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Zamzar

About.com Rating 3.5

By Tim Fisher, About.com

Zamzar File Converter Online Service

Zamzar File Converter Service

© Zamzar
The Bottom Line

Zamzar is an amazing service and is a very good choice if you're looking for free file conversion services.

The Zamzar file converter is easy to use, very effective, and has absolutely revolutionized file conversion by making it easy and free - something it wasn't before Zamzar came along.

Zamzar wasn't the first online file conversion service to debut but it is, in my opinion, the first to do it right. I think that's what really counts.

If you have any kind of file that you'd like to convert to any other format, give the Zamzar file conversion service a try.

Pros
  • Free file conversions (up to 100MB)
  • Nothing to install
  • Converts a large and growing variety of files from one format to another
  • Simple enough for anyone to use
Cons
  • Conversion time was a bit slow
Description
  • Zamzar converts between many document, image, video, archive, audio, and CAD formats.
  • Conversion is free for any file up to 100MB in size. Most non-video files are in this range.
  • Zamzar even converts TXT files to MP3 format, providing a high quality, online text-to-speech service!
  • Easy, 4-step process gets your free file conversion started with Zamzar.
  • Zamzar file converter service offers increased file size support and other premium services for a fee.
Guide Review - Zamzar

Zamzar is quite simply a revolutionary tool. Every once in a while, a web service opens to the public that completely changes the way people accomplish a particular task. Zamzar has, without a doubt, done just that with file conversions.

Believe it or not, there was a day when you couldn't easily convert files. You had to buy a file conversion program and even then it might not convert between the file formats you wanted. Before that, your only option was to own a program that natively supported both file types! I can't imagine the huge sums of money that Zamzar has saved its users over the years.

Zamzar is very easy to use. Just visit their website, upload your original file, choose the format you want to convert your file to, and hit Convert. After that, you wait for an email from Zamzar with a link to your converted file. That's it!

Zamzar supports a huge variety of file formats, many of which used to be complicated or impossible to convert between. Some notable "problem" formats that Zamzar supports that I remember having to deal with include WPD (Wordperfect Document), RA (RealMedia Streaming Media), and FLV (Flash). Zamzar makes working with these and many, many other formats as easy as a few mouse clicks.

I should also note that Zamzar has an optional, tiered premium service - Basic, Pro, and Business - with increasing maximum file sizes, online storage space, speed of conversion, etc. I only tested the free service so some of my experiences with Zamzar may or may not have improved if I had used one of the premium tiers.

Before you pay anything to anyone to convert one kind of file to any other kind of file, check out Zamzar. It won't hurt to look and, unless you have a very obscure format you're looking to convert to/from, chances are the Zamzar file converter service can help you out!

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