Adobe Acrobat DC is expensive and only available by annual subscription. There is a good way to avoid the subscription approach and save significant money while still being able to save PDF files as Time Matters Documents.

You can use free Adobe Acrobat Reader to save PDF files as Time Matters Documents. In addition, use another PDF software program as a replacement for an Adobe Acrobat DC subscription. You avoid the Adobe subscription cost of $156 per user every year.

What about the important features in Adobe Acrobat DC Standard or Pro subscription? You can purchase third-party PDF software with a permanent license with all the features that most people need.

My favorite PDF software is PDF-XChange Editor. Its cost is $46.50 one-time. If you need to create or modify fillable forms or use custom stamps, PDF-XChange Editor Plus costs $59.50.

I recommend buying and setting up PDF-XChange Editor as your default program for PDF files. Other popular options for third-party PDF programs are Nitro PDF at $159 or Foxit PDF Editor at $139 for a permanent license. For simple PDF reading and PDF file creation from other file formats, PDFLite (www.pdflite.com) is free and open source.

To set your PDF-XChange Editor software as the default for opening PDF files:

Click on the Windows Start button (lower left).
In the Search box, enter: file type
Click on Choose a default app.

In the Choose default apps window:

Scroll down to .pdf
Clicking the app button for PDF Documents (It may be Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Choose your PDF software from the pop-up list. Here I’ve choosen PDF-XChange Editor.

Using Adobe Acrobat Reader with Another PDF Program

But how can you use free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and a second PDF program together? Isn’t that confusing?

An approach that works is to set up PDF-XChange as your default PDF software as above. In your scanning software, choose Adobe Acrobat Reader DC as the destination program. With this setup, you can save your scanned documents directly from Adobe Acrobat Reader DC into Time Matters. That assumes your scanner has the option to select a program to open PDF files it creates. Otherwise, you can right-click on any PDF file in Windows File Explorer or other place where PDF filenames appear and select the program you want to use to open the file.

Fujitsu ScanSnap has the option to open scanned documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Here is how to configure a profile for the ScanSnap:

While years ago I used paid Adobe Acrobat Pro regularly, when Adobe went to the subscription model, I found an excellent alternative in PDF-XChange Plus.

Questions? Comments? Call me at 800.575.0007 or send me an email…