is a much better tool for that should the info be sensitive and not to be divulged - Xodo supports this feature too).

Reordering pages and deleting some is a cinch and done through the left sidebar, but perhaps the most exciting option is the ability to edit the very existing content of a PDF.

This is not a feature that is available from all PDF applications - in fact, it’s usually seen as one of the most advanced features, and not every app that includes it does a good job of it, making editing more of a chore than it should be.

I’m pleased to report that the Xodo Desktop App excels at editing existing content. When that tool is activated, you’ll see a faint blue rectangle surrounding the various text and image boxes in your document. Click on one to select it and move it around, or once selected, click inside the text box to alter its existing content, using the exact same font and size as the original. Now it doesn’t work like a word processor or a desktop publishing application: you can’t link text boxes together and make your copy flow from one to the next. This is for minor edits, and changes that don’t require having to go back to the original document and make alterations from there instead. But with those limitations in mind, for a PDF editing tool, it works fantastically well.

The only tool I thought was superfluous was the Snapshot, which as its name suggests, allows you to take a screenshot of a selected part of the PDF you’re working on. Sure, you have the option of selecting its format (PNG, JPEG, TIFF or GIF), or send it straight to a printer - which is novel - but every computer has screenshotting capabilities built-in, so why bother using that one? But that’s a minor quibble.

All in all, despite its icon design or tool organisation which could do with a little love, the Xodo Desktop App is an excellent PDF editor which makes it easy to perform even tricky tasks.

• Tools: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Xodo PDF Studio desktop app?

Buy it if...

You’re looking for a desktop PDF editor (ideal for increased security over an online service), with a boatload of tools that are easy to use, and includes well implemented, powerful advanced features.

Don't buy it if...

You only need to make a few changes to a PDF, like delete a page, or reorder another, but all the other tools Xodo has is just overkill for your needs.

For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers, the best PDF reader for Mac, and the best PDF readers on Android.

Wherever you look in the digital world, you can’t escape from the appeal of PDF, and a good thing too in our opinion: it’s a format that preserves the layout of a document no matter which device it’s being read on. 

Having reviewed all the best PDF editors and even tried the best free PDF editors to see how they measure up, we decided to give Xodo a go. How does this desktop, mobile, and online PDF editor compare? We put it to the test.  

Xodo: Pricing & plans

• 4 different subscription services, with 2 simple prices. Xodo’s aim is clearly to make it as easy as possible to welcome you into the fold - and the free option doesn’t hurt

Xodo comes in multiple flavours, depending on where you’ll be using the service the most. There’s Xodo Mobile, designed for Android and iOS devices. It allows you to convert files, redact and optimise them, and includes annotation tools and OCR capabilities.

Xodo Web is an online service, designed to be accessed via your web browser. It possesses additional tools (over 30 according to the pamphlet), including an AI-based summariser.

Xodo PDF Solution is software for your Mac, PC or Linux system. The number of tools increases to 60.

Each of these cost the same on their own: under $10 a month on a yearly contract, or $13 when you pay on a month by month basis. If all of them appeal, you can get the Xodo Document Suite instead, for $15 a month for a year, or $20 monthly.

If you’re still undecided, you can also explore Xodo for free. For the purposes of this review, we’ll be looking at the online solution, which you can check out by clicking here. 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5

Xodo: Tools

• All the tools at the heart of Xodo are easy to access, and well-organized.

Unlike many PDF software we’ve tested, Xodo is very welcoming to new potential customers, letting you explore numerous tools and features for free, without you even having to create a free account with them. Point your web browser towards xodo.com, click on the big dark blue ‘Explore All Tools’ button, and off we go.

This leads you to a page showcasing every tool the online service offers (these can also be accessed via Xodo.com’s menubar, under the ‘Tools’ menu).

You’ll find most are designed for specific jobs. The first ones on the list for instance, focus on editing your files, be it to add text boxes, images, or annotating work, redacting sections of it, cropping and compressing, and more. Essentially if you’re used to this type of service, these tools won’t surprise you. Also included is the ability to edit Microsoft Word .docx documents.

Next comes conversion tools, either from PDF to another format, and vice versa (Mac users don’t need the latter as that capability has been baked into the operating system since Mac OS X). There are also tools to reorder pages, as well as merge and split PDFs. It’s all very well setup and organized, making it easy for you to choose the exact feature you need at any time.

• Tools: 4/5

Xodo: User experience

• Xodo offers you many tools, but we feel it would be more workflow-efficient if more tools were combined so you could perform many different actions in one go.

The tools available range from the simple, such as reordering pages in a document, to the complex, such as altering the very content of a document. Now some tools focus exclusively on what they’re supposed to do. For instance, select the Delete Pages tool, upload your document, and all you’ll be able to do is choose which pages to delete. Makes sense, right? It’s a simple concept but it does exactly what it says.

Except, wouldn’t it be great if not only could you delete a page, but also rotate another, and rearrange a couple more for instance? You may say, “this isn’t how this service works”, but you’d only be partially correct. The ‘Rearrange PDF’ tool, allows you to Rotate some pages as well. 

In fact, the ‘Split PDF’ tool also allows you to rotate and rearrange pages, which really feels like this is how it should be: you’ve uploaded a document, so you should be able to perform as many actions as you’d like with it. The tools that allow this feel much more expansive, and you feel pretty restricted by the ones who don’t.

Should you need to do multiple actions to a document that can’t be done with a single tool, you’ll have to perform the first action, download the new changed file, and re-upload it, this time in the next tool, to carry on your work. It feels needlessly time consuming.

• User experience: 3.5/5

Xodo: Advanced tools

• Xodo has a string of powerful tools on offer which work well and are surprisingly easy to use - but most are paywalled or have limited-time trials.

By far the most powerful tools in Xodo’s arsenal are those in the Edit category. The ‘Redact’ tool for instance is incredibly simple to use: just select the parts you wish to remove, and Xodo will create a new file with those sections blacked out and un-selectable.

Even better is the 'PDF Editor' which allows you to add text boxes, highlights, annotations, the works - you’re offered numerous ways to write on a PDF, and you can go one further with the ‘Edit PDF Text’, which gives you the ability to alter the very fabric of the PDF, altering the words, changing the chosen font, resizing images, deleting sections, you name it, you can do it.

This is where you may well reach some limitations to the free trial: surprisingly, you can do a lot for free, from basic organisational work, to intense annotations. You’ll even be allowed to download the finished work for free. Until you can’t. You have a set number of actions you can perform. Exceed that allotment, and you’ll have to wait 7.5 hours before you can explore further… or start a subscription and carry on working faster.

More advanced tools, such as ‘Edit PDF Text’ let you perform changes but won’t allow you to download the finished product, while ‘Ask PDF’ (an AI-centric tool which lets you interact with the content of a file), needs a subscription to get started. Those limitations are perfectly understandable, as the aim is to get you as a customer after all. You are offered a 7-day free trial, but you’ll need to subscribe to take advantage of it (just don’t forget to cancel it before the end date, should you decide this service is not for you).

• Advanced tools: 4/5

Should I buy Xodo?

Buy it if...

You need to work with PDF files, and perform numerous actions, all from one service, and all from any device you can log onto.

Don't buy it if...

Your needs can be covered by free software (such as Apple Preview), you don’t like working online, and you don’t like timed restrictions when trying to use the service for free.

For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers, the best PDF reader for Mac, and the best PDF readers on Android.

Adobe Acrobat has evolved since its early days as a PDF all-in-one, growing into three separate multi-platform apps: Acrobat Reader, Standard and Pro. 

Each software adds an increasing number of features, so, if you just need to view a PDF document, Acrobat Reader is ideal. Acrobat Standard and Pro are best for PDF creation and editing, electronic signing, and a lot more document management options. In most cases, and in our experience, Acrobat Standard is the best PDF editor for most people, while Acrobat Pro adds a few more tools for the business or professional user. 

We’ve already taken a look at Reader and Standard - you can check out our Adobe Acrobat Reader review and the Adobe Acrobat Standard review for more. It’s time to finish this PDF trilogy by exploring the capabilities of Adobe Acrobat Pro. 

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Price & plans

• Pro is the most expensive version of Acrobat, but it’s also included in Adobe’s All Apps Creative Cloud bundle. 

It’s not going to be a surprise to learn that Pro is the most expensive Acrobat version - $19.99 / £19.97 a year paid monthly (monthly and annual upfront subscriptions are also available). 

Unlike Acrobat Standard though, you can opt for a seven-day free trial, if you’d like to check its features out, but it does involve you initiating a subscription, so don’t forget to cancel it in time if you decide the app’s not for you.

There’s also an alternative way to grab a copy of Acrobat Pro: by getting an All Apps Creative Cloud subscription. It’s more expensive, but bundles the PDF editor with dozens of other apps like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, that all integrate seamlessly. This means that if you already have a subscription to handle your professional creative work (or you need one), you already have the most full featured version of Acrobat. 

• Pricing & plans: 4/5 

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Interface & experience

• Very elegant and well designed interface, offering you various ways of performing the same action, which gives you the flexibility of using the one that suits you best.

Just like Reader and Standard - and just as you’d hope, expect, dream - Acrobat Pro’s interface is clean, simple, well-designed. We found the tools are easy to locate and use, offering you various ways of working. 

All told, this creates a highly flexible interface that works for you. Acrobat Pro doesn’t force you to alter your workflow, to do it the Adobe way or else. It’s a fantastic piece of design, particularly for Standard and Pro. We did find Reader’s interface felt more like an advert for Adobe’s superior PDF editors. 

• Interface: 4/5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Standard tools

• All the features available in the Standard edition are present and correct in Pro’s comprehensive toolkit

As you’d expect, all the tools available in Standard can be accessed in Pro. This means you’re able to comment on a PDF, share it with others and track the progress of those files. You can change a PDF’s format, and export it as a Microsoft document (Word, Excel or PowerPoint), turn a PDF into images, convert it to HTML, edit it, change the embedded text and images, create PDFs from scratch, fill in and sign PDFs (it’s some of the best eSignature software we’ve ever tested), and there’s plenty more besides.

You also have the ability to combine multiple PDFs into a single file, reorder pages, and delete some. When it comes to security, adding a password to protect a PDF’s content and prevent others from editing it is a cinch. This is all done in a very intuitive way, and even though you might select a specific tool, you’re able to effortlessly access others without having to leave the confines of said tool.

It’s a very comprehensive, even impressive, feature-set - and that’s just the tools you get in Acrobat Standard. 

• Tools: 4.5/5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Pro tools

• Some very useful and obviously professional tools, coupled with others that should really be considered mainstream by now.

While the ‘as-Standard’ tools feel weighty, essential for a PDF power user, we couldn’t shake the sense that some tools labelled as “Pro”, don’t really feel that they belong in a “Pro” category. 

Take the ability to turn a scanned paper document into a searchable PDF. Although it’s undoubtedly highly useful to be able to do that, some of the best free PDF editors, and even modern hardware, have been offering such a feature for a while now. Take your iPhone camera: you can take a photo with it and any text contained within it becomes selectable - and all without having to pay a subscription.

Another one which is more understandably a Pro feature, is the ability to create and validate PDFs to meet accessibility standards. This is a very important feature for any business, and once you check a document, you’re given a list of issues to fix to improve a document’s accessibility. Some can be resolved automatically, while others may require a little more work. But, we find it baffling why this is restricted to the Pro version? Wouldn’t this feature be of greater benefit if the Standard version had access to it as well?

Be that as it may, as with other features included with Acrobat, it all works well and is easy to understand. There’s even a menu called ‘Explain’ which sends you to a webpage telling you why there’s a problem, and why it’s important to fix it.

Something that makes more sense in the Pro arena is the ability to compare two versions of a document. Acrobat will give you a summary of the disparity through a visual representation, and even gives you the ability to filter those results to make it clearer what has changed. We could see this as an invaluable tool in anyone’s workflow.

Redaction can also prove highly useful when there’s sensitive information on a PDF you’d rather not share with others. As you’d expect, the way it works is incredibly simple: just highlight all the problematic sections, and once you’re done, click on ‘Apply’.

In addition to blanking out certain passages and images, there’s another little highlight here. You also have the option of automatically removing a document’s metadata, embedded URLs, comments, and more. Adobe calls it ‘sanitising’ and if you’re into not passing on too much data, it’s a one-click wonder.

It’s clear that Adobe Acrobat Pro’s market is much more of a niche one than who they’re aiming for with ‘Standard’. It’s highly likely most people will be more than satisfied with Standard, even though Pro is the one included with the All Apps Creating Cloud subscription. However, if those additional tools are crucial to your workflow, you’ll find them extremely well implemented and easy to use in Acrobat Pro.

• Pro tools: 3.5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You need advanced PDF editing tools, including redaction, and accessibility compliance, or you already subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud package, which includes it by default.

Don't buy it if...

You want a simple way to view or make basic alterations to a PDF - in our experience, Pro is equipped with more features than most casual users will need.

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Alternatives

We've tested out man of the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives if Pro isn't for you. 

If Acrobat Pro is a bit more than you bargained for, we recommend checking out Adobe Acrobat Standard - it's a great choice for most people's PDF needs. 

For some other top apps, see our pdfFiller review for a browser-based PDF editor that's surprisingly full of features. For a free alternative, see our PDF24 Creator review - it's our favorite free PDF tool and it's packed full of essential document management tools. 

We tested the best free PDF readers- and here are our top picks

Canva may be famed for its impressive - and impressively simple - online design app. But the platform offers a lot more than that. 

The company offers easily one of the best free PDF editors - especially if you’re looking for a simple-to-use PDF editor in your browser, look no further.

With a new set of tools, including some AI cleverness, we've re-reviewed the latest version of the popular online document design platform to see how it compares today.

Canva PDF Editor: Pricing & plans

• Generous and entirely free with only a few limits

Across the board, Canva costs nothing. It’s not just the PDF editor that’s gratis - you can also use the video editing software, photo editor, free logo designer, and a whole host of other digital design tools without opening your wallet, let alone breaking the bank. 

It’s generous. But there are a few limitations on the free plan. Premium assets like stock photos and illustrations are locked behind a subscription. 

Canva has three monthly/annual subscriptions, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise (the yearly plans are at least 16% cheaper than the monthly ones). Each unlock more tools like cloud storage, social media scheduling, and brand kits - ideal for maintaining consistent company colors and logos across multiple designs. There are also additional plans for those in academia. Pro is for individuals, Teams needs to include a minimum of three people, and you pay per seat, and Enterprise is a more bespoke plan, with uniquely tailored pricing.

You can check out the tool by clicking here. 

• Pricing & plans: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Interface & experience

• Easy to use in almost every way

In order to start working on a PDF, you have to create an account with Canva (if you don’t already have one). Don't worry, just like the PDF service we’re exploring, doing this is free, and only takes a few minutes to perform. Once in, all you need do next is upload the file you wish to work on.

Creating a new PDF document through Canva's editor is different to, say, Adobe Acrobat (or the countless best Acrobat alternatives out there). Rather than setting you free on a blank canvas from the get-go, you’ll need to upload a file. 

Once you’ve got your document uploaded, Canva will process it and transform it into an editable file. And it works far better than you might expect, capable of identifying images, text blocks, and backgrounds. 

There’s very little you can’t modify at this point simply by clicking on the relevant component. Just to make it even easier, hover over any on-page element and a pink outline will let you know what can be edited, deleted, or moved in your PDF. 

If you’d rather build a document from scratch, you can do this through the main Canva design app by creating an A4 canvas, using one of the many templates included, then exporting as a PDF. The design process, however, remains the same. 

The PDF editor’s layout is more or less the same as with its graphic design software, and even the Canva Logo Maker and Canva Video Editor. 

So, if you’re familiar with these, you should have no trouble getting started here. But even if this is a new platform for you, Canva is delightfully simple to use - it’s one of the key reasons it’s become a popular tool for businesses. 

Tools line the left-hand panel. It’s here where you can select a new template, find new elements (in the PDF realm, this is mostly stock photos and vector graphics), upload your own media, and tweak background colors for all or individual pages. 

Head down to the Apps category and you’ll find a host of useful extras. Want to connect your Google Drive or YouTube channel to the platform? This is where you’ll do it. It’s also where you can import media files from the likes of Box, Dropbox, and Google Photos. 

Elsewhere, you’ll find a basic, but fun drawing tool that lets you - what else? - draw on your PDF files like it’s Microsoft Paint. 

Notably, the section includes a QR code creator - the comeback kid of the tech world. Just add your URL and hit Generate QR Code. Just like everything else in Canva, these are customizable, with options to change both background and foreground colors to fit your brand and your PDF design.

Ultimately, the Apps category is pretty vast, and we recommend exploring it top to toe to find tools that’ll fit your workflow. 

• Interface & experience: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Editing & modifying

• Simple software for editing PDFs

Dragging and dropping is the name of the game in Canva PDF Editor. Once an element - be it a text box, image, or anything else - is added, you can get it into position simply by dragging it around the page. 

Usefully, when moving elements, the tool adds invisible guidelines. This makes it incredibly easy to align blocks with each other or lock an element dead-center. So, even if you’re new to creating and modifying PDFs, you can walk away with a professional-looking document. 

If you’re printing your PDF, you can also add margins and bleed lines to ensure you haven’t placed objects too close to the edge, thereby cutting off content. 

To remove or edit existing content, click on an element. This reveals a small pop-up just above it, letting you add a comment (to engage in online collaboration), duplicate, or delete the element. Hit the three dots to that menu’s right to unfurl even more options, such as copy, paste, align and work with layered elements.

For even more efficiency, Canva PDF Editor supports keyboard shortcuts - the traditional ones you’re used to, such as copy, paste, duplicate, undo and redo work as expected, you can precisely move elements using the arrow keys, or select an element, hit delete and it’ll vanish.

It is quite remarkable the level of control you have over a PDF: usually, being able to alter the existing content of a document is relegated to the premium side of a service, but here, you can do it all for free.

• Editing & modifying: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Tools

• Limited tools beyond PDF creation and editing

One of the features that sets top PDF editors apart are the inclusion of advanced tools like eSign software and OCR software. For example, Foxit PDF Editor is equipped with a powerful set of redaction tools - perfect for businesses that need to remain compliant with the raft of data security regulations and laws. The same goes for EaseUS PDF Editor, which has a massive range of professional editing tools. 

And this is where Canva’s online PDF editor begins to show its (admittedly few) limitations. Since Canva is, first and foremost, a digital art tool, it doesn’t feature the usual bag of tricks you’ll find in dedicated editors. 

Take PDF conversion as an example. Many platforms let you upload a file and convert it to another. That’s technically possible with Canva PDF Editor - but it’s a more complicated method than most, as you’ll upload a document or image file and download it as a PDF (and vice versa). But it’s not a true PDF converter. It lacks a range of output formats. Nor is it as efficient as other platforms because of this. 

As such, it’s tailor-made for creating, say, marketing assets or admin forms (there’s even a Canva Forms tool for this specific purpose, with Typeform integration, too). 

It's also remarkably easy to share files for review, simply by clicking the Share button, which is where you can also change the filetype and download your documents. However, it likely won’t suffice if, for example, you need to track the documents you send to others, check who’s signed them, and perform OCR on scanned documents.

• Tools: 3/5

Canva PDF Editor: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Canva PDF Editor: Alternatives

Adobe Acrobat, Foxit PDF Editor, EaseUS PDF Editor, and Nitro PDF Pro are great if you want extra power from your PDF editor. 

Soda PDF Online, PDF24 Creator, PDF Candy, and SmallPDF are ideal when you want a simple PDF editor in your browser.  

WinZip has made a reputation for itself by providing quality compression and decompression software for both Windows and Macs, and even extending that to iOS devices.

But did you know they also offered a Windows-only PDF editor called Winzip PDF Pro? How does this software compare to the best PDF editors we've reviewed? We put the latest version to the test.

WinZip PDF Pro: Pricing

• Low hardware requirements and average subscription prices

First off, your PC needs to run Windows 7 or higher, with a CPU of at least 1.5GHZ, a minimum of 2GB of RAM and 220MB of storage. They also state you need a display resolution of at least 1024x768 but do people still use screens smaller than that on a Windows machine these days?

If you tick all those boxes, then you’re good to go. WinZip offers a seven-day free trial: just download the app and start using it. No credit details or email addresses required. 

However if you do like what you see, you can own - or should we say rent - the software for $90 / £78 per year. That’s right: it’s an annual subscription service. Comparing it with the competition, it’s about average. You can check it out yourself by clicking here.

• Pricing: 3/5

WinZip PDF Pro: Interface

• Clean and simple, but with a suggestion that keeps on suggesting

Launch the software and you’ll be graced with a blue-and-white interface that’s as simple as can be. All the tools are available as icons in a large toolbar at the top, and the rest of the interface is dedicated to all recent documents you opened and interacted with.

You’ll notice a ‘Make WinZip PDF Pro your default app’ banner in between those two sections. Sure you can click on its little ‘x’ to dismiss it. 

Unlike its popup window equivalent (yes, there’s one of those too), we couldn’t find a way to tell it to not show up again. So, if you want to work with the software but not make it the default app for all things PDF, you’ll have to dismiss that increasingly annoying suggestion every time you launch the software. 

• Interface: 2.5/5

WinZip PDF Pro: Tools

• Many tools, well organised, easy to use, despite the occasional glitch

A simple interface means the tools you need are easily accessible. By default, when you open a PDF document, you’ll find yourself in ‘Read' mode, but if you want to manipulate the file, all you have to do is click on one of the relevant icons at the top.

For instance, click on ‘Comment’ to gain the ability to highlight sections of text, and mark them for redaction - though it’s not quite on par with the excellent redaction tool in Foxit PDF Editor. There’s a sidebar on the left (not on by default) helping you see all the pages contained in your chosen PDF, as clickable thumbnails.

From there, you’ll find tools to rotate individual pages, delete existing ones, insert new ones, reorder them within the document, or extract select pages to create a new PDF based on them. You’ll find the tools in the ‘Comment’ section are conveniently broken down by category. ‘Annotate’ for instance, deals with text-based notes. That's where you’ll find highlighters, post-it-like notes of various colours, text boxes, and so on. Everything to enable you to pepper your document with comments of all kinds.

The ‘Shapes’ section lets you draw on the page, or add rectangles, ellipses, lines or arrows of various colours and thickness. Freehand tools are also available. And ‘Insert’ is where you rubber stamp a document (using a selection of ‘stamps’), insert new images or attachments.

To the right, you’ll find a list of all your comments. Click on one and WinZip PDF Pro will scroll the document instantly to the relevant section.

The ‘Edit’ section lets you manipulate the actual content of your PDF, although you are warned that the changes you make might not match up with the original content. This is a welcome warning as many such tools have been known to mess up the formatting, but they seem to keep quiet about that. WinZip PDF Pro is open about the fact that editing a PDF isn’t as seamless as editing a document in a proper word processor, and we appreciate such honesty.

You don’t actually edit directly onto the page. Instead you double-click on a section and its content appears in a popup window. Once you’ve made your alterations, click ‘Apply’. It’s a little convoluted, but it works. The downside of such a method is you don’t see the potential mess you’re making to the formatting until you’re done.

You’re able to resize content boxes, move them around (we found that to be more difficult than it should be on our computer, as the document kept scrolling as we dragged a box, making it hard to place it with pinpoint accuracy where we wanted it to be on the first go), add additional boxes, or delete existing one. You pretty much have full control.

• Tools: 4/5

WinZip PDF Pro: Final verdict

What we like about WinZip PDF Pro is how easy it is to use its various tools. Page numbering, eSign software, password protecting a document, and filling forms are incredibly simple to use. 

A well-designed interface goes a long way to create a productive working environment. It’s one of the only downsides to top PDF editor Adobe Acrobat - which can feel overwhelming to newcomers. 

As far as PDF manipulation is concerned, this software does its best to make it as effortless as it can. It’s not perfect, mind, and WinZip PDF Pro does feature some annoying glitches. However, overall, the feeling is that whatever you want to do to a PDF document, you can do it here.

Scorecard

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