Lesson 7.4: Create .PDF Files

There will be times that someone will want to make a document or spreadsheet downloadable in a preformatted non-changeable format.  Creating a PDF version of the file offers that.

There are several PDF generating utilities that are available.  One that comes highly recommended is PDFCreator.  This utility is installed as a printer so you create a PDF copy of a file by printing it.  This gives the use the option to apply printing options in addition to PDFCreator options.


Here is an example of creating a PDF copy of the Website planning document:

1. With the document opened in the native program that was used to produce it, choose to print the document.
   
   
   
   
2. In the print window, select "PDFCreator".  Make any desired changes to print options by clicking the "Options ..." button.
   
   
   
   Click "OK" to continue.
   
   
3. In the "Document" window, record the applicable information.  You should make an effort to specify the author, subject and keywords.  That information is then available to anyone who mouses over the PDF file at a later date.  In addition, that same information is included in any internet search engine indexes that discovered the PDF file.
   
   
   
   
   To modify the PDF options, click on the "Options" button.
   
   
   
   
   
4. In the "Options" window, modify the settings to apply to the PDF file as it is created.
   
   
   
   
   Click on the file format, "PDF" in this example.  Then work through the detail pages on the right.  Under the "General" tab, pay attention to the resolution.  The default should be 300 dpi.  If the text characters and images appear to be of poor quality and the document only has a few pages, you can increase "Resolution" to 600 dpi.
   
   
   
   
   Under "Compression", selecting "Compress" for color images will try to apply reasonable amount of compression to graphic images in the document.  JPG files suffer from quality loss as you apply compression, so if images appear to be of low quality, then uncheck this option.
   
   
   
   
   Under the "Security" tab, specific options can be enabled, encryption, passwords, disallowing the user to print the file, copy text and images or modify the document or comments.
   
5. Also check the options for JPEG files.
   
   
   
   
   Ensure that the minimum Resolution is set to 300 dpi and quality is set to 100%.
   
6. When all options have been configured, click the "Save" button.  That will create the PDF file which will usually attempt to open the document in a PDF Reader.