We waited until after the promotion to begin planning the next version of PDF Prime since we thought we may receive a large amount of feedback and feature ideas.

Also, we want PDF Prime to be powerful, useful, yet easy to use, so we feel a new and advanced PDF Prime edition is needed.  This new edition could contain multiple features not found in PDF Prime.  Join PDF Prime’s mailing list if you want to be notified of upcoming updates, versions, and how-to articles.

Here are some things we are considering for an advanced PDF Prime edition:

• Ability to Lock PDF files beyond just standard PDF password locking.  Select among multiple encryption options to secure a PDF with utmost security.
• Unlock a password-protected PDF without a password.  An encrypted PDF file simply cannot be decrypted, but a password- protected PDF can be unlocked with some advanced algorithms applied (effectively recreating the PDF from its internal parts and working around the password protection).

Locking a PDF file is often an area of confusion. PDF Prime cannot unlock a locked PDF without a password. You need the password that was used to originally lock the PDF file.

• View PDF file contents.  Instead of just describing how many pages a PDF file contains and other related information, we would give you the ability to view PDF files from within PDF Prime, click and drag contents into a new PDF file, and other features to help you do your work more efficiently.
• Other ideas – this is where you come in.

Let us know if you have ideas on how to do your work better with PDF Prime.  We are the people who work on the internals of PDF Prime daily, enhancing existing features and building new features.

We certainly would like to see your ideas in our next version!

We are cutting the price during this day 60%, so you can get a full version of PDF Prime for only $7.98.  PDF Prime is normally $19.95, so this is an incredible savings!

UPDATE: The BitsDuJour.com PDF Prime 60% offer page
is live.  You can preview PDF Prime, comment with other interested people, and view a preview video.  Give it a try!

All you need to do is go to the PDF Prime BitsDuJour product page anytime on February 19.  You will be able to see other user comments and we will be answering user questions.

If you were waiting to purchase PDF Prime, now is your chance!

PDF Prime 2.1 has been released and is ready for download

PDF Prime 2.1 is now released and available for download.  Key changes:

• All PDF Processing is now handled in-memory
• Idea / Contact form
• The default “Processed” folder
• Eliminated several bugs

All PDF Processing is now handled in-memory:

We wanted to improve the performance of PDF Prime as a key improvement for this version.  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 and deleted in this process.  Anytime the hard drive is accessed on a computer 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.  So, if you download and install PDF Prime, you should notice a much more responsive feel to the program.

Idea / Contact form:

We really like to hear from users of PDF Prime.  Have you used PDF Prime and have an idea for improvement?   You of course can send us a message by going to our website contact page or emailing us.  However, if you are using PDF Prime and you see even something small that continually bothers you and you think we should change it, then you simply can pop the feedback/idea screen and send us a quick message.

The default “Processed” folder

Many people may never see this feature in PDF Prime, but we will explain it anyway.  As an example, let’s say you have a number of PDF files on a disk in your computer’s CD drive, or you are working with PDF files in a read-only folder (often the case in companies with shared user access to company-wide files).  If you drag-and-dropped several of these files onto PDF Prime and merged them together into a new PDF file, PDF Prime will show a screen to give you the chance to pick the location of the merged PDF file:

The save default location screen in PDF Prime

It’s just the standard Windows “Pick a folder” screen, but showing this is a reminder that the location PDF Prime usually picks as a default folder (the same folder as the first PDF file being processed) cannot be written to, so PDF Prime is asking for a new location.

Eliminated several bugs

In past versions of PDF Prime, we had bugs submitted to us that involved processing the PDF files.  Often, this was due to the PDF files residing in a read-only folder or folder that for some reason could not be written to.  By handling all PDF processing in-memory and having PDF Prime offer to change the default location of processed PDF files cut the number of bugs we have received for PDF Prime 2.1 down to nearly zero.  The exact number is ONE, and I think we have that one resolved.

In summary, we hope PDF Prime works fast and efficient for you.  It’s goal is to help you do your work without getting in your way and help you get on with your day.

Checkered flag photo used under Creative Commons by Tharrin.

• Detect corrupted, errored, or locked PDFs.
• Unlock multiple PDF files at once, each with a different password.
• We also added an in-app Help file with an accompanying online help resource.
• Fixed a few other minor bugs and inconstancies in user interface.

Give PDF Prime a try, and let us know how you like it.  We are always looking for ways to improve.

We received a glowing review from CNET, owners of the largest software download website on the Internet.  CNET editors receive software submissions and have staff members thoroughly review them. It’s in CNET’s best interest to list only the highest quality software, and we are happy CNET considers us worthy of that high standard.

A link to the actual article: CNET Reviews PDF Prime

We wanted to make PDF Prime the easiest and fastest PDF merging, splitting, locking, and unlocking tool available. Here are some of the highlights from the CNET review:

“…PDF Prime is an efficient, standalone utility. ”

“…among the fastest and easiest PDF utilities we’ve tested. ”

“…We barely had time to observe the green progress bar before the merged file was done. “

“…[PDF Prime] can help you to take care of business in less time than it takes to read some software’s documentation.

And our favorite:

“…It does what it does fast and without fuss, the essence of productivity.”

The Essence of Productivity. What a great PDF Prime tagline.

Thanks CNET!