Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on January 22, 2013

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free promises to convert Word documents (DOC, DOCX, and DOCM) as well as text and rich-text documents into searchable PDFs, as the name suggests, for free. We assume it's intended for users who lack Word, since Word can save Word, text, and rich-text documents directly as PDFs. And "free" in this case means it's a restricted version of a premium tool. That wouldn't matter so much if it actually converted files in its default mode, without the paid version's settings and options. Unfortunately, it didn't.

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter's simple user interface is divided into three sections: an upper main window with a list view of selected files, a central Save Folder section, and a lower section labeled Output File Type: PDF File. Most of the features in the lower section are disabled in the freeware. A nag message in red informed us that the paid version could access the parameters, and did we want to upgrade? We didn't, and more nags told us (in essence, though not in so many words) to browse to a destination in which to save our converted file. We never got the chance, though, because the program first crashed our open copy of Word and then issued a series of error warning messages, including one that had something to do with our printer and another that simply advised us to reinstall the software. We tried to convert a text file next, with virtually identical results. Or, to be more specific, an identical lack of results; the Output Files folder was empty.

We've tested freeware that can convert just about any kind of document you could think of into a PDF, and vice versa, and with no fuss or muss. Even if it had simply worked properly, we'd still say there's no reason to buy Advanced Word to Pdf Converter, or any PDF converter, until you've explored some of the freeware PDF utilities available. Many do the job well, and quite a few of them do more, such as converting more file types or performing two-way conversions. Keep looking.