EPrint 5 Professional Conversion Utility

Abstract

Conversion and other utility software packages are rarely reviewed in The American Statistician. This is unfortunate since statisticians frequently use utility programs in their work. It is also the case that some packages are better than others in dealing with their particular purpose. I believe it warranted therefore that this section occasionally provide brief reviews of various utility programs, especially when they can impact our daily work. Lead Technologies, Inc. of Charlotte, NC, is the manufacturer of ePrint 5 Professional, a conversion program providing the ability to convert between any Windows applications, including PDF, DOC, XLS, HTML, TXT, TIFF, JPG, GIF, PNG and many others. The vendor claims that ePrint 5 Professional recognizes, and can convert between, more than 150 file formats. Additionally, the software allows the user to save, print, e-mail, or even combine files from within the package itself. One may print to multiple printers in the office or workplace while simultaneously e-mailing to a list of addresses. ePrint 5 can be run on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP, and now Vista operating systems. This evaluation is based on Windows XP. A prime feature of the software is its capability to convert any Windows-based file to PDF format. This is what first attracted me to the package. In fact, the low cost ($49) relative to Adobe Acrobat ($199) will likely sway the more cost conscious to purchase ePrint, especially if their primary concern is simply conversion to PDF form. For this review I evaluated the ability of the software to convert Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to PDF. I also converted PDF documents to Word, both with and without graphical images.