Sequence to Replace Free PDFViewer 2.0 by PRO 2.5

[RNFolsom]

I am currently using the free version of PDF-XChange Viewer 2.0 build 57 (hereafter 2.0.57), and an equally "ancient" 2.0 manual.

I want to end up with a paid-for PRO latest version 2.5.191, and the latest manual 2.5.188, which my current Viewer 2.0.57 offers in its update menu.

But since I couldn't get some key questions (asked below) answered from the 2.0 manual, I went to https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/downloads, and in the PDF-XChange Viewer section, under Version: 2.5.191 (updated on 11 Jan, 2011), I downloaded only the manual. After I downloaded that manual and unzipped its container, the "new" manual had exactly the same number of bytes as my current manual, as well as a May 2010 date, so I concluded that you weren't yet offering the new manual (at least not from your download website), even though my current Viewer 2.0.57 offers (together with the new software 2.5.191) a new manual version 2.5.188.

So here are the questions to which I need answers:

1) After I purchase a new PRO 2.5.191 version, before I install it, do I need to uninstall my current free 2.0.57 version?

2) If the answer to question 1) is that I do NOT need to uninstall my current version, should I go ahead and use my current version's update facility to install a Free 2.5.191 version and get a new manual version 2.5.188, and THEN purchase the new PRO 2.5.188 manual, and install the new PRO 2.5.191 on top of the Free 2.5.191 version that I had just finished installing?

The short version of questions 1) and 2) is: What sequence of actions would take me most efficiently from my current free 2.0.57 version to a purchased PRO 2.5.191 version, and also get a new 2.5.188 manual?

3) I have saved my version 2.0.57 settings. Will they be able to be imported into a purchased new PRO 2.5.191 version?

Thanks for any help.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Roger,

The easiest and fastest solution would be to run the Live Updater, and let it update both the Viewer to 2.5.191, and the manual to 2.5.188, then purchase a license, and enter it in Edit -> Preferences -> Registration, to activate the Pro features in the Viewer.

Using the Live updater should keep your current settings intact, but yes, you could always import saved settings from a saved file at a later moment.

Best,
Stefan

[RNFolsom]

Stefan:

Thanks for your very clear reply about how to move from an installed PDF-XChange Viewer Free version 2.0 to PRO version 2.5. Also, I had suspected that the Free version included the PRO features (instead of downloading them and gluing them on to the Free version), but wasn't sure about that, so I appreciate your making that clear also.

Fortunately, my Free 2.0.57 download was an exe file and not an msi file, so I'm expecting your instructions will work fine with no problem.

Roger Folsom

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Glad I could help Roger!

I presume all went well with updating?

Best,
Stefan

[RNFolsom]

Stefan:

First, let me thank you again for your help.

I was out of town for a long weekend, and although before I left I had purchased three years of license of PDF-XChange Viewer PRO, it almost was impossible to actually install it.

Before posting my initial message to you, I had spent multiple hours trying to figure out the installation procedure.

And today I have spent at least two hours (plus another hour or so writing this message) trying to figure out where to go from here.

First issue: I have received two email messages: A "Registration Email" from Tracker, and a "Thank you for your order" and order number from SWEG Digital River.

NEITHER document mentions that I purchased the three year update (unless I made a mistake and purchased only the two year, but I KNOW that I didn't purchase only the one year) for $43.13. The "Thank you for your order" does mention that price, but there's nothing about three years of updates. That's boondoggle #1.

#2) Taken together, both messages are confused about what apparently is a KeyCode --- or else a serial number. Sometimes the emails I received use one term, sometimes the other term, but fortunately one of them once said keycode/serial (or vice versa), so a sharp-eyed user might guess that KeyCode and Serial Number are the same thing, but he couldn't be absolutely sure.

#3) The Registration email, which includes a Login (the same as my previous login, RNFolsom), and a new password. And then it says "To view or update your account details please login into your account here: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/account/my_account"
But when I did so, it wouldn't accept my new password. And it wouldn't accept my old password. So, as nearly as I can tell, I have somehow offended Tracker and so I can't have an account. (I did login to this thread using my old password. But a forum isn't an account, I think.)

So at https://www.pdf-xchange.com/account/my_account, I tried to open a new account, using the Keycode for the serial number. After I had filled in multiple lines with ALL of the information that Tracker already had because it had issued me a Keycode/serial number, I got a message that I couldn't have that account because I already had it.

So I exited that mess, and decided to use the keycode/serial number to upgrade my PDF-XChange Viewer FREE to PRO. According to the "Thank you for your Order" message from SWEG, here's how to do that:

"If you have downloaded very recently a trial version - this can be enabled to be 'live' by re-running the installer and copy/pasting the serial number when requested into the appropriate field. However we do recommend that you periodically download a new version to be sure you have the latest possible release."

There's no explanation of what the "installer" is --- maybe the downloaded file? --- and in any case, for someone in my situation who already had a very recent and therefore current copy of the downloaded installation file, that instruction is total bunk.

What saved the day was a guy named Stefan, who had, in a previous message, told me to go to "Edit -> Preferences -> Registration, to activate the Pro features in the Viewer." User preferences is the last place I would ever have looked for installing a keycode or serial number; that sort of thing usually is under the program's Help menu, About.

I have now activated PDF-XChange Viewer's PRO features. THANK YOU. Your explanatory message --- nothing like it on the website as nearly as I can determine, apparently because some parts of Tracker's website are designed on the assumption that users never upgrade to PRO from Free --- at least some of your webpage designers apparently assume that you've got to sucker customers into PRO from the very beginning, or else Tracker will never get any money out of them. But that's wrong. I'm an example.

And I can do without having an account, especially since this forum happily uses my old password.

But the Tracker email messages are a mess. And as I mentioned last year to Paul O'Rork, the home page is a chaotic mess, especially that stupid big fat moving band at the top which gets in the way of many things.

Thanks again for saving the day.

Cordially, Roger Folsom

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Roger,

thanks for the feedback. I've asked the person responsible for managing the website (and subsequent emails generated) to look at your post and consider the implications.

Sincerely

[RNFolsom]

Paul O'Rorke:

You are more than welcome for the feedback. PDF-XChange Viewer is such a great program, that I'm glad I made the effort to acquire it! Despite the time consumed. (Yeah, I know, that's a sentence fragment. <grin>)

Cordially, Roger Folsom

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Roger,

If the problem with logging in to your account on the website still exists (yes the forums are separate), please write to us at support@ with how you want your new password to be and I will manually reset that and double check the login is working for you.

Best,
Stefan

[RNFolsom]

Stefan:

Thanks for your offer to manually fix my "My Account" logon.

But today I was able to log on to "My Account." For security reasons, I won't explain here how I did that, but I will send you the details about how I did that at what you described as "support@," which is a bit incomplete. <grin>

So please give me a more complete address. The post-purchase-PRO emails I received gave me two choices:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/support
and
http://www.docu-track.com/support/

Alternatively, since I have Paul O'Rorke's email, I could send the "how I did it" information to him, and ask him to pass the information on to you.

Let me know what you want me to do about that information.

Meanwhile, before I change the login that worked (but which I don't think I should use in the long run), I need to know the password rules:
How many characters max? Case sensitive? A mix of letters and numbers, perhaps with a requirement that the initial and/or end characters need to be a letter (or maybe a number)?

I didn't see that information on the change password webpage.

As always, thanks for the help.

Roger Folsom

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Roger,

Apologies - it is support@pdf-xchange.com

As for the password - certainly it is case sensitive, and for the rest I will need to speak with the web dev guys.

Awaiting your e-mail.

Best,
Stefan

[RNFolsom]

Stefan:

In your most recent post in this thread, you wrote:

As for the password - certainly it is case sensitive, and for the rest I will need to speak with the web dev guys.
Awaiting your e-mail.

On Thursday, 20 Jan 2011 12:22:51 California time, I sent you (Attention London-based Stefan, at support@pdf-xchange.com) an email as you requested --- including that "At your convenience, I'm looking forward to getting that information, but there's no crisis."

You haven't had time to respond to my email to you, which is fine, because earlier today I successfully used a password generator to create 16-character passwords (a mix of upper and lower case letters, and numbers) for my PRO PDF-XChange Viewer account and for my Forum Board access.

Also, in case I need to to change those passwords, I have carefully documented and saved the paths for doing so. My detailed documentation may be useful to others:

PRO PDF-XCHANGE VIEWER ACCOUNT PASSWORD: If forgotten, go to the PRO PDF-XChange Viewer Account URL, and click on "Forgot your password?" Then enter your email address, and wait for an email with a new password. Use that password to login.
To set a different password, on the Home >> My Account page, click on "Modify Your Password."

FORUM BOARD PASSWORD: If forgotten, go to the Forum Board URL, and click on "Forgot your user name and/or password? Click here to retrieve." Then enter your Username (optional) and email address, and wait for an email with a new password. Use that password to login.
To set a different password, go to User Control Panel, Options column, Profile, Edit Account Settings.

Thanks again to you, and to Paul O'Rorke, for all of the help you have provided.

No need to reply.

I have sent the contents of this post to you also by email.

Sincerely and Cordially, Roger Folsom

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for the comments Roger,

And yes I do also hope that this will be useful to others as well - that's the main idea of forums, that all information posted is shared with everyone else interested in reading them

Regards,
Stefan

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi Roger,

one note of concern regarding your message ...

You said that you wrote to us on 20th Jan by email - but had not received a reply - is that correct ?

If so, thats not acceptable - we answer all emails within 24 hours maximum (except at weekends) and usually much quicker - can you please confrim and I will investigate here why you did not receive a reply.

Thanks

[RNFolsom]

John:

Here is the opening information for the first email message I sent to Stefan (created by starting a forward of that message):

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 'My Account' Login and Password customization
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:22:51 -0800
From: R.N. Folsom <rnfolsom@redshift.com>
To: support@pdf-xchange.com
CC: paul.ororke@docu-track.com

Attention London-based Stefan:

Thanks for your full email address! . . . Etc., starting with point 0)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the opening information for the second email message I sent to Stefan (again created by starting a forward of that message):

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 'My Account' Login and Password customization UPDATE
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:51:24 -0800
From: R.N. Folsom <rnfolsom@redshift.com>
To: support@pdf-xchange.com
CC: paul.ororke@docu-track.com

Attention London-based Stefan:

There's no need to reply to the message I sent you earlier (message below), because I have successfully used a password generator to create 16-character passwords (a mix of upper and lower case letters, and numbers) for my PRO PDF-XChange Viewer account and for my Forum Board access. . . . Etc.

================================================================

However, I just now checked my email, and Stefan apparently DID receive my second email, because he sent me a reply.

I hope this helps. I suggest that you check with Stefan to see if he ever personally received my first email message (and confirm that he did receive my second message, and that his reply to me was not to my equivalent post on this forum). If he did not receive my first and/or second email message, the problem may have been that whoever received my message to support@pdf-xchange.com didn't know how to forward them it to Stefan.

I semi-addressed the messages to "Attention London-based Stefan" because they were responses to Stefan's and my posts here and I didn't think they would be completely understood by anyone other than Stefan. I used the support@pdf-xchange.com address because doing so was my understanding of Stefan's instructions.

Cordially, Roger Folsom

P.S. Thanks for your kind remarks in your post in my other thread.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Roger,

It seems that Stefan felt this had been dealt with and therefore moved to our 'Completed' area - I am confident he understands now that the situation was not quite as he thought and will be more careful in future.

Thanks

[RNFolsom]

John:

I also thought the "Sequence to Replace Free PDFViewer 2.0 by PRO 2.5" thread was finished, but something came up today that may be worth including in installation instructions.

I am continuing to use Windows 2000 Sp4. So I installed the Free PDFViewer last fall, and updated it to PRO 2.5 earlier this month, while in my Administrator account.

Today, while in my Restricted (Limited) User account, for the first time (since the PRO installation) I needed to use a PRO feature (print scaling), and discovered that I was in the Free version. I exited the Viewer and logged into my Administrator account, opened the PDF Viewer, and there I already was in the PRO version, as expected.

So I returned to my Restricted User account, went to Edit, Preferences, Registration, and pasted in my KeyCode, which promptly put me in the PRO 2.5 version, so all was well.

My purpose in relating this history is simply to suggest that when the PRO version installation instructions are next revised, it would be convenient for users if the instructions include that they will need to copy their KeyCode not only when in their Administrator account, but also when they first enter PDF Viewer (or first need a PRO feature) while in their Restricted (Limited) user account.
I'm not happy with that wording, but I hope it gets across the idea.

For the nth time (with n threatening to approach infinity), no need to reply to anything above, or anything below!

Cordially, Roger Folsom
________________________________________________________________
P.S. #1. While looking in the new 2.5.188 manual to see whether it includes installation instructions (I didn't find any other than for silent installations and MSI installers), page 10 in section 1.2 includes the following statement: "This documentation is valid through version 2.00.4x."
I understand section 1.2's point that keeping the documentation "abreast of the latest features" is difficult, but a lag as large as 2.5.188 - 2.00.4x seems implausible, especially since that same statement is in the 2.0 Manual's page 10. I suspect someone simply forgot to update that statement.

P.S. #2. In my other thread, thanks for your unexpected reply explaining the rationale for my receiving installation information from SWREG.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Roger - noted