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Greetings--

Soliciting comments/suggestion on PDF converters (non-Adobe$$).

I need to convert MS Office documents (Word and Excel) to PDF files.

Thanks--

Try using pdf955. It's a print engine actually. When you print your document, select pdf955 as the printer, and it will prompt you to select a location and file name. It works well with my old Office 97.

It's a free download

http://www.pdf995.com/

Hoss

I use CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/ a free PDF print driver w/o ads or popups. I use it every time I need to 'print' something (online receipts, etc.) that I want, but don't want to have to keep up with a piece of paper.

If you have a lot of stuff (several file boxes) you could look to printing firms with the software or super scanners if you only have hard copies - cost is (was) about 17 cents a page. Cheap way is as suggested by other listers if you don't want to buy Adobe. If you are nearby - and you have a need for only a few items to be turned into PDF - get them to me and I'll scan hard copies and give you a CD with the PDFs on it - if in word doc format you could send email to me with the file attached (I will not read them - at least I will avert my eyes) - I'll convert and shoot them right back in PDF. No problem.

This is what I use, and I really like it:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Ryan

I usually need to convert the other direction, so I have to ask what may be a dumb question; What would be the purpose or advantage to converting to PDF?

txinvestigator wrote:I usually need to convert the other direction, so I have to ask what may be a dumb question; What would be the purpose or advantage to converting to PDF?

To create forms or standardized pieces of paper. A .pdf allows you to have an electronic print version of something, what I mean is a .pdf is unalterable (mostly) so the documents stays the way it was created.

I used pdf creation software to print reciepts when purchasing things on the internet - it really doesn't print a hard copy out, but creates a .pdf file with the same content as a printed page would.

I mail invoices as .pdf files as well as quotes.

It used to be that a .pdf file was more universally viewable than a .doc file, but wordperfect has fallen by the wayside and almost everyone can handle .doc files now.

gigag04 wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:I usually need to convert the other direction, so I have to ask what may be a dumb question; What would be the purpose or advantage to converting to PDF?

To create forms or standardized pieces of paper. A .pdf allows you to have an electronic print version of something, what I mean is a .pdf is unalterable (mostly) so the documents stays the way it was created.

I used pdf creation software to print reciepts when purchasing things on the internet - it really doesn't print a hard copy out, but creates a .pdf file with the same content as a printed page would.

I mail invoices as .pdf files as well as quotes.

It used to be that a .pdf file was more universally viewable than a .doc file, but wordperfect has fallen by the wayside and almost everyone can handle .doc files now.

OK, so if I wanted to have documents that were accessible by people in the field to print, but I did not want them to be able to change the forms, a .pdf would be better than a .doc?

txinvestigator wrote:OK, so if I wanted to have documents that were accessible by people in the field to print, but I did not want them to be able to change the forms, a .pdf would be better than a .doc?

Yup.

gigag04 wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:OK, so if I wanted to have documents that were accessible by people in the field to print, but I did not want them to be able to change the forms, a .pdf would be better than a .doc?

Yup.

Thanks!

txinvestigator wrote:

gigag04 wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:OK, so if I wanted to have documents that were accessible by people in the field to print, but I did not want them to be able to change the forms, a .pdf would be better than a .doc?

Yup.

Thanks!

It's also helpful if you need to print something from a web site, such as a receipt, but are not currently hooked up to a printer. You "print" to the PDF Writer and save the document as a PDF file.

MacOS X can print-to-file as .pdf, from any application. Some of the Macintosh graphics technology is licensed from Adobe.

Kevin

Two that I use:

1) Primo PDF
Primo PDF is free, very simple, and does not have any tagware/nagware in it. It installs as a printer, so when you want to create a PDF of your document, select PrimoPDF as your printer and you're in bidness.

2) OpenOffice 2.0
Open Office 2.0 is Sun's answer to Microsoft's Office suite. It is not as purty, but is definitely functional, comes with everything Office does, and its *free*. Sun loves that part, 'specially since MS derives the largest majority of their income from Office. Heheh.

Open Office has the PDF creator built-in. It also will open,edit, and save to MS Formatted files like Word,Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

~Bill