Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
PDF files are a convenient and easy way to save documents for viewing almost anywhere. If you can print a document, you can create a PDF of it.
Some time ago, I decided to go as paperless as I could. My recommendation of the ScanSnap document scanner was a big part of that and it allowed me to completely empty three drawers of my four-drawer file cabinet, saving documents digitally instead.
Once you're in the habit of creating PDFs from paper documents, the ease with which PDFs can be used, saved, searched, and, perhaps most importantly, backed up becomes readily apparent.
As a result, I've also cut down on the amount of actual printing that I do by changing my default printer to the free Cute PDF Writer virtual printer.
It's not at all uncommon to want to save something, say a sales receipt from an on-line purchase, by printing it. But it's rare that you actually need to save it on paper. Instead, I print to the Cute PDF Writer printer which creates a PDF of the printed output that I save on my computer. If I need to actually print it to paper, either now or sometime in the future, I can simply load up that PDF in a viewer, such as Acrobat or Foxit, and print to my real printer from there.
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Here, you can see the printers that I have installed on my desktop computer:
While you can see that there is a "real" printer installed for when I need it, the default printer is CutePDF Writer.
Now, when I print something, say a web page that I'm viewing in Firefox, the Print dialog first shows me that Cute PDF Writer is the printer:
Once I actually press OK to print, Cute PDF Writer displays the Save dialog so that I can specify the location and file name of the final PDF:
You can then open your newly created PDF document in your PDF reader:
It's as simple as that. And the beauty is that any document that you can print can also be printed to PDF. Save receipts, archive email, collect web pages for research, share whatever you find ... whatever you can think of, Cute PDF Writer might well be a useful and tree-saving tool.
I recommend it.
(This replaces my original recommendation PDF Creator published May 5th 2009. Due to "foistware", I can no longer recommend PDF Creator.)
Article C4831 - May 30, 2011 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
March 20, 2012 9:44 AM
To those who commented and asked about how to either copy or create and then print PDF documents while retaining all the clickable links --for free -- here is how I do it using a number of optional workarounds.
When I see an article on the Web that I want to save and keep in PDF format *with active links*, I use:
(1) the free PDF converter service at http://www.web2pdfconvert.com which supplies you with a bookmarklet for the purpose, or
(2) the free PDF converter service at www.pdfmyurl.com, or
(3) the free PDF converter service at http://joliprint.com.
If the page I want to save as a PDF has too much extraneous data (ads, images, etc.) for my taste, then I select and copy only the pertinent data, including the links, and paste it into the free _LibreOffice Writer_ (http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/3.5.1/win/x86/LibO_3.5.1_Win_x86_install_multi.msi) as "HTML format" (using the "Edit > Paste Special" option). After doing any needed "doll-up" work, including highlighting, adding notes, deleting unwanted text or objects, I then click on the "Export as PDF..." button, or use "File > Export as PDF...", to create and save the file as a PDF -- with all the links active.
To view and print the file I use the free _PDF-XChange Viewer_ (http://pdf-xchange-viewer.en.softonic.com/), but any PDF viewer can be used.
I would appreciate any comments if there are other viable workarounds.
Frank D
March 20, 2012 3:30 PM
Great article about CutePDF Writer. I just want to say that this is a great program that I've been using for years. Works great and is a lot more affordable than paying for paper and ink. Remember it helps to save our environment to go this route.
July 18, 2012 5:28 PM
My problem is somewhat different. From time to time I need to convert a PDF to Word. I don't want to spend a bunch on a utility since I only have a need occasionally. I've searched but have not found a free or cheap utility.
Any suggestions?
July 18, 2012 9:03 PM
@David,
Converting pdf back to word is much more complicated. Very likely you won't find a good free program to do it.
October 19, 2012 8:22 PM
@David
I would suggest that you should try some of the free online services for this. Just Google 'free pdf to word' and you'll find a couple of them. I also just need this function occassionally and I have found "Some PDF to Word" to be a reasonably good, free program for doing this. Google it and you will find reviews, as well as spots where you can download it. It's not the end-all of PDF converters, but for casual use it does the job.