As Markzware, we understand the PDF format inside-and-out and can attest that once something is created to PDF a file, it is much more difficult to get it back again into the native layout design, conversion wise speaking of course. Here was an interesting post titled, “Converting a PDF to Word format” which said in part:

Most of us have successfully converted Microsoft Word documents to PDF using Acrobat’s built-in PDFMaker application. If the Word document is set up correctly, then text, links, and images appear as expected in the PDF.

But what if you want to (re)convert that PDF content back into Word format so that you can reuse the content? Judging from the comments in forums and on Acrobat help pages, many users want to do this. You can convert PDFs to other file formats by using the File > Export command in Acrobat. A description of how to do this and some tips from the Acrobat community are in this Acrobat Help topic, “Convert PDFs to Word, RTF, or other text formats“.
Source: http://www.graphicstart.com/item.php?itemid=1058720  Read more... (452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Preflight, in the graphic arts sense, is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to plate, print or otherwise output (exported – such as to PDF). It traditionally is a way to check quality before going to the printing press, digital or otherwise, but can also be used to check online banners and gifs. Preflight is best done on the source document, such as those created in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress or Corel!Draw as some examples, before becoming a PDF (Portable Document Format). Similar to a pilot whom walks around and performs a pre take-off pre-flight check, preflighting for designers and prepress operators should be a must.

The term preflight was first used during a presentation in 1990 by Chuck Weger, a well know industry consultant. There were some early on postscript (rips) that interperted data and provided a preflight report of sorts. However the first true preflight application came from Markzware and was wisely called FlightCheck another term pilots also use.

Even before FlightCheck® was out on the market, Markzware applied for and was dully granted a U.S. Patent Number 5,963,641 – ‘Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.’  Read more... (508 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)