Tips & tricks

FlexiPDF

Download FlexiPDF 2022 again

If you have lost the FlexiPDF installation file, you can download it again here. This is the trial version which can be unlocked by choosing the command ? | Purchase and unlock and entering your product key.

Missing DLLs when starting FlexiPDF 2022

If FlexiPDF does not start and instead shows that DLLs like VCRUNTIME140.DLL, MSVCP140.DLL, etc. cannot be found, your Windows installation misses some system files. Download an installer for these system files here and run it.

Printing to PDF does not work

Question: When I print from an application to PDF using the FlexiPDF printer driver, nothing happens. No PDF file is created, and FlexiPDF is not launched. How can I fix this?

Answer: When you install FlexiPDF, a special printer driver for creating PDF files is installed in Microsoft Windows. The FlexiPDF setup program adds the program PrintDisp.exe to the list of Startup Apps and sets its status to Enabled. Unfortunately, some antivirus programs and system-optimization software set the status to Disabled, which prevents the FlexiPDF printer driver from working.

Fix this as follows:

  1. Open the Windows Task Manager.
  2. Switch to the Startup tab.
  3. Select PrintDisp from the list and click the Activate button.
  4. Reboot your computer.

Deploying FlexiPDF in a network

You can install FlexiPDF silently without user interaction. This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Run the FlexiPDF setup once in regular interactive mode with a command-line parameter instructing it to save your installation choices to an .inf file:

flexipdf2022.exe /SAVEINF="settings.inf"

When installation is complete, the file settings.inf in the folder of the installer has recorded all of the choices you made during the install, such as printer driver installation, shortcuts, etc.

Step 2: For additional installs on other computers, copy the FlexiPDF installer and the file settings.inf to these computers and run the installer as follows:

flexipdf2022.exe /LOADINF="settings.inf" /VERYSILENT /NORESTART

Distribute the FlexiPDF product across the network

If you have purchased a volume license of FlexiPDF 2022, you can automatically distribute its product key across your network. This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Create a text file named License.key that contains only the product key.

Step 2: Distribute this file (for example, using GPO) to all target computers, each to the folder C:\ProgramData\FlexiPDF 2022\3

This will unlock FlexiPDF 2022 on each of these machines, and FlexiPDF will no longer ask for a product key.

Why can't I edit a certain piece of text using the Text tool?

It may be for one of three reasons:

  1. The text is an image.
  2. The text is an illustration.
  3. The text is locked.

You can check if the reason is 1. or 2. by viewing the PDF using the View | Placeholders command. In placeholder mode, real text remains solid. All images become boxes with a diagonal cross and illustrations are shown as blue outlines. To check for 3., click the text using the Object tool. If it is locked, FlexiPDF will ask you if you want to unlock it.

Why do all my PDFs display in blue outlines with no images?

You are viewing the PDFs in placeholder mode. This mode is toggled using the command View | Placeholders. It can be quicker to work in placeholder mode with complex PDFs, since FlexiPDF does not have to spend time drawing large images and complex graphics. It does not affect the way the PDF appears in other viewers.

Why are the editing tools greyed out and cannot be selected?

This is probably caused by the security restrictions of the document being viewed. Choose the command Document | Security and check the access restrictions for the document. You may need to obtain a password in order to unlock the document.

What do the pink rectangles mean?

When you use the Object tool (the toolbar icon with the white arrow), the clipping paths on the page show up as pink rectangles.

Clipping paths are used in the PDF file format to hide parts of images (and sometimes text). They are normally invisible. As they can affect the way you edit text and graphics, FlexiPDF shows you where they are by outlining them in pink. When you save your document, the clipping paths will once again be invisible. To find out more about clipping paths, read the chapter "Removing a clipping mask" in the user manual.

How do I create editable PDFs from inside Google Chrome?

When Google Chrome prints a web page, it doesn't send letters and fonts, but images of the letters. If you create a PDF file by printing to FlexiPDF, the text of the resulting PDF file cannot be edited.

However, you can use use the integrated PDF export function of Google Chrome to create editable PDF files and edit them with FlexiPDF afterwards.

To do so, just follow these steps:

  1. In Google Chrome, open the main menu in the upper right corner (click the button with the three stacked dots).
  2. Click on Print.
  3. In the "Destination" section, click on Change.
  4. Select "Save as PDF".
  5. Click on Save.
  6. Choose a destination and click on Save.

The resulting PDF file can be opened and edited with FlexiPDF.