Does anybody know of a good simple working PDF writer other than Adobe "free" trial version?

I have a few forms I need to fill out and my hand writing at nearly 70 is not so good.

Foxit lets you fill in forms if the form has the option of letting itself be filled in. You can also Openoffice but that is more complicated.

Nitro Reader allow you to fill out and sign pdf forms even it the pdf file is locked.

Thank you for both replies.

I have never used either and Open Office seems to be a bit of an overkill for what I need at the moment.

Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Nitro first, Open Office second, system restore if neither works.

I use PDF-XChange viewer (free). You can edit PDF's totally free or you can get the paid version to do other things, such as convert PDF to Word etc.

http://pdf-xchange-viewer.en.softonic.com/

Simply open up the PDF file you want, click on the Typewriter option then click on the PDF where you want to type and start typing.

Very easy to use.

Have a look at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

I use Infix for form filling

In free mode, it leaves a small logo at the bottom of the page

but I have never had a problem with that

Nitro Reader allow you to fill out and sign pdf forms even it the pdf file is locked.

BB1950

Thanks very much for the information.

I downloaded Nitro reader last night easily but the installation took a long while for some reason.

This morning I tried it out on my application form for a new UK passport and though it was a bit fiddly to begin with after I worked out that I needed to get the top line straight and tidy it was OK.

in the Smart type mode once the first character is in the right place in a box a dotted line will get all the horizontal charaters lined up and as I went down the page the dotted lines are both horizontal and vertical and easy to follow. When I made an error I just deleted the character and hitthe escape key and then selected Type Text from the box above and started again

There is even a place for my signature to be inserted.

Just take a photo of your signature and save it then reuse it anytime.

I just do a Save as when I am finished with a different suffix and it works great.

Thanks to all of you for your help and I will download and save the others to "play" with later.

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

Just in case, there is a good list (with reviews) available here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-pdf-writer.htm

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

I tried Cute PDF but I couldn't get on with it.

Nitro does not handle locked files as suggested.

Nitro does not handle locked files as suggested.

I guess it's a misunderstanding.

True, you can't modify locked files, but you can comment on and fill out form files, which is what the OP wanted. It's done as an overlay. That's why you have to position the cursor exactly to where you want to place the text rather than use a text field for the form. Kind of like a graphics application. I do it all the time with government forms which are locked.

how about rasteredge .net pdf writer, have you tried yet. it is a pdf software with reading, viewing, converting and processing function.

even though i don't know whether it is able to fill out forms. but it can definetly make your pdf document better.

Nitro 3 worked great for me though at times it is a bit fiddley.

After the first few lines are set up the rest follow nicely.

All I wanted was to fill in some PDF forms. The main content WAS locked but I wasn't interested in changing that but the parts that I needed to fill worked for me.

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

I tried Cute PDF but I couldn't get on with it.

Here, in Win 7 HP 64 bit, CutePDF Writer is functioning fine as printer driver for saving info via Windows print function to disk in PDF format.

+1 for CutePDF.

I tried Nitro for a few weeks on recommendations here but found it not reliable - graphic phone manuals for Nokia (which were fine) displayed with all drawings unreadable. Have returned to Foxit which have been using for years and never have had such an issue with. Keep copy of Adobe reader on computer for when required, as it seemed to be for filing recent FBAR report to US Government.