OmniFormat

Talk about an omnivore’s dilemma. Although OmniFormat converts files among more than 75 formats, it turned in a less-than-stellar performance in our tests. It often output blank images and crashed when trying to convert large DOC files. The recognition quality of its OCR module was poor, even with the easiest texts. Potentially most frustrating of all, it actually overwrote the original files when converting. This isn’t a bug, by the way, but a deliberate, if inexplicable, decision on the part of the designers. OmniFormat also occasionally pops up ads. Give it this, though: it’s a snap to use. You simply choose folders to monitor and select the output format. Whenever a file appears in one of the monitored folders, the program automatically converts it. To our minds, that convenience doesn’t make up for OmniFormat’s many flaws. We’d suggest steering clear, at least for now.