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T.Byrd Computer Forum "LIVE" Talk Show Trina's Column Rick's Column TechPicks Show TOPICS Hardware Review Software Review Internet Review TechTips Q and A Term of the Week
New - AVG Free edition is now available for all single home and non-commercial end users Worldwide! Closer information you can find in end user license agreements.
JUNE Software Review - Creating PDF files Adobes PDF (portable document format) file format has become a popular method for sharing documents created by a wide variety of programs across both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Thats because the PDF format retains the exact look and feel of the original document sort of like an electronic photocopy whether it was created by a word processor, a spreadsheet, a desktop publishing document, a Web page, or other tool. If I create a document using AppleWorks and want to share it with somebody who does not have AppleWorks, I can convert the document into the PDF format and they can see it in its original form, with graphics, charts, and all. In addition, anybody can download a program to read PDF files. Adobe freely distributes Adobe Acrobat Reader (www.Adobe.com). Acrobat Reader will not, however, allow you to create PDF files. Acrobat Reader will not, however, allow you to create PDF files. Here are some ways to do so. Use the Full Adobe Acrobat Program: With Acrobat installed on your computer you can convert any file you create into a PDF that can be read by any computer that has Acrobat Reader installed. When I installed Acrobat on my PC, it slightly altered Microsoft Word (and other programs) so they could have the ability to create PDF documents. All I need to do is choose Print, and then choose PDFWriter as my printer. PDFWriter is not an actual printer that prints on paper; it is whats called a print driver a program that controls the printer, acting as a translator between the printer and the programs that need to print. In this case the driver tells the computer to create a PDF document. Create a PDF Online:: There are
a number of online services that can be used to create PDF documents. You send your document to the service; they
convert it to PDF and send it back (all electronically).
Adobes online service, Create Adobe PDF Online, is available at createPDF.adobe.com. This Web based program lets you convert a variety
of documents into PDF files that anyone can view using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Supported formats include Microsoft Office files,
graphics formats, Web pages, and other file types. A
feature called Paper Capture enables you to create searchable PDF files from scanned paper documents.
At press time, it was free to create the first five PDF files; a subscription cost
$9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (available only in the United States and in Canada). Another
online PDF conversion service is offered by goBCL (www.gobcl.com).
This free service can be used to convert
documents into HTML Web pages.
Documents are submitted either from your Web browser or via e-mail (as an
attachment). The
maximum size that you can upload is 500K per file.GoBCL supports Microsoft Office files;
overall it supports fewer file formats than Create Adobe PDF Online but it is free. Use
Shareware or Freeware: : Shareware is
software you can freely download, install, and use; if you are pleased with it, you are
asked to pay the publisher a fee. Freeware is exactly
that: software given freely to anybody who wants it. There are a number of
shareware and freeware products that create PDF files, though be aware that they do not
necessarily support all file types. One example is Win2PDF
(www.win2pdf.com). You can try it for
free; if you want to keep it the cost is $35. To find shareware and freeware programs
to create PDF documents, you might want to visit a shareware site such as www.shareware.com
and search for create PDF. After you evaluate the program, if you have any questions, please email us below.
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