How to Write Progress Notes for Substance Abusers in PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF) documents are platform independent, lightweight electronic document files that may be viewed with a PDF viewing application. Integrating any process into an electronic format, including writing progress notes for substance abusers, requires the right tools for the procedure. The full version Adobe Acrobat application (Standard or Professional) is the industry-standard application for creating, modifying and managing PDFs. When Adobe Acrobat is installed, the Adobe PDF driver is installed to all printing applications on the computer. PDFs may be created by printing documents from applications using the PDF driver, which creates and saves the PDF document; or by using the Adobe Acrobat interface to scan the document. The scanned document is then saved as a PDF file.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Adobe Acrobat (full version, not Adobe Reader) installed
- Scanner (Section 1 only)
Instructions
-
Scan Written Progress Notes to PDF
-
1
Ensure the scanner is attached and installed on the computer and power on the scanner device.
-
2
Open the "Adobe Acrobat" application by clicking on the desktop shortcut or the link in the Windows Programs list.
-
-
3
Click the "File" option from the top menu bar.
-
4
Click the "Create PDF" link to show the submenu.
-
5
Click the "From Scanner" link. The Adobe Scanning interface will launch.
-
6
Place the written page of notes to be scanned face down on the scanner and close the scanner top.
-
7
Select the TWAIN scanner option that lists the scanning device from the "Scanner" dropdown menu.
-
8
Select "Front Side" from the drop-down menu labeled "Scan".
-
9
Select "New Document" from the "Destination" drop-down box to save the scanned page as a new PDF.
-
10
Check the checkbox in front of the "Recognize Text Using OCR" option to run the Optical Character Recognition" to render text from the scanned document, if possible. (Note that OCR will operate well with scanned, typed documents, but outcomes for handwritten documents may vary.)
-
11
Click the "Scan" button. The scanner will scan the document and notify the user when finished by prompting to scan the Next Page or to quit.
-
12
Click the radio button in front of the "Done" option to finish and save the PDF as is, or click the radio button in front of the "Next Page" option to scan another page. Repeat until all documents have been scanned. When the "Done" option is selected, all scanned pages will open in the Adobe Acrobat application.
-
13
Click the "File" option and then click "Save" to save the newly scanned PDF.
-
14
Type a name in the "File Name" input box and leave the "PDF" file type selected in the "File Type" drop-down box.
-
15
Click the "Save" button. The written notes have now been scanned and saved as a PDF document.
-
16
Test the PDF by viewing in a PDF viewing application.
Print Microsoft Word Progress Notes to PDF
-
17
Open the Microsoft Word version of the progress notes in the Microsoft Office Word application. To quickly do this, right-click the document, click "Open With" and select "Microsoft Word" from the programs list.
-
18
Click the Microsoft Office Orb (button) located on the top left of the Word interface.
-
19
Click the "Print" option. The Print dialog box will launch.
-
20
Select "Adobe PDF" from the "Printer Name" drop-down box and click "OK". The File Save dialog box will open.
-
21
Type a name for the PDF in the File Name input field and leave ".pdf" selected in the File Type drop-down box.
-
22
Click the "Save" button. The Word document of notes will save as a PDF and open in the Adobe Acrobat application when finished.
-
23
Test the PDF by viewing in a PDF viewing application such as Adobe Reader (see Resources).
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit pencil on notes image by Kovac from Fotolia.com
