How to Preserve Documents Using PDF files

The PDF format is a technology that preserves the look and feel of a paper document in an electronic medium that can be viewed and printed on nearly all computer operating systems. Because of this portability, it is an excellent format to store and share documents. The program that creates PDF documents is called Adobe Acrobat. It is an excellent software product but is fairly expensive. If you do a Google search on “Create PDF,” you will find there are many competitor products also. If you can afford to purchase one of these types of programs, you will be able to convert almost any type of document into a PDF. You will also be able to use a scanner to convert almost any paper document into a PDF.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• Scanner

1. If you do not have the resources to purchase a PDF creation program, there are a few other options that are available for free. The first is an open source Microsoft Office type product called OpenOffice (see Resources below). This product contains a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation product (Impress), a drawing product (Draw) and a database (Base). This suite of products can save their documents in the PDF format. This product can also exchange many documents with Microsoft Office. If using Microsoft Office 2007, you must use the old formats and not the new XML formats.
2. The second product is CutePDF Writer (see Resources below). This program supports Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista (x32/x64). It requires a PS2PDF converter (Post Script to PDF) such as Ghostscript (recommended). You can get the free GPL Ghostscript 8.15 on the same web page. Install the Ghostscript and then install CutePDF Writer. When the installation is complete you will have a new printer called CutePDF Writer. Any program that can print can now create a PDF document. You simply select CutePDF Writer as the printer and you will be prompted to make up a name and to select where to store the document.
3. If you need to convert a paper document into a PDF, you will need to first scan it into some program that can print. Almost all scanners ship with software that can scan and print documents. A multi-function or All-in-one printer is the best printer choice for this. It will give you a printer, a scanner, a copier and in some cases a fax machine all in one product. Once you have installed your scanner--or All-in-one--you can use Microsoft Word to scan a paper document right into Word. Once in Word, you can print it to your CutePDF Writer printer and you have your PDF document. You can convert web pages or any other document into PDF documents by simply printing them to your CutePDF Writer printer. Armed with a scanner and CutePDF Writer, you can convert nearly any document into a PDF for sharing or storing.
4. Once you have your documents in PDF format, you can send them via email as an attachment. If they do not already have the free Adobe Reader, they can download it, install it and then both view and print your shared document.
5. PDF format is a great format to also archive and preserve your documents in. New readers from Adobe are backward compatible as far as reading and printing are concerned. Therefore, download and install the latest free reader from Adobe and you can view and print your archived documents. This will be true even if you change operating systems on your computer. If you think you will want to edit your saved documents, it is best to also archive them in their native format with its associated software.
6. I have carried documents for reading with me on several different types of PDAs in PDF format. See the Adobe website for which PDAs are supported. The beauty is that the same PDF is readable on my desktop, notebook and PDA computers without making any changes to the PDF document.

Tips & Warnings

• Most new computers come with Adobe’s Reader preinstalled. If yours did not, it is available for free from the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/. This reader is what allows a user to view and print PDF documents.
• Microsoft Office 2007 has a free plug-in that allows its products to save documents in the PDF format. It is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en

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