The universality of PDF file format is undoubted. It is used extensively in numerous areas from health, education, real-estate industry to legal activities and so on. There must be a reason why this file type is well-preferred than others.
As PDF stands for Portable Document Format, portability is its strongest point. You can move, share and print PDF files without worrying about dependencies. For example, font missing, reposition images and attached files errors. In this article, you will see how useful this file format is, and why you should find ways to protect it properly.
Why Should We Use PDF?
As mentioned above, PDF is portable but in fact, it is more than that.
PDF file format is ubiquitous. Since this format became the open standard in 2008, it has been able to support all kinds of applications. Most browsers are capable of opening and displaying PDF files. It also works well and maintains its look on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
PDF’s versatility is what users highly appreciate. It’s a very practical format that you can use in various situations. For instance, you can use PDF to present an image, text document, graphic, annual or monthly report, business agenda, and all kinds of content.
Regarding file size, PDF can be compressed to a pretty small size compared to other file formats. Reducing the size of a PDF leads to a decrease in file quality. However, it is very convenient if the document you want to share contains a lot of large image files and graphs.
The PDF file is also known as more secure to share than other formats. Since some of the popular PDF reader applications allow you to password protect your file, you can control partly the accessibility of certain receivers.
The Cruciality of Protecting PDF files
Imagine you see your PDF files, in which you put all of your efforts and take days to finish, being on Google search results without credit or consent. You definitely don’t want to see your hard work being abused as an open-source.
It can even get worse if the PDF files contain confidential materials. They should not be available to the public. Protecting your PDF files well is crucial in those situations.
What’s more, a lot of final essays, assignments, tutorials, or documentations, are being copied and pasted as new contents of a new creator rather than being cited to the authors. If your PDF files contain those important work, it will be better to make them invisible to others so that you can reduce the risk of plagiarizing.
In some other cases, you own a small business site, and you want to offer several useful knowledge through PDF downloadable files. Your main purpose is to attract more traffic to your site, but you may not see the problem coming along. Without proper protection, your PDF files are vulnerable to uninvited guests who want to download them without your permission.
What Can Acrobat and Words Help You with Protecting PDF Files?
Realize the necessity of protecting PDF files, Acrobat and Words provide some basic methods that help users protect their files somehow.
Both will allow you to protect PDF files with a password. However, this method only works offline. It means, after creating or converting docs to PDF, you can set a password to lock it. Whenever you want to share or send the file to others, they have to download it and type in the provided password to see the content.
What if you want to publish it online, say on WordPress, you want everyone to know it there, but limit the accessibility. Let Prevent Direct Access Gold help you deal with it.
How Prevent Direct Access Gold Protects PDF Files Online
Despite the two biggest PDF supporter applications, Acrobat and Words, are aware of the importance of protecting PDF files, what they provide is just the tip of the iceberg.
Prevent Direct Access Gold protects your PDF files comprehensively. Any original PDF files that you upload on the WordPress site will be protected with just one click.
Restrict Access by User Roles
The plugin enables you to restrict access by user roles. If you want only subscribers or paid members to approach the PDF file and read the content, you have total control with this plugin. This feature comes in handy when you need a private and healthy site where you can interact with members and share files without intrusion from the public.
Create and Customize Unlimited Download Links
With one certain PDF file, you can create unlimited private download links. This will give you powerful management for every share. You can keep track of every single click made by different groups of users.
The plugin comes with a useful function that allows you to customize the download links. Now you can shorten the URL and make it more meaningful and easier for users to remember.
Let’s take a look at this example:
- Random Download URL: preventdirectaccess.com/private/58575f26ae274
- Custom Download URL: preventdirectaccess.com/private/this-is-my-new-ebook
Delete/ Deactivate Download Links
You can manually delete or deactivate download links. Whenever you think that your files are shared enough to all intended users, you can go back to the control dashboard and remove the links. You can also prevent uninvited access from approaching protected files by blocking IP Address.
Or more intelligently, the plugin allows you to delete the download link automatically after a certain amount of clicks, or days. So let’s say you only want 100 users to download the files, or allow users to access it in 3 days. You just need to set up that inside the Prevent Direct Access Gold setting window.
Block Search Indexing
You want to upload your PDF files online, but you don’t want other people to search it out from search engines such as Google or Bing. Prevent Direct Access is here to help you.
By using HTTP X-Robots-Tag, NOINDEX meta tag, and robots.txt, the plugin tells Google or other search engines to stop indexing anything in your protected content. Your files and original links will no longer appear on the search results. You can get rid of unauthorized users who can steal your file from search engines.
Using and Protecting your PDF Files Efficiently
The flexibility and handiness of PDF files provide a wonderful communication means for several fields.
Plus, PDF file format is useful thanks to its ubiquity, versatility, small size, and its security. Especially, the content embedded in PDF files is normally informative and crucial. Therefore, protecting PDF files is essential than ever.
Listen to the demand of most users nowadays, Prevent Direct Access Gold provides advanced features that can protect your file entirely. You can restrict access by user roles, delete private download links, and block google indexing with just one click.
Whenever uploading PDF files online, be careful with unauthorized copying. Installing a file protection tool like Prevent Direct Access Gold can help you eliminate to the minimum the chances of downloading content without permission.
