Skim - Potential OS X PDF Editor (Open Source)

Looking around for a PDF viewer that lets me annotate the document and doesn't suck, I ran into Skim, an open source PDF viewer and annotator for OS X. It has some obvious shortcomings (such as not being able to edit text), but it's ahead of all other contestants.

I wish it could but it can't...

• ... edit the document text
• ... export annotations such that other PDF viewers can see them

However, it...

• Underlines
• Highlights
• Strikes-through
  

And, like Preview...

• ... makes red ovals
  
  
  
  
  
• ... creates blaring yellow comment boxes
  
  
  
  

And, somewhat unnecessarily...

• ... Green Boxes!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• ... Icon notes! (Text appears if you double click)
  
  
  
  
  
  

The verdict

Better armored than Preview, but also more cluttered. Clearly the best alternative so far - however, no cigar. It seems to me like someone could make a name for himself cracking this nut. Takers...?

Full screenshot

Review - Open Source PDF Editors

What?

There are plenty of good PDF viewers out there. Combined with the format's platform independence, it makes PDF a great format for presentation.

However, I've never gotten my hands on a good open source PDF editor.

So I took the time to look around a bit. Here's what I found:

• PDFEdit - free and open source. I couldn't get it to compile on OS X. Here's an article pointing out all its flaws, and still hailing it. That's how bad we need a good open source PDF editor.
• ReportLab Toolkit - a "mature PDF library." In fact, so mature that it took me 10 minutes of mature fighting with it before I maturely gave up trying to get its demo to work.
  
• PDFCreator - Windows only... However, my guess goes against some Microsoft groupie randomly cracking this nut.
• Skim - The only somewhat promising alternative.
  

Still no winner. If someone has one, let me know. In the meantime, check out my quick Skim review (it's worth the skim).

Mac OS X : Save PDF's of Any Document with a Click

What?

Save a PDF of any document or picture to pre-determined folders with a quick cmd+p and click (without navigating the directory structure)

How?

1. Go to /Library (Open Finder, hit Cmd+Shift+G, type /Library, hit Enter)
2. Find or create a folder named PDF Services
3. Open a new Finder window, and create the Folders you want to save PDF's to (hit Cmd+N, and hit Cmd+Shift+N to create each Folder)
   
4. Create an alias for each Folder (Select all folders, hit Cmd+L)
5. Drag all aliases to the /Library/PDF Services folder in the first window
   

Done. You will now have the selected folders appear in the save menu.

Extra Hint

You can alias other things than Folders. If you often read and highlight created PDF's in, say, Acrobat Reader, then try to alias the Acrobat Reader application and put it in /Library/PDF Services as well.

Thank you

Macworld for the great article, with this and other tips.