We get a lot of questions on this feature of Bluetracker, so for the record, here is our take on the PDF conversion.

Any collaboration software can upload a file and allow others to download it. There are tons of them out there. Some of them are nothing more than a fancy coat of paint on a FTP site. But if you are just uploading, and letting others download, you still have the version control problem: if an other person downloads the file and makes changes, they better upload it asap, or the process is toast. And forget about using Track Changes in Word. Just take a look at any Word doc where there has been more than 2 authors and more than 2 revisions. It's a mess. And let's face it, no one wants to worry about checking-in and checking-out a file. Collaboration shouldn't be like going to a hotel.

What makes Bluetracker different, is we automatically convert the file to a PDF. This has several advantages:
i) you don't need the original software program to view the file.
ii) because it's a PDF, users can't change the document, so the editing process is much more controlled. (We suggest stakeholders to add a comment to the project window with their ideas and changes).
iii), since it's a PDF viewers can print a high resolution copy, complete with graphics, and text.
iv) PDF is perfect for multi-page documents. It's compact and keeps download time to a minimum.

That's the beauty of PDF.

And that's why we decided long ago to use PDF as the container for documents. Of course Bluetracker can also upload the file and keep it as a Source. Then if others need to make changes to the original, it's available for download.

This strategy allows for the best of both worlds. If the file you are working on is not supported for PDF conversion, just keep it as a Source. FYI, we currently convert the following files: DOC, RTF, DOCX, DOCM, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, PUB, VSD, TXT, JPG, JPEG, BMP, TIF, PNG, MHT.

So, with the exception of .EXE and .BAT files, you can upload virtually any type of file to Bluetracker. And we think that beats worring about checking-in, or out, any day.