Issues related to activation and trial watermarks appear on all PDF files

Issues related to activation and trial watermarks appear on all PDF files

Problem:

When creating PDF files using eCopy PDF Pro Office or PDF Create, a trial watermark may be displayed on each page of the resulting PDF file.

Cause:

There are several reasons why trial watermarks appear on PDF files. However, each of these reasons are directly related to issues with product activation.

Solutions:

eCopy PDF Pro Office can be used 5 times before activation is required. However, we highly recommend activating the product with "Activate Now!" following installation.

If eCopy PDF Pro Office is not activated, the "Trial Version www.Nuance.com" watermark will appear in the resulting PDF file.

The most common activation issues are as follows:

No Internet connection.

An Internet connection is needed to activate, but it does not have to be on the machine that where the software is installed.
Please follow the manual activation process.

An application is blocking communication to the Internet.

This commonly occurs with firewall applications. Temporarily disable your firewall software to complete activation. For information on how to temporarily disable your firewall software, please consult the documentation that came with it. Otherwise, please refer to the manual activation instructions above to activate.

When activating a Nuance product, the following error message occurs after entering the serial number:

• "The serial number is invalid."

This indicates that the serial number was entered incorrectly. Verify that the serial number was entered correctly including entering 0's (zeros) not O's.

When launching eCopy PDF Pro Office, the activation hook process must be running in the background. Without this component running, a trial watermark will appear on all PDF files.

Installation issues sometimes prevent this component from running automatically when the product is launched. The following steps detail how to enable this process manually and then add it to Microsoft Windows Startup as a workaround:

1. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the "C:\Program Files\Nuance\eCopy PDF Pro Office\".
2. Next, locate the activation hook process named "PdfPro7Hook.exe".
3. Double-click on the "PdfPro7Hook.exe" file to launch the component.
4. Test by opening a PDF file in eCopy PDF Pro Office, or creating a PDF file with PDF Create!. If the trial watermark no longer appears, follow through the remaining steps to add the activation hook to Windows Startup.
5. Next, navigate back to the "C:\Program Files\Nuance\eCopy PDF Pro Office\" folder.
6. Right-click on the activation hook and select "Create Shortcut" from the context menu.
7. Copy this shortcut to the Startup folder common to all users on the system.
8. This Startup folder can be found by clicking "Start > Run", and typing the following path: "%allusersprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup".

This will now start the Hook.exe each time a user logs into Microsoft Windows.

The "PDF Create! Trial - www.nuance.com" watermark may also appear in instances where a previous version of eCopy PDF Pro Office has been installed and not fully uninstalled. This can prevent the "PdfPro7Hook.exe" from loading.

To resolve this issue please use the following steps:

Note: These steps include modifying the Windows Registry. Confirm that the user is logged on as the Administrator before attempting these steps. Please follow each step carefully and in the order listed:

1. Close any eCopy PDF Pro Office processes that might running.
2. Click "Start > Run", or type "Run" in the Start Search field.
3. Type "regedit" and click "OK".
4. In case any issues should result from editing the registry, please export a backup copy by clicking "File > Export".
5. Save this file to the Windows Desktop and name the file "backup". The "backup" should be retained for a few days and if no issues exist the file can then be deleted.
6. Navigate to the following registry location:
7. • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Zeon\DocuCom\PDF Driver\
8. If a Hook2 or Hook3 appears following Hook1, then delete Hook1.
9. If a Hook2 and a Hook3 still remain, then delete Hook2. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
10. Rename Hook2 (or Hook3) to Hook1.
11. Close the Registry Editor.

eCopy PDF Pro Office appears to be activated but a "DocuCom PDF Trial" trial watermark appears on PDF files.

eCopy PDF Pro Office includes a third party component licensed from Zeon Corporation. This component must be properly activated by the Nuance product during the activation process.

Please see http://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4589/: "DocuCom PDF Trial watermark appears when opening PDF files" for information on resolving this specific trial watermark.

Trial Watermarks after upgrading to Windows XP SP3 :

A trial watermark may be added to PDF files after upgrading to Windows XP SP3. On the first reboot/login of the system, file changes are taking place that disrupt the application from communicating with the licensing hook process. Rebooting the system will resolve this problem.