Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From:
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 08:56 PM

The Giveaway of the Day people are giving away today a PDF printer intercept program as described above for a few more hours.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 01:28 PM

I'll write this in a different file and try to get it to go this time.

Word files are notoriously bad for use with printer (commercial printers, not desktop printers) software. Files saved as PDF can be used in that form or saved as Post Script and put on printer computers for offset, etc. printing. I usually save any documents I'm sending to our campus publications office as rtf (rich text format) to scrape off a lot of the icky Word formatting.

PDF does not save a document like a photograph, but it allows a great deal of formatting and placement to stay put. It will use the resident fonts on the computer/browser it is viewed on if that computer doesn't have the font the PDF was saved with, so if you save some exotic font on your file that becomes a PDF, unless you save it as a high quality print ready file that includes a saved a copy of the fonts, you won't necessarily see it identically. PDFs for viewing on the web will typically display fonts as serif/non-serif and approximate the appearance of the original font if this happens.

When you use a program to convert to PDF it's like telling the computer "send this to the desktop printer" but in the selection of printers to use is this PDF program and it saves it to file instead of printing.

PDF995 is pretty good, though you need to separately download various component programs to get it to work perfectly. I used it for a number of year until I broke down and got Adobe Acrobat, since that is what I was using at work. If you set your PDF to be viewed on older versions of Acrobat Reader (the free download for viewing PDFs) it makes the file larger the more old versions back you include.

A-5 is a international standard size of paper used by printers and stationers, etc. About 6 x 8 inches. (find them all at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size). If you've been asked to center your copy in the PDF I imagine that means, in this context, that they're not asking you to leave a gutter on the side of the page where it will be bound. Normally binding a centered page would make it look a little pulled into the middle toward the spine, so the text is offset with a gutter to compensate for the shadowed bend of the bound edge of the page. You could have aligned the text as "center" but that would look odd in almost any book, including poetry. I expect you needed to justify the text, so it was a solid block on the page, without a ragged right margin.

Open Office is an interesting program, and I didn't realize it would save to PDF. My Word will do it, but I had an idea that Word "knows" that I have Adobe Acrobat and was simply providing a link to that program. It's nice to know that Microsoft built the feature into Word. Sometimes printers (desktop) will come with file conversion software including a PDF making option. So check to see what is already there in your various devices.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: treewind
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 03:19 AM

RTF is good for getting the content to someone in a form they are likely to be able to read with almost anything, but I wouldn't trust RTF for reproducing the page layout perfectly for publishing.

A.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:32 PM

Damn. A long answer just eaten up by error 505.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Bernard
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 03:57 PM

Surprisingly, a lot of people don't understand the 'Word' issue... Each time MicroShaft release a new version, it's pot luck as to wherther older versions can read it - the latest 'docx' incarnation is typical!

However, there is a relatively easy way of saving a Word document in a format most other word processing software can read - and edit... it's called 'Rich Text Format', or .RTF - and is usually a 'Save As' file type option in wordprocessors.

There can be occasional glitches with very old software not fully 'understanding' an RTF, and some 'features' cannot save in an RTF, but they probably wouldn't work in a PDF either.

One problem that is often overlooked is that of machine-specific fonts. What works on one machine won't on another, simply because the font isn't installed.

The old typesetter's rule of thumb was 'never use more than three typefaces (fonts) on the same page. Times New Roman is pretty universal, and is what you'll see in most newspapers and books. A famous newspaper pioneered it... the clue is in the name...

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: treewind
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 03:13 AM

"why can't they just accept a Word document?"
Because "a word document" could mean any of about half a dozen different file formats, all incompatible with each other in varying degrees, all secret, proprietary and largely undocumented... for publishing you need to be absolutely sure that what's printed looks the same as what the customer saw when he sent it so the software needs to understand the document format fully.

You're lucky they aren't asking for Quark Express file on a MAC-format CD - if there's one proprietary format that printers are used to, it's that.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: olddude
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:03 PM

As someone suggested use Cutepdf ... it works great ... I have to do that all the time. I built a system that uses cutepdf and ghostscript to output a webpage in PDF format .. I do online reports for my clients, they click report .. it auto generates a pdf from the data sent to the webpage (from the database processing) ... they now can print the report or save it or email it... all built using cutepdf and ghostscript and java

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: GUEST,stanly88
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 11:05 PM

You may access the following site, it tells 4 free ways to create PDF online

http://www.allpdftools.com/pdf-tips/free-ways-create-pdf-online.html

Hope this helps!

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Maryrrf
Date: 19 Jul 09 - 08:05 AM

Thanks for combining the threads, Joe, I thought I'd seen a thread on this a while back but couldn't find it. And thanks to all for the advice.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: DMcG
Date: 19 Jul 09 - 02:21 AM

I've decided what they probably mean by 'centred': they want the left and right margins on each page to be the same size. When a book is bound, because the middle is hidden by the binding it is printed with different margins on left hand and right hand pages. I think it likely that all they meant is they will worry about that bit and you need not.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 19 Jul 09 - 02:08 AM

Again, many thanks for all your help, everyone. I taken advice from here and have sent it off. With any luck, it will be all right. Why why why can't they just accept a Word document??????????

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter - Word to PDF
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jul 09 - 01:10 AM

I combined the two recent threads on PDF. I hope you don't mind.

Microsoft offers a free add-in converter that lets you save Office 2007 documents in PDF format. It works seamlessly. I don't think it will work with earlier versions of Office, however.


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 07:51 PM

I believe Primo PDF is also free, and works very well...actually works in converting any file to PDF, regardless of original format.

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter
From: DebC
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 07:20 PM

Sometimes I have some graphics documents that aren't in Open Office and I have to convert them to PDFs. I use a free thing called PDF CReator
. It works as an alias for printing, but instead of printing a document it saves it as a PDF.

The other solution is Open Office which is free.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Word - PDF Converter
From: Tootler
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 07:12 PM

There's some answers in this thread

Subject: Tech: Word - PDF Converter
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 06:11 PM

Occasionally I need to convert Word or Powerpoint documents to PDF files, or vice versa. I used to have a program which I downloaded that worked great, but I don't remember what it was and I lost it when my hard drive died. Anybody have a recommendation? I've tried a coupld of on-line freebies and they didn't seem to work very well. I don't mind paying a modest fee for the software.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Abdul The Bul Bul
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 07:49 AM

Adobe 4 is also free and works a treat if you can find it.

Al

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: SunrayFC
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 06:30 AM

Primo is the best- simple free and it works every time

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: DMcG
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 06:25 AM

I can't remeber Word95 that well, but on Word2000, in the print options, there is a 'zoom' box with a 'Scale to paper size' option that you can set to A5. Send that to the PDF printer and that should be that, I think.

I am a bit confused by the 'centered' remark, though. If it's a PDF then surely they want the PDF to be 'A5' pages (as the above would create). I can't think they really want the A4 pages reduced to A5 and then centered within an A4 sheet within a PDF document. But who knows?

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 05:12 AM

A5 centered they said.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: DMcG
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 04:52 AM

Oh, another thing - there are two quite different approaches to A5: you can 'photoreduce' your A4 pages which is simpler but makes the font smaller, or you can lay the original document out in A5: that keeps the font size but alters where every page break happens, alters any contents page and index entries and if you have, for example, embedded manuscript in the pages that might all have to be reworked.

Go for the 'photoreduction' approach, if you can!

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: DMcG
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 04:39 AM

The first question is what exactly do they mean by A5 format? They might mean each page is A5, they might want a pair of A5 pages side by side on an A4, they might even mean they want all the pages sorted in the right order so that for example the first and last page are side by side, then page and and the last-but-one, etc.

Whichever they mean, there are free solutions, but we'd better not begin down the wrong path.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 04:31 AM

IL would like to thank everyone for their advice, which has been very helpful. However, now they want me to send it in A5 format. Ahhhh!!! How do I do that?

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Tootler
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 03:11 PM

I have tried various PDF creators in the past and the best ones I have found are PDFCreator and Gostscript/GSView. The latter needs a two stage process. You have to print to a Postscript file first whereas PDFCreator does it all in one step. I see from the Wikipedia link above that PDFCreator uses Ghostscript.

Use a Mac

Try Linux instead! You can install it on your existing computer, so you don't need to incur the cost of buying a new, (overpriced IMO) computer. You also don't need to commit yourself if you are not sure as you can install Linux as a dual boot system.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: mattkeen
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 07:20 AM

Open Office is great as is the mac version NeoOffice

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 04:24 AM

I like that print webpages in PDF wheeze - so obvious - why didn't I think to do it?

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 12:58 AM

I use Microsoft Word 2007, which has the ability to export a file to PDF. I see above that Open Office, which is free, can do the same thing. I've been very impressed with what I've seen of Open Office, although I'm not quite ready to drop my Microsoft addiction.

Other formats were preferred in the past, but PDF seems to be the current favorite format that printers like to have for copy. It's all set up and fixed, so then the publisher can't blame the printer for layout mistakes.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 11:29 AM

buying a Mac does seem a rather expensive way of solving a 'problem' that is quickly sorted with FREE downloads on a PC!!

Who says you have to buy one? It's a one-off job, surely he has Mac-owning friends?

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 11:11 AM

CutePDFWriter doesn't have popup ads, watermarks or any such nonsense - I use it on a daily basis for emailing Word documents and for saving receipts for online purchases. Print the web page to it and save as a file. Very useful, because saving the page often isn't an option on such sites.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 10:05 AM

THe other option is to print to a post-script (.ps) file and then process that file with Acrobat DIstiller, which is a component of the full Acrobat pACKAGE.



a

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:47 AM

I used PDF995 and it seems to know what it is doing. Ads are barely a nuisance. Not tried it on Word95 - only 2000 +. I would bet most of them work well. However if you are using Word95 - what is your OS?
Win95, 98, ME, XP ? I would advise you read the small print and look for system requirements.

Best of luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:18 AM

Just one caveat... I seem to recall we had problems with a PDF writer (PDFCamp) we used to use here after Micro$haft updated their .NET framwork. Everything turned into gobbledegook!

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:12 AM

Oh, and in answer to Jack C, buying a Mac does seem a rather expensive way of solving a 'problem' that is quickly sorted with FREE downloads on a PC!!

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: DMcG
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:08 AM

Yep!   

All I would now add is don't worry whether to use PrimoPDF or PDFCreator or CutePDFWriter or Whatever-else-turns-up-while-I-am-typing: they all work the same way and do essentially the same thing.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: treewind
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:07 AM

Similarly PDF995 - installs as a printer. Free or cheap but tries to pop up an advert each time you use the free version.

Also if you had used Open Office for all your word processing and all other office needs (spreadheets, drawing etc), all its programs can export direct to PDF.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:02 AM

Hah! Nothing for ten minutes, then dozens flood in!!

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:01 AM

PDF - short for Portable Document Format.
The PDF format was designed to produce a page which looked the same no matter what computer it was viewed on.

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:01 AM

It's the file system that Adobe Acrobat uses, and means 'Portable Document Format'. Most computer systems have Acrobat Reader installed, if not, you may not be able to display or print a PDF. They are currently up to Version 9.1.

The easiest wat to create a PDF from a Word document is to download CutePDFWriter, which installs as if it were a printer.

You then 'print' to CutePDF and you're prompted to give the PDF a filename (usually just accept the default).

It's really that simple.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 09:01 AM

............& here's an explanation of what it is [+ some more gobbledygook!!]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 08:59 AM

Use a Mac. Open it in AppleWorks or iWork and choose PDF as the print option. You may occasionally find some formatting goes pearshaped but not if your original document is reasonably simple.

There are utilities to do the same on Wndows but they usually involve money or hassle.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 08:58 AM

Presumably they are set-up to handle PDF files, so that is the format they want supplied.
It is fairly easy to produce a PDF but you need some extra software to do it. There are a number of free programmes which will do this for you. I currently haveone installed - PDFCreator - which is a "virtual printer".
When you send a document to print, your printer driver converts the data into a bunch of information the printer can interpret, and produce the solid output. This programme takes the data and essentially re-writes it into a a PDF file which you can then save and pass on to your (HUMAN) printer.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: DMcG
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 08:56 AM

The easiest way is to install something like Primo PDF, then just print your Word document to it. That will create a file that should keep your publishers happy.

Subject: RE: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 08:49 AM

What on earth is PDF?

Subject: Tech: How do you transfer Word95 to PDF.
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 08:47 AM

I have to do it in order to get my book ppublished... and i dont know what they are talking about.