Updating ancient Reader to Writer OFF THE CLOUD

[Navaho_Oven]

Wow.  Adobe is the most user-unfriendly web presence I have tried to navigate in a long time.  ALL that I want is to update a fully licensed OEM Reader version 7 to the Writer function on a 16+ year old computer not hooked to the internet.  I WILL NOT USE THE CLOUD.  Am I able to purchase an update for Adobe Reader 7 in order to create PDFs?  IF NOT then what is an Adobe approved PDF writer that is compatible with their quirks.  I have two programs that find extensive errors in second party conversions and MS WORD will convert to a PDF with a file size that can be TEN TIMES the megabytes as a 'normal' PDF.

[AnandSri]

Hello Navahooven,

We're sorry for the trouble you had, Adobe Reader is a free software to view, print, sign, and annotate a PDF. You cannot create a PDF using Adobe Reader. For more details, refer to Adobe article Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

Let latest version available is Adobe Reader DC. Adobe Reader 7 is old and out of support product. End of support | Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 (and earlier)

Assuming you want Acrobat to create PDF, you can subscribe to Acrobat, for features, plan, and pricing, please refer to Plans and pricing | Adobe Acrobat DC

Feel free to update this discussion for any further assistance.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[Navaho_Oven]

I tried slogging through the Adobe product information to see if version 9 would meet my needs but it brags about building PDFs on the cloud when I need to use the licensed product on a computer that is not hooked to the internet.

what options in the Adobe product line are available for that?

[Test Screen Name]

Acrobat 7, 8, 9, 10 (X) and 11 (XI) are all discontinued, no longer sold by Adobe and not supported. Only the current version (2017) is supported. DC is the same as 2017 but subscription only and requires the internet. What operating system do you have?

[Navaho_Oven]

windows XP

[Test Screen Name]

Adobe have no product for Windows XP, and do not endorse any third party products.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

In addition to the plans and pricing mentioned earlier,

Plans and pricing | Adobe Acrobat DC

you can also use PDF Pack with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to create PDFs.

Create PDFs, export PDFs, or access other online services

Online PDF converter, convert from web or Acrobat Reader | Adobe PDF Pack

Remember that Adobe does not own PDF; they gave it away to an ISO a number of years ago. So if you want to make Microsoft PDFs, you can, but if you have problems with them then you need to ask on the Microsoft forums.

We can answer questions about Adobe Acrobat and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Adobe does not sell products that they no longer support. Be aware as you make your decisions that using unsupported software means you do not get security patches.

Windows XP support ended on April 8, 2014.

Windows XP End of Support

It sounds like with the requirements that you have, Adobe does not offer anything that will work on your current system. Your version of Reader 7 will be able to open PDFs created for 7 and earlier, but you won't be able to open those saved in 8, 9, X, XI, or DC.

[try67]

Do you want to view PDF files, or create them? If the latter, Adobe can't offer you anything. If the former, you can get an older version of the free Adobe Reader, here: ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/

These older version (anything from version XI or earlier) doesn't have anything to do with the dreaded cloud, and even in those that do you don't have to use it if you don't want to...

[Navaho_Oven]

Thank you for your replies.  I reference the earlier reply by jane-e that Adobe is somehow removed from PDF, yet my experience is that Adobe was the premier PDF arbiter of that file format, so I guess I will look well outside the Adobe product line to get to pure PDF creation.  The Catch 22 is that third parties use Distiller as an industry standard so whoever controls PDF as proprietary software is still at the mercy of a collection of software that all have intrinsic bugs to the point where they can't talk to each other.  PDFs were designed so that anyone, anywhere could open that format at anytime, but I am being told in the previous reply that a newer PDF can't even be read on an old reader.  Most technical papers authored on the web must be using backwards compatible software because I can read them just fine on old adobe licensed products.  The problem remains this: I want to CREATE pdfs using whatever software is compatible with Adobe so it doesn't create a trainwreck and as you eloquently say: doesn't have anything to do with the dreaded cloud.  What I see and experience in computing is a form of economic extortion that software companies exert that marginalizes those who have little to no internet function, and old machines with old software with no option, or inclination to update because if machines are offline they don't need security updates.  For a villager in Africa or rural America the problems are the same.  Economic marginalization.  All  want to do is make a PDF at home on a machine that is not connected to Sky Net.  If it is this hard, then I will go back to writing with pen and ink.  Cheers.

[try67]

You can get Adobe Acrobat Pro, perpetual license. It needs to connect to the internet once to activate (and even that can be done over the phone, if you have a computer that can't connect to the internet at all).

Beyond that, feel free to look for third-party software. No one's forcing you to use Adobe's applications, and the PDF format is not proprietary. It's an international ISO Standard that anyone can use to create an application that reads or creates or edits PDF files.

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Navaho+Oven  wrote

but I am being told in the previous reply that a newer PDF can't even be read on an old reader.  Most technical papers authored on the web must be using backwards compatible software because I can read them just fine on old adobe licensed products.  .

I realize now that the way I worded it could be misinterpreted. If someone is using Acrobat DC (or X or XI) and creating a PDF using the PDFMaker in Microsoft Office products (the Acrobat tab) with the setting called "Standard", then they will be saving into Acrobat 6. So you will be able to open the PDF with Reader or Acrobat 6 or later, but not with 5 or earlier. A few years back, the default was 5, and someday the default will be 7. Most Microsoft users don't change the defaults because they don't know how. If you get PDFs that you can't open, you may be able to ask the creator to save it back into a version that you have.

Is that a better explanation?

In File > Properties > Description you can see the creator and the version it was saved in.

[Test Screen Name]

Actually this statement is wrong "Reader 7 will be able to open PDFs created for 7 and earlier, but you won't be able to open those saved in 8, 9, X, XI, or DC." Generally newer versions of Acrobat make PDF files compatible back to Acrobat and Reader 7 (with a couple of specific exceptions). After Acrobat 8, the standard was handed over to ISO. But none of this changes the position that Adobe don't sell their old software.