PDF Presenter Lets You Annotate PDFs & Present Them As Slideshows

Looking for a free application that can let you present your PDF documents in an MS PowerPoint-like presentation? Well then, you should give PDF Presenter a shot. It is an open-source, java-based utility, designed to let you display PDF documents the same way you’d present PPT (or PPTX) slideshows. Not only that, but you can also annotate your documents with an integrated Pen, Marker and Text Box tool. In addition, it provides you with an option to view your PDF documents (or a Whiteboard) in full screen mode. This feature can be used in countless situations, for instance, whether you’re demonstrating a class lecture or compelling your boss to accept a lucrative business deal. The tool is quite easy to use and contains an elegant user-interface design, with support for both mouse and pen input. Keep reading for more details.

The utility allows you to open multiple PDF documents at the same time. You can navigate between the opened files from the navigation bar present at the right side of the window. The page previews are also available on the right side for instant selection. The navigation buttons are placed on the toolbar, which includes System Menu, Start Presentation, Previous Page, Next Page, Pen, Marker, Text, Eraser, Undo, Redo, Zoom, Show Grid etc.

As stated earlier, you can also add a Whiteboard to the presentation by selecting System Menu > New Whiteboard. This option is placed to help you use a simple board to display some important points related to the presentation. You can write almost anything you want, using a few different colors and sizes. You can also use the Eraser tool to remove the annotations or click Remove all annotations to reset the whiteboard to its default state.

Clicking Start Presentation on the toolbar runs the slide show, and as I started earlier, you can also annotate your documents (or whiteboard for instance) while navigating through presentation slides.

The Preferences window contains settings for changing Grid style, size and visibility – configuring Annotation Margin – and making selection of input method such as Pen or Mouse/Trackball.

It works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX and Linux operating systems, provided you have latest JRE (Java Runtime Environment) installed. Testing was carried out on Windows 7, 64-bit OS.