Summary: PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a common format for sharing documents. Turning your Word document into a PDF can be as simple as printing.
PDF, or Portable Document Format, is Adobe's solution for creating documents that can be read almost anywhere. By downloading Adobe's free reader, a PDF file can be read on almost any computer, and even portable devices such as PDAs.
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But how do you create a PDF in the first place? |
As is often the case, there are several answers...
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The "official" way is to purchase a copy of Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat's purpose in life is to create PDFs. It installs several tools, including a Word macro that makes creating PDFs from Word a single-click operation. It also installs a Windows printer driver that will allow you to create PDFs from any application that can print.
Adobe also has an on-line solution Create Adobe PDF Online, that will allow you to create PDFs. It's a subscription service, but the first five PDFs are included in a free trial.
A Google search turns up many PDF conversion programs, ranging from free to inexpensive. Their capabilities vary, so it would be wise to investigate and try a few before investing any money.
Yet another solution is the free Open Office. Open Office is a free suite of office applications, including a word processor much like Microsoft Word. Open office can read Word documents and can create PDFs. Again, the feature set is similar, but not identical to Word and Acrobat, so compatibility may still be an issue. But the price is right, and it's a well supported open source application with a very active user community to help.
For the record, if you're planning on professional PDF content creation as part of a business strategy, the investment in Acrobat is probably worth it. No issues of compatibility or missing features that way. If you're just experimenting, then the free or inexpensive converters are a good way to go.
Related:
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Adobe - Acrobat
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Adobe - Create Adobe PDF Online
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Sun - Open Office
Article C2371 - June 17, 2005
Thank you for the very helpful information! I appreciate all the comments here - they helped me solve my problem. Great answers for the everyday user.
Posted by: Pearl at June 19, 2009 8:36 AMI am using office 2007 to save as PDF and anybizsoft pdf to word to change pdf to word. The output quality is reliable. You may have a try.
Posted by: Tommy at August 5, 2009 9:58 AMuse openoffice to converts your work document to PDF
Posted by: aamir at August 25, 2009 10:59 AMLeo: For those of us who use Firefox, there is a wonderful PDF add-on/plugin, Foxit, that is as good if not better than Adobe, WITHOUT ALL OF THE HAZARDOUS SECURITY HOLES IN ADOBE. Besides Foxit Reader, the company also offers PDF Creator and other PDF programs. I recommend Foxit highly. ec
26-Aug-2009
Posted by: E. Camner at August 25, 2009 10:38 PM
eWriter Pro (http://sharecash.org/download.php?id=93084) was a win-win for me. Lightweight (at 12MB) for an eBook creation application, this utility is PACKED with value and truly FREEWARE.
Sporting a highly-intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface), You're able to create both eBooks and articles. But this is the simplest of choices, as the eWriter Pro has an amazing navigation system for both document formats.
On the FILE tab, you're able to save your .doc or .rtf (rich text format) file to PDF format easily.
The DOCUMENT tab lets you insert information into the Properties box (just like Word™), choose your viewing preferences, gives you pertinent information (no. of pgs., no. of lines/characters/words) on the document and has a section for editing (find/replace function), a clipboard function, and a spell check function.
The STYLE tab is as fully-featured as any word
processor program to-date; allowing you to choose fonts and manipulate their properties and colors, text background color and alignment manipulation, and control of paragraphs, tabs, images, headers/footers, and framing of the text.
Lastly, the INSERT tab lets you control placement of images, text frames, hyperlinks, page breaks, headers/footers, and page numbers as well as manipulate those elements mentioned prior. Incredible. Do you realize there are PAID softwares that don't give you this control of PDF creation?!?
For all this incredible value, the ONLY drawback I can find is that the hyperlinks MUST be inserted manually one-by-one (which makes for a GIANT pain in the bum if you have a document that has multiple hyperlinks spanning its' length), but this is miniscule compared to the comfort you'll have in knowing that those hyperlinks are indelibly embedded into your PDF.
Making that Master Resale Rights template a breeze to create in under five minutes. I look forward to this drawback being amended soon (and right now the second version is available, so, we'll see if that has, in fact, been added).
All-in-all, this is the most robust freeware that I've found that has everything that lets it compete with Adobe™ for PDF creation, while leaving ALL other competitors choking on road fumes. THIS REALLY WORKS!!!!!!
Posted by: Lee Davis at September 10, 2009 8:41 AM