What's new with PDF Prime?
PDF Prime version 2.1.0 contains multiple enhancements to help you merge, split,
lock, and unlock PDF files more efficiently and faster. We are already working on the next version
of PDF Prime, but here is a summary of what we have done for the current version (2.1.0):
-
Change the default "processed" folder - Typically, if you merge two files
together with PDF Prime, the program will write the merged result in the same
folder where the first file is found. The same thing happens if you split,
lock, or unlock PDF files. We do this for the simple reason that you
already know where these files are on your computer, and saving new files to
these same folders make an easy place for the files to be found. However,
if the folder is write-protected, or for some other reason cannot be written to,
PDF Prime needs to save the processed PDF files in another location. You
can now set this default "processed" folder to any valid location on your
computer.
-
Feedback and Idea Form - We get a constant trickle of feedback and ideas
for improving PDF Prime from our users. We have a Contact
page on our website, but thought it would be helpful for those who would just
like to send off quick comments and ideas within the PDF Prime program itself.
We have a big "Feedback" link on the main PDF Prime screen, and also in the top
program menu. Clicking either of these will open the feedback/idea form. We
kept it short and easy to use, so just tell us whatever is on your mind. We
read every comment coming our way, and respond to each one (if you want a
response).
- Changes "Under the hood" - We replaced and enhanced large swaths of code
within PDF Prime, simplifying and getting everything organized within the
program. You will not see these changes, but as we have grown PDF Prime
and molded it into a stable and high-performance utility, we needed to clean
things up and make sure all the parts are where they should be. For the
technical users: We now unit test all the major functions within PDF Prime.
Every new version of PDF Prime has to pass our ever-growing battery of unit
tests, making sure each new version is as solid as the last.
Version 2.1.0 Development Goals - We had two main goals for this version
of PDF Prime:
- Make PDF Prime Faster. We noticed as we merged, split, locked, or
unlocked many PDF files or a few very large PDF files with PDF Prime, the
program slowed down significantly. We replaced some of the internal ways
PDF Prime handles each PDF file, speeding up the program by leaps and bounds.
For example, if we were merging PDF files together, the PDF Prime previously
would merge the PDF files together, then create a temporary PDF file on
the computer hard drive if there are any more PDF files to process. If
there were hundreds of files to merge, then there would be hundreds of temporary
files created in this process.
Anytime the hard drive is accessed on a computer, this can cause bottlenecks in
program speed. With the new version of PDF Prime, all file processing is
done within the computer memory. Accessing and writing to computer memory
is much faster and the result is much improved speed. We intend to make PDF
Prime the easiest to use and fastest running merge, split, lock, and unlock tool
available. Fixing problems like this edges us further toward our goal.
- Reduce (or eliminate) Bugs. Customers and users reported seveal bugs, and
of these few same bugs were reported many times over. We found the
underlying cause of all of them, and you should expect no unpleseant surprises
in this version of PDF Prime. The big culprit was also related to all the
file-writing we were doing, which we described above. If you were to merge
two files together found on a disc in the CD or DVD drive on yor computer, PDF
Prime would sometimes think it could write the result back to this CD or DVD
drive as if it was a hard drive. PDF Prime would see this as an error, and
promptly show an error screen with a description of the problem ("Could not
write to to directory X"). We now funnel all hard drive file-writing
through one place in the program, and do exhaustive checks to make sure the
final destination of processed PDF files can in fact be written to a valid
folder.
If you want more explanation of any part of PDF Prime, please
contact us. We will be happy to
expand on anything we have written and explain in more detail.
