Corel PDF Fusion is a Windows application for opening, assembling, editing and creating PDF files. It brings pages from PDFs, Word and Excel files, PowerPoint slides, XPS documents and PostScript files into one workspace. Users can combine them into a single document and save it as PDF, XPS or Word. It is a paid Corel program with a trial period that gives full access to its features.
Three ways to open a file
The welcome screen of Corel PDF Fusion shows drop zones for three views, and dragging a file onto one opens it there.
- Page View shows one document page by page, with a side pane for pages, bookmarks and comments. Most editing happens here.
- Flick View pages through a document by dragging, like turning a book’s pages. The length of the drag sets the speed.
- Assembly View lays out every open document as a row of page thumbnails for combining and rearranging pages.
A full-screen Presentation View is available for reading or showing a document. Several files can stay open in color-coded tabs, with a pencil icon marking unsaved changes.
Supported file types
PDF Fusion opens PDF and PDF/A files, PostScript files, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in older and current formats, and XPS files. The program’s own import reads Office files, so it does not need Microsoft Office to open them. Saving an imported file as PDF turns the import into a quick conversion.
Combining pages in Assembly View
In Assembly View, the document at the top of the window is the target and the other open documents sit underneath as sources. Pages are dragged from a source row into the target. Several pages can be moved together.
To build a new file, a user creates an empty document, switches it to Assembly View and drags the source files onto the window. The user puts the needed pages into the new document and deletes unwanted ones with a right-click. They then save the result under a new name and format.
The same view handles page housekeeping: reordering, inserting blank pages, deleting, rotating by 90 degrees and extracting selected pages into a new document. Users can also stack pages temporarily to keep a group together. A crop tool trims pages to a standard size such as Letter or A4, or by custom margins. It can apply the crop across the whole document, selected pages or a range, optionally limited to odd or even pages.
Correcting and removing text
Selecting text in Corel PDF Fusion brings up a toolbar to copy, correct, redact, link, bookmark or mark it up. Text correction replaces the selected words in a small dialog and usually keeps the original font. It works on one horizontal line at a time without wrapping, so it cuts off longer replacements. It only works in files whose security settings allow editing.
Redaction permanently removes the first match of a search term, every match, or any area drawn on the page. Anything touching a redacted area is flattened into an image and can no longer be edited. Watermarks can also be added with a chosen font, position, color, size, angle and opacity.
Comments, bookmarks and links
For review work, PDF Fusion can highlight, underline or strike out text, and a double-click on a markup attaches a comment. Sticky notes can go anywhere. The Free Text tool adds formatted text blocks that users can later flatten into the page. Comments can be spell-checked, exported or imported as FDF files, and emailed as an FDF attachment.
Bookmarks can be created from selected text or an area and nested in levels. Hyperlinks point from text or an area to another page, a web address or a file.
Passwords and permissions
Documents can be encrypted and protected with passwords that restrict printing, copying and editing. The program also respects the permissions of files it opens.
Saving and converting
Save As writes a document as PDF, XPS or Word, and Export adds PNG images. PDF output can be optimized for efficiency or linearized so it starts displaying quickly on the web. Converting to XPS drops PDF-only features such as annotations.
Corel PDF Fusion comes with companion tools. PDF Converter converts a batch of dropped files to PDF, XPS or Word and can also produce PDF/A. A virtual printer creates PDF or XPS files from any application that can print, and a PDF Fusion tab in Word, Excel and PowerPoint does the same with one click.
Trial and viewer mode
When the trial ends without a serial number, Corel PDF Fusion keeps working as a viewer. Users can still open, read and print documents. However, any changed document that they save, print or email carries a watermark.
