I've been using Foxit extensively in the past couple of days while doing the JPMC case study "The Deal" (which I mentioned about earlier); most annual reports of companies are best viewed in pdf format. Here's what I feel about the software:
(+) Foxit is very responsive. It opens up quite fast and closes (or at least disappears from screen) quite quickly. I'd say 3-5x times faster than the "other" PDF reader.
(+) It definitely lighter on memory. Yeah, maybe not with a 2mb footprint, but muuuccchh lighter than it's counterpart.
(+) The free-to-use tools are superb. Especially handy is the annotation tool, I find myself using it in a lot of places to note down ideas as I read my case.
I haven't used all of the tools extensively, but the line up is impressive.
(+) The free pdf writer and the pdf editor are also highly appreciated. But when it comes to pdf's which I have to send to other people, I would prefer to use PDF995. Foxit leaves an evaluation mark "Generated by Foxit PDF Creator © Foxit Software" on each printed page.
(-) The "Find" dialog box is a pain. It appears right in the middle of the window. I have to constantly move it around in order to see the text that it finds. Either it should move around automatically to reveal text that appears behind it, or the "Find" textbox should appear in the toolbar, like Firefox or the "other" PDF reader.
(-) There's a screen painting problem sometimes. When I open a 165 page document and search, the page on which the word is found is not drawn properly. It seems like the previous pages have overlapped it. When I minimize the window and maximize it again, the window draws itself well. It does not happen always. I think when too many programs run it happens.
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I've made Foxit my default PDF reader and kept the "other" reader as backup. If Foxit proves that it can handle all that the other reader can, then next time I format my system, I might simply "forget" to install the other reader. :)
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