{rw_text}Giveaway of the day for October 20, 2009 is:

AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint

Version reviewed:

v1.0.0.8/v1.0.0.12

System Requirements:

Windows XP/Vista 32bit; Additional software: Microsoft PowerPoint 2002/2003/2007/2010

Software description as per GOTD:

PDF to PowerPoint (PDF to PPT) is a professional PDF solution to convert PDF files to PowerPoint presentations. PDF to PowerPoint fulfills your conversion by one click. The original layouts, text content, images, and hyperlinks are exactly retained in the generated PPT files. Batch conversion and fast processing help you save the time. You can convert PDF to PowerPoint 2010, 2007 or 2003 without any problems. You just need to import PDF files and click Convert, then the converter will do the rest for you.Key Features:

• Convert PDF files to PPT presentations quickly and accurately;
• Retain all the original layouts, text content, images, and hyperlinks;
• Support encrypted PDF file conversion;
• Batch convert 200 PDF files at the same time;
• Support Microsoft PowerPoint 2010;
• Support languages: English, Turkish, Thai, Latin, Korean, Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese;
• More details..

Ashraf’s note:

My apologies to dotTechies and GOTDers’ for today’s review. I did not properly conduct an investigation the first time around on AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint so I had to revise my review many times before I could publish it. You may also notice I posted multiple comments on GOTD today (for the same reason).

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Windows 7/Vista users should run AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint as Administrator every time or else it may get stuck at “Waiting” when converting files.

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One more program I ran into after I installed and used today’s giveaway version instead of using just the trial version: AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint Converter is crashing and does not fully convert any PDF file! This is really odd because when I used the trial version to write my full review (the trial version only allows you to convert the first three pages) the conversions finished just fine. However with the GOTD version ABS PtP is crashing and not finishing any file conversion. This is on Windows 7 but AnyBizSoft claims Windows 7 is supported (the developer’s website states “The First PDF to PowerPoint Converter supports Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 7“).

Upon further investigation, it looks like we are getting v1.0.0.12 from GOTD but v1.0.0.8 is the one available directly from the developer’s website. ABS messed up something in v1.0.0.12 because it keeps crashing. However v1.0.0.8 works just fine. Therefore I suggest everyone do the following:

• Download and install v1.0.0.8 from the developer’s website (click here).
• Then download the file from GOTD today and run Activate.exe to register it.

Now keep in mind this problem is happening on Windows 7. I don’t know if the same problem occurs on other OSes because I have not had a chance to test it on them yet.

————————-{/rw_text} –>

{rw_good}

• Straightforward and easy to use.
• Not too slow or too resource intensive.
• Fairly good conversion accuracy (although not 100% perfect).
• You can convert up to 200 PDFs in batch.
• Allows you to convert whole PDF or select pages.
• Can convert “encrypted” PDFs.
• Supports drag + drop.

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• Converts PDF to PPTX (instead of PPT).
• You need Microsoft Office installed to use.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”8″}Point and click for the most part. However if yo have Microsoft Office 2007/2010, ABS PtP will convert to PPTX instead of PPT so you will have to open up the PPTX and save it as PPT manually if you plan on sending it to someone who can’t open PPTXs.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”8″}Although not 100% prefer, the conversion accuracy is pretty good.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”5″}Because it needs Microsoft PowerPoint to convert, many people won’t find this useful because many people don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”8″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect my overall rating/verdict of the program in which I considered all the features and free alternatives.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>

{rw_verdict}[tupr]
{/rw_verdict} –>

AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint is a simple, easy-to-use program that converts PDFs to PowerPoint presentations.

That being said, this is what AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint (ABS PtP) looks like:

Using ABS PtP is very easy; even easier than eating pie. You simply click on “Add Files…” and add the PDFs you want to convert, or you can drag + drop the PDFs. You can convert 200 PDFs in batch so feel free to add as many PDFs (up to 200) as you want.

Once you have added a PDF, you can select to convert only specific pages…

…or if you would rather just convert the whole PDF you can leave it at “All”. After that, simply hit “Convert” to begin converting the PDFs. When the conversions are done, you should be able to click on the hyperlink under “Status” to access the PowerPoints directly:

Conversions are done at a pretty good speed, although not “blazing fast” either: it took me about 30 seconds to convert a 51 page PDF; computer resource usage is not too bad either (~50% CPU and ~50 MB RAM combined between PowerPoint and ABS PtP during conversion process).

Furthermore, the conversion accuracy is pretty good. Although not 100% prefect (I noticed it tends to miss converting backgrounds on a regular basis), ABS PtP accurately converts the text and images of PDFs. However, sometimes the images may be converted in such as way that they will not be single images which you can play around with individually but rather all the images may be combined together as one image or the image and background may be combined together as one image. The text, however, is always converted into text boxes so you can easily edit it.

Overall AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint is a good program; I give it a thumbs up. However there are two major cons worth noting. ABS PtP uses Microsoft PowerPoint as part of its conversion process. This means two things:

• If you have Microsoft Office 2007/2010, you will be creating .PPTX instead of .PPT (if you have Microsoft Office 2003 you will create .PPT). Therefore you will have to manually go in and save the .PPTX as .PPT if you plan on sending them to anyone that cannot open .PPTX files. A simple trick to go from .PPT -> .PPTX I know of is simply renaming the file from .PPTX -> .PPT. I don’t know if this works all the time or not (it should) but it is pretty handy.
• If you don’t have Microsoft Office installed, you will not be able to use ABS PtP.

This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

{rw_verdict2}Since you have to have Microsoft Office installed to use, AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint will be useless to many people. However to those that do have Microsoft Office, ABS PtP is a useful nice tool so I give it a thumbs up. Since I don’t know of any free alternatives that do a better job at converting PDF to PowerPoint, I also recommend AnyBizSoft PDF to PowerPoint to anyone that needs it.
{/rw_verdict2} –>