What Is a PDF File?

Video Transcript

"Hi. My name is Dave Andrews and today I'm going to tell you what a PDF file is. A PDF file is a file that was created by a company called Adobe and it basically allows you to create forms and different things that you can disseminate on the Internet without worrying about those forms getting changed. It's just because people don't have editors for this type of file. So you use quite a bit by the IRS for tax forms and for companies have their applications for employment, they put those out in PDF. So I'm going to show you on the screen what these are. I went on my desk top as my personal professional portfolio and this opens up in a program called Adobe Reader. You may have seen that on your computer because it comes pre installed now a days on most new computers. Basically this allows you to view this PDF document in this viewer program. But you're not able to edit it. Like if I click here I have a cursor but I can't type anything or can't change anything. Basically I can just view this document and print it. And that's where PDF files get their sort of secure capabilities. If you don't happen to have this Adobe Reader program you can get it very easily by opening up your Internet browser. And we're going to go to the website www.Adobe.com. Now on this website we're going to look for a little icon that says get Adobe reader and it's a red block and it has the Adobe logo on it. And you basically just click on that get Adobe reader icon and it'll take you to the download area where you can download and install the Adobe reader and open up PDF files with it. My name is Dave Andrews and I've just told you a little bit about what PDF files are."