If your firm uses NetDocuments, you’re going to spend a lot of time working with PDFs — creating, editing, combining, redacting, and Bates-stamping them. The question isn’t whether you need good PDF software. The question is whether that software plays nicely with NetDocuments.
This guide breaks down your options and explains exactly what a real NetDocuments integration looks like — and why it matters.
What Does a “NetDocuments Integration” Actually Mean?
This is worth explaining carefully, because “integration” gets thrown around loosely. A true NetDocuments integration isn’t just the ability to save a file — it’s much deeper than that.
Here’s what a proper integration does:
Open from NetDocuments: When you open a PDF, NetDocuments pops up so you can navigate your cabinets and workspaces to find the document. You’re not hunting through Windows Explorer for a locally downloaded file.
Save/Check In to NetDocuments: When you hit Save or Save As, NetDocuments prompts you to profile the document — cabinet, workspace, matter number, etc. The file goes directly into NetDocuments. No download, no re-upload, no manual drag-and-drop.
Combine / Merge documents: When you combine multiple PDFs into one, NetDocuments should pop up on both ends — opening the source documents from NetDocuments and saving the final merged file back into NetDocuments. Without this, you’re downloading files to your desktop, combining them locally, and then manually uploading the result.
Bates Stamping: When you Bates-stamp a set of documents, NetDocuments should be available to pull the source files from and save the stamped output back to. This keeps your discovery documents organized in NetDocuments where they belong.
Redaction: True redaction workflows should let you open the original from NetDocuments and save the redacted version directly back — not download it, redact it locally, and re-upload it manually.
The bottom line: a real integration means NetDocuments pops up wherever there’s a file open or save action — not just the main Save button. If your PDF software only integrates for basic saves and opens, but leaves you on your own for combining, stamping, or redacting, you’re going to end up with a lot of files in the wrong place.
One Important Setting Before We Begin
Regardless of which PDF program you choose, make sure PDFs open in the desktop application — not your web browser. When a PDF opens in Chrome or Edge instead of your PDF software, it bypasses your NetDocuments integration entirely. Files get saved to your Downloads folder instead of NetDocuments, and version control goes out the window.
Here’s how to force PDFs to open in the native app.
1. Foxit PDF Editor — Our Top Recommendation
Foxit PDF Editor is our top pick for most law firms, and the reasons are straightforward: it has a genuine, built-in NetDocuments integration, it’s significantly faster than Adobe in everyday use, and Foxit has remained an independent, focused PDF company without being acquired and renamed multiple times.
We switched to Foxit ourselves, and the speed difference is hard to overstate. On the same hardware, tasks that feel sluggish in Adobe — opening a document, applying a redaction, combining files — happen almost instantly in Foxit. For staff who spend all day in PDF software, that difference adds up.
Foxit’s NetDocuments integration (built via ndOffice) lets users open documents directly from NetDocuments, save and check them back in, and work within the standard NetDocuments profiling workflow. The integration is straightforward to enable—you simply add NetDocuments as a connected place in Foxit.
What Foxit does well:
- Solid NetDocuments integration for open, save, and check-in workflows
- Noticeably faster performance than Adobe for everyday tasks
- Full PDF editing, annotation, and commenting tools
- Redaction with pattern search (phone numbers, SSNs, etc.)
- PDF combining and page organization
- OCR for scanned documents
- Digital signatures
- Competitive pricing — significantly less expensive than Adobe Acrobat
- Independently owned — not passed through a chain of acquisitions
Foxit also has a free 30-day trial if you want to test it in your environment before committing.
Learn how to integrate NetDocuments with Foxit PDF Editor.
2. Adobe Acrobat
Adobe is the original, and it remains the most widely used PDF application in the legal industry. NetDocuments supports an integration with Adobe Acrobat that covers opening, saving, and basic PDF workflows via ndOffice.
Where Adobe is genuinely the right answer is when you’re working with complex fillable forms or AcroForms — certain form types are specifically built to require Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro to function correctly. If you receive PDFs from courts or agencies that use these features, Adobe is your safest bet for those specific documents.
The downsides are cost and performance. Adobe Acrobat is subscription-only and expensive at scale, especially for firms with 20+ users. And on top of cost, Adobe has become noticeably slow — this has nothing to do with NetDocuments. On a brand new laptop with 32 GB of RAM, simple tasks take far longer than they should. Adobe used to be the gold standard, and it may still be the right answer for AcroForms and court-required PDFs. But for everyday PDF work, performance alone is a reason to look elsewhere.
Learn how to install the NetDocuments Adobe integration.
3. Tungsten Power PDF (Formerly Nuance, Formerly Kofax)
If you’ve been on Nuance Power PDF or Kofax Power PDF, you’re on the same product — it’s just been rebranded again. Nuance was acquired by Kofax, Kofax rebranded as Tungsten Automation, and the product is now called Tungsten Power PDF. The NetDocuments integration has carried through all of these rebrands and still works.
Tungsten Power PDF has a built-in NetDocuments connector and handles open and save workflows. If your firm already has licenses in place, there’s no urgent reason to switch. For firms starting fresh, we’d lean toward Foxit — better value, an independent company, and a similar feature set.
One advantage Tungsten still offers: perpetual licensing. If your firm avoids SaaS subscriptions and prefers to buy software outright, Tungsten Power PDF is one of the few remaining options in this space that still offers that model (though subscription options are also available).
4. pdfDocs by Litera (Formerly DocsCorp)
pdfDocs was originally built by DocsCorp specifically for the legal market and had the best NetDocuments integration among PDF products for many years. DocsCorp was acquired by Litera in 2021, and the product continues to be developed under the Litera umbrella.
pdfDocs still has strong legal-specific features — particularly its eBinder functionality for assembling court bundles and deal bibles, and its Bates numbering workflow. If you’re a firm doing a lot of complex litigation document production, those features are hard to match.
That said, we no longer recommend pdfDocs as our first choice. Litera has acquired a large number of legal technology products, and in our experience, products that go through multiple acquisitions tend to receive inconsistent support and development over time. If you’re already on pdfDocs and happy with it, there’s no reason to abandon it. But for firms choosing fresh, Foxit offers a comparable integration and a company whose entire focus is PDF software.
5. One Step Save — If Your PDF Program Doesn’t Have a Native Integration
What if you want to use a PDF program that doesn’t have a built-in NetDocuments connector? That’s where One Step Save comes in.
One Step Save is a third-party utility that intercepts the standard Windows Save and Open dialogs in applications that don’t natively integrate with NetDocuments, and routes them through ndOffice instead. When you hit Save in any supported application, the NetDocuments profiling dialog pops up — just as if the application had a native integration built in.
Supported PDF applications include Nitro PDF, PDF-XChange, Nuance/Kofax Power PDF, Soda PDF, PDF Suite, PDF Architect, CutePDF, and Corel PDF Fusion. It also works with browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) for saving web-based PDFs and research, plus many non-PDF applications, including WordPerfect, QuickBooks, ScanSnap, and HotDocs.
Pricing is $5/user/month for unlimited users, or $10/user/month if you only need to license specific users — no setup fees, no long-term contracts.
One important note: One Step Save works at the Windows dialog level, so it’s excellent for standard save-and-open workflows, but it may not cover every in-application action, such as combining within the app or Bates-stamping workflows. Check their site for the exact supported actions per application.
Optiable is a One Step Save consulting partner and can help you configure it. Learn more at onestepsave.com.
Which Option Is Right for Your Firm?
- Best overall: Foxit PDF Editor — native NetDocuments integration, fast performance, strong feature set, independent company, competitive pricing
- Best for complex forms: Adobe Acrobat — required for certain AcroForm-based PDFs, but expensive and slow for everyday use
- Already have it, and it works: Tungsten Power PDF — no reason to change if you’re already licensed
- Using a non-integrated PDF app: One Step Save — bridges the gap for PDF programs without native NetDocuments connectors
Not sure which PDF software is the right fit for your firm’s NetDocuments setup? We can assess your current workflow and make a recommendation — usually in a single call. Contact us here.