Interactive Features Of This Document Require Adobe Reader: Fill & Download for Free

Depends on what specifically you want your students to do in those PDFs and what do you mean by “write”.Annotations (comments). Most PDF reader apps will let them annotate the file (add comments), but while they all support the basic sticky notes, few go beyond. Adobe Reader will give your students lots of drawing annotations, text editing markup, file attachments and more (some of it will require Reader-enabling in Acrobat first), so it still sounds like the best free option. It will also let you add text with Fill & Sign tool and edit it, but neither it nor other free readers will let you edit and format the text and images already in the file. That's a feature of Acrobat Pro and its other paid rivals.Forms. Those created with Acrobat Pro (acroforms) can be filled in most readers, including on mobile. Depending on how the form was created you may need to Reader-enable it in Acrobat so it can be saved or digitally signed. If your PDF looks like a form, but is in fact flat without any fields, e.g. just for printing, you can still use the Fill & Sign tools in Adobe Reader to type over it and place a drawing of a signature.Interactivity. This is tricky. Anything made with Flash or requiring it will only work in Adobe Reader or Acrobat Pro, only on desktop, only with Flash Player installed separately on the destination system. Not a reliable option anymore… Almost anything that requires JavaScript won't work on mobile. There are very few PDF interactivity features that work more or less universally. Of those that immediately come to mind it's probably only video (.mp4, not .flv) and the show/hide field functionality.

That does not seem possible.The only danger in PDF is it being able to perform actions coded in JavaScript, some of which can be made malicious. Running scripts requires actually manipulating the document (at least, parsing it's contents) in an environment that can support JS execution for PDF. Only the more robust PDF viewers support that, and the most ubiquitous of them, Adobe Reader, specifically protects users from dangerous scenarios by containing JS execution in a sandboxed memory space so the code can only operate on the document itself, not the OS environment or file system.The only potentially risky scenario I can think of is previewing PDFs in your email client or web app. By previewing I specifically mean rendering its contents, and not merely showing a generic PDF icon with a file name (which does not require accessing file contents). But I wouldn't worry too much about that either since previewing libraries usually only need access to page markup, ignore scripts altogether, and are not even equipped to interpret PDF-specific JS.Now, the last part of the picture is Flash content. The backbone of rich PDF interactivity and multimedia support, it is also the target of never ending exploits, which really can be that dangerous. A couple of points here. AFAIK, Flash content in PDF is only supported in Acrobat and Adobe Reader. Second, around 2012, version XI times, Adobe made the decision to decouple the built-in Flash player from Acrobat and Reader to stop having to keep up with Flash patches, released on their own cadence or out of cycle for severe vulnerabilities. Since then Acrobat and Reader rely on the Flash Player app's presence in the user's system. FP must then be installed and maintained independently. Without it, rich PDFs may open without multimedia and interactivity, and recent versions of Acrobat or Reader will warn you to install FP in the system for the full experience. But that will be a decision under your control. Plus, the dangers of Flash are not just in its feature set, they are a consequence of professional hacking, so there's nothing immediately wrong with multimedia and interactive PDFs. Other than them being an obsolete technology with no chances of mobile support.

There are quite a few alternate software out there that can help you in case you don’t want to work with Adobe Acrobat. Given below is a list of options you could try your hand at.#1. iSkysoft PDF Editor Pro (Mac and Windows)As a suitable alternative to Adobe Acrobat, you can download iSkysoft PDF Editor Pro for Mac and iSkysoft PDF Editor for Windows. This software comes with the facility of letting you edit your PDF documents in a broad scope as it is done in Office Word processor. It also lets you convert PDF documents to Word documents, Excel, HTML, PPT, EPUB, Images and more. And more features are available:Edit native and scanned PDF by adding, deleting or changing texts, images, and others in PDF.Annotate or mark up PDF with text boxes, sticky notes or freehand drawings.Convert standard and scanned PDF to Word, PPT, Excel, Images, HTML, and other formats.Create PDF from existing PDF, Webpages, HTML, and Text files.Quickly sign PDF and make comments. Decrypt or encrypt PDFs.Combine, compress or split PDF documents.Fill out PDF and create PDF from many free PDF form templates.#2. Nitro Pro 9 (Windows)Nitro Pro 9 is another Adobe Acrobat alternative that is gaining popularity when it comes to handling documents. The software comes with integrated Internet cloud facilities. It helps users to make new documents, edit them and share them with others easily both offline and online.Price: $ 183.58Pros:The documents created on Nitro Pro are PDF documents that can be opened from any PDF reader, and on any mobile device too.The Nitro Cloud feature lets users sign and share documents with users of different browsers.Cons:Nitro Pro 9 provides no facility for PDF indexing.It OCR facility malfunctions when it comes to big-sized documents.#3. Foxit PDF Editor (Windows)Foxit PDF Editor is a smooth-working PDF editing program. When it comes to PDF editing Foxit’s facilities match that of word processing software. This PDF editor locates test boxes automatically and lets users edit paragraphs within the text boxes.Price: $ 99Pros:It allows users to split or join text blocks to edit easily, where users can resize or move text blocks to get a definite layout.Its image editing capabilities are also better incorporated.Cons:It comes with a detached plug-in facility that needs to be installed separately.The process to update the plug-in is not clear.#4. PDF Studio (Mac, Windows, Linux)PDF Studio is a user-friendly Adobe Acrobat alternative that comes at half the price of Adobe Acrobat. It includes all the editing and extra features that a good PDF editing system has, while being in compliance with the PDF document standards.Price: $ 89Pros:It can annotate PDF documents, besides being able to make PDFs out of Word documents, images and other texts.It includes document support in the form of Google Drive SharePoint.Cons:Its trial version cones with a watermark.There is no provision of ‘Undo’, besides, it also doesn’t work with common trackpad commands like shrink or zoom.#5. PDFpen (Mac)PDFpen is a PDF editing software that is compatible with the Mac OS, and has the added advantage of reasonably priced. It has the common features of a PDF editor like making changes or correcting typos in the main text document, besides it also lets users add texts, signatures and images.Price: $ 59.95Pros:It has the ability to export Ms-Word files to the PDF format.It can scan images with OCR and turn it into a text document.Cons:It has some functional issues like pages can occasionally seem out of focus. Long documents take longer time to load.It also does not have features like Page Labelling.#6. PDFClerk Pro (Mac)PDFClerk Pro is a software known for its high-speed functionality when it comes to handling PDF documents. It comes with various interesting features where you can also make a PDF document in other foreign languages where it can be read from right to left as in Hebrew or Arabic. It gives you more layout options than most other softwares.Price: $ 48.00Pros:Letting users resize pages or even entire documents to another page size, and also letting them shift the content of the pages if necessary.Permitting users to export single pages in the bitmap (png, jpg etc.) format, or even make audio files from a text’s document.Cons:Page mark-up tools are absent.Visually the interface is not quite appealing.#7. PDF Signet (Mac)PDF signet is a Mac Adobe Acrobat alternative. It lets its users sign PDF documents with a X.509 certificate in a user-friendly manner. The app also lets users verify signatures by simply dropping the concerned PDF file into the app.Price: $ 10Pros:It allows users to place their signatures digitally on PDF files through any device.The certificate for signing can be employed easily from the Keychain.It also automatically signs documents as you make them.It also confirms the validity of existing signatures.Cons:Limited to a certain area of functionality in PDF documents.It is only compatible on the OS X 10.7 or later versions of the system.#8. Infix PDF Editor (Mac and Windows)Infix PDF Editor is an Adobe Acrobat alternative that edits PDF files in the manner of a word-processing software. Hence it is simple and highly functional when it comes to reformatting edited documents. From altering texts, font sizes and images, reutilizing and editing PDF files without needing the source file to filling in forms Infix PDF Editor is a resourceful software.Price: $ 99Pros:Its software akin to that of a word-processor makes it really easy to use, sans any complex functions.It can copy text and images between PDF files.It has the feature to Search and replace, not only in individual files but across multiple files simultaneously.Cons:When filling forms users will find a watermark appearing on the final document.Quite a few features are missing in its Standard and Advanced mode.#9. deskPDF Creator (Mac and Windows)Powered by Docudesk, deskPDF gives users the facility to convert documents of any format to PDF files. Compatible with both the Mac and Windows operating systems, this software contains easy-to-use but significant features like a drag-and-drop option to convert files to the PDF format, besides watermarking, merging, PDF file security provisions and custom profile workflows.Price:$ 34.95Pros:It comes installed with a virtual printer that assists in converting any file that has the ‘Print’ option to the PDF format.The PDF Preview feature facilitates users to view the file before it is printed, and even lets them rotate or remove pages if they require to.A swifter PDF creation engine ensures greater facilities. Users can select between making PDFs in quality formats or optimized small-sized PDFs that can be shared online or through emails.Cons:A nag screen that disturbs users in the trial version.Complicated advanced features that users take time to understand.#10. Proview (Mac)Compatible with the Mac OS X, Proview is a PDF editor that employs a broad array of features to edit documents and also to create new PDF documents. With this software users can remove or add PDF files, or make changes to multiple parts of a PDF text. All its features are quick and easy to execute.Price: $ 42.26Pros:Comprehensive and interactive tools, with greater formatting features that includes transparency as well.The tools of Trim, Bleed and art boxes, besides the capability of labelling multiple pages together.Cons:The fact that the documents edited by it trial version carry the watermark of ‘Demo’ across it.Its inadequate features as compared to Acrobat X Pro.#11.DigiSigner (free, Mac, Windows, Linux)DigiSigner is a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat that is compatible with Mac, Windows and also the Linux operating system, and is used to see PDF files and create digital signatures on them employing the X.509 certificates. The application is capable of endorsing and handling complicated functions like multiple signing of documents, USB sticks, smart cards and key stores.Price: FreePros:Its user-friendly interface, which can be either employed as a web device or an installed program.The facility to let users make legally validated signatures on PDF documents for free, utilizing the X.509 certificate.Cons:Its small area of specialization where it yields restricted features on the particular aspect of signing documents.The free edition is subject to only essential tools, whereas the paid application comes with greater facilities of time stamp, Smartcard/USB tokens, server support besides one year email assistance.#12. PDFLab (free, Mac)PDFLab is another free Adobe Acrobat alternative for Mac that permits users to divide and merge PDF files, besides letting them add images as well as blank pages. It also gives users the ease to build PDF documents by joining multiple images. Using it can be simple, as users only need to insert their files in a list, pick the pages, arrange them in a sequence and build a new PDF file.Price: FreePros:It comes with functions that let users swiftly divide a document into multiple ones.It also lets users password-protect files or decrypt them according to their needs.Cons:It is only compatible with a Mac OS.It comes with limited features as compared to a full-blown PDF editor.#13. Master PDF Editor (free, Mac, Windows, Linux)The Master PDF Editor is a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat that handles PDF and XPS files well. Though there is a paid edition the demo edition also lets users access all its features that include editing PDF files with both images and texts. Users can also build XPS or PDF files besides converting files between the two formats.Price:$ 49.95Pros:Users can edit or insert bookmarks in PDF documents, as well as encrypt them employing the 128 bit encryption method.Inserting PDF control tools like buttons, lists, checkboxes into the PDF files.Cons:The lack of a drag-and-drop tool.The trial version has a watermark that is added to all edited PDF files.#14. FreePDF (free, Windows)FreePDF is a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat for Windows that is generally used for seeing PDF files. FreePDF assists users in filling, signing and sending forms via email quickly. Its PDF viewer system is also integrated with features like page rotation, page snapshot, multi view mode etc. and lets users easily navigate through the PDF documents while making edits.Price: FreePros:The text overlay tool that facilitates users to insert a text overlay in their PDF files, as well as the signature overlay tool.It has improved form-filling tools in the form of the filling radio buttons.Cons:To some users it has inadequate PDF editing features when it comes to professional work.It is only compatible with the Windows OS.#15. PrimoPDF (free, Windows)PrimoPDF is a PDF building application that works smoothly with the Windows operating system. The PDF creation tool is rather quick and easy with the drag and drop feature that creates perfectly standardized PDF documents. Being free makes this software doubly popular for people to choose this as the ultimate PDF creation application.Price: FreePros:It gives users the capability to password-protect files and design definite particulars to precisely edit files.File conversion of files of different formats is just as simple with no reduction in quality with PrimoPDF.Cons:The user support links are often broken, and provide inconsistent support.The design of the software is simplistic and riddled with advertisements for other software.