Friday, February 18, 2011

Portable Document Format (PDF) in 2010

One of the items you should look at when you finish a document—for example, you write a bio for a relative—is how you are going to present and/or distribute that document. If you want a document that can be read by anybody on any computer regardless of software, hardware, or operating system, you should be looking at converting the document to a PDF.

Adobe Systems created the PDF format. Through the years it has become the standard for documents that can be emailed, posted to a website, stored on any computer, and sent to any printer. If you are interested in more information about PDF, click here.

For many years, users had to buy Adobe Acrobat to create PDFs. The Reader—the software that most users are familiar with—was always a free download. On the other hand, Acrobat has always been relatively expensive for anybody who creates PDFs only occasionally. Other companies created software that could be used to create PDFs; however, Adobe Acrobat remained the gold standard.

When I bought my new laptop, I was delighted to find that Microsoft had included an Adobe PDF maker in the 2010 Home/Student version of their software. Having the PDF maker is a real convenience and it’s easy to use.

Method 1:
1. With an open document, click File, and then Save As. The dialog appears.
2. At the bottom of the dialog, click the Save as type drop-down arrow. A list displays with available formats, including PDF.
3. Click PDF, and then click Save. The document appears as a PDF in the Adobe Reader.

Method 2:
1. With an open document, click File, and then Save & Send. The dialog appears.
2. Click Create PDF/XPS Document. The dialog updates.
3. Click the Create PDF/XPS button. A publish dialog appears.
4. Click the Publish button. The document appears as a PDF in the Adobe Reader.

The Reader allows you to do many PDF-related tasks. It's worth your time to check out a few of the menus and perhaps read a bit of the Help file to find out more about what you can do in the Reader.

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