Convert MS word to PDf

I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I want
to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is free.
Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some hints to
tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask this question,
please advise.

Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Thanks,
Doug Freese

Word for Mac has this capability built in. If you're using Windows,
then you need to install Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not the free
Reader) or a one of many similar programs (some free, most cheaper than
Acrobat) to convert to PDF. In Acrobat, the conversion to PDF can be
done with a click of a button on the Acrobat toolbar in Word, or by
clicking on File | Print | Acrobat PDFWriter | OK.

Doug Freese wrote:

I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I want
to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is free.
Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some hints to
tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask this question,
please advise.

Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Thanks,
Doug Freese

You need to buy a copy of the full version of Acrobat (not the reader), or
try one of the shareware clones (some, but not all, are OK).

It's not a SaveAs option in Word because --

a) creating a PDF file is an application in itself. Although most of the
functions are irrelevant for simple purposes like creating a newsletter from
a Word document, PDFs provide enough detailed control for assembling entire
magazines, with all the color separation and matching requirements needed
for direct-to-plate output. See http://www.3dap.com.au/ for an example of
just how complex this can get.

b) it's how Adobe makes its money. The reader is free and everybody has it;
the writer you have to pay for, and these days nearly everybody wants it.





"Doug Freese" wrote in message
...
I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I want
to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is free.
Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some hints to
tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask this question,
please advise.

Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Thanks,
Doug Freese

Tach Doug, 0x2B859DE3 (PGP-PK-ID)

I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I
want to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is
free. Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some
hints to tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask this
question, please advise.

There is a free printer driver that produces pdf, called RedMon. Or you
use the AdobePS driver to produce PostScript, then convert it with
ps2pdf. In any case you need Ghostscript. LaTeX can produce PDF directly
via pdflatex and it sounds to me you need a DTP program, not a word
processor, otherwise you could use plain text. Maybe OpenOffice Writer
is a choice for you, it has direct PDF support.

Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Because pdf is an opponent for some plans in direction of document
managment.

V-Li

--
Fingerprint: 68C5 D381 B69A A777 6A91 E999 350A AD7C 2B85 9DE3
http://www.gnupg.org

Tach Jezebel, 0x2B859DE3 (PGP-PK-ID)

a) creating a PDF file is an application in itself. Although most of
the functions are irrelevant for simple purposes like creating a
newsletter from a Word document, PDFs provide enough detailed control
for assembling entire magazines, with all the color separation and
matching requirements needed for direct-to-plate output. See http://
www.3dap.com.au/ for an example of just how complex this can get.

Why have other office suites direct support?

b) it's how Adobe makes its money. The reader is free and everybody
has it; the writer you have to pay for, and these days nearly
everybody wants it.

There are more than one good and cheap (sometimes free) possibilities
to produce PDF from any application. And apart from that, PDF is
completely documented (except some editing functions).

V-Li

--
Fingerprint: 68C5 D381 B69A A777 6A91 E999 350A AD7C 2B85 9DE3
http://www.gnupg.org

Google PDF995. Its a free PDF driver. You use it as printer but it creates
PDF files

Gordo



"Doug Freese" wrote in message
...
I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I want
to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is free.
Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some hints to
tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask this question,
please advise.

Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Thanks,
Doug Freese

"E. Barry Bruyea" wrote in message
...
Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Thanks,
Doug Freese


The operative word here is "Free Reader", not 'free creator'. You
need the full version of Adobe in order to 'create' PDF docs and it
ain't free.

I'm well aware of the difference between the reader and writer. The
obvious reason I'm going for PDF is the free reader(and some compaction)
so each recipient at worst needs to install the 'free" reader to read
the club letter. I'm not using the Adobe creator because it is too
expensive for my non profit club. It appears that the majority of people
that would do this letter already have MS word so the creation side is
moot.

For $30 a product like DOC2PDF(trial version) handled my conversion
without a problem. No financial interest, I'm only mentioning the name
because it works. I took 4 old copies and it converted them flawlessly.
My only problem to date was I used a obscure font that a few of the 25
people that tested the output had a problem with.

I'm not suggesting this is an ideal solution but my solution within the
clubs and my financial bounds. As much as I like software toys I can't
justify the price of the writer even for myself.

-DougF

"Christian Faulhammer" wrote in
message ...
Tach Doug, 0x2B859DE3 (PGP-PK-ID)

I did a quick search on converting MS word documents to PDF and of
course hit oodles of stuff. I'm writing a running newsletter and I
want to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is
free. Anyway, has anyone been down this path and care to give me some
hints to tools an/or procedures. If there is better forum to ask
this
question, please advise.



There is a free printer driver that produces pdf, called RedMon.

I saw a few of freebees but as an old tools writer I know that support
for many of the free tools can be risky. I felt more comfortable with a
product that had a formal support structure behind it even if I paid a
few bucks. I did not want to get a few hundred people converted from
paper and suddenly tke a system fix etc and I'm suddenly dead in the
water.

Or you
use the AdobePS driver to produce PostScript, then convert it with
ps2pdf. In any case you need Ghostscript. LaTeX can produce PDF
directly
via pdflatex and it sounds to me you need a DTP program, not a word
processor, otherwise you could use plain text. Maybe OpenOffice Writer
is a choice for you, it has direct PDF support.

I looked at the Postscript stuff and more than I wanted to play with. I
even used LaTex a hundred years ago. I wanted to keep it simple. While
the majority of the letter is text I'm also using .bmp and .jpeg etc.
for graphics.


Probably a loaded question but is there some reason why Word does not
allow .pdf as a save option?

Because pdf is an opponent for some plans in direction of document
managment.

Ah yes, the almighty $$$ and territory. Seems appropriate in this
election season. In my over simplistic mind it would seem that MS
could tuck this support into the product without much effort or cost.
It would seem to me this feature that might generate some additional
income - at least in my naive world.

-Doug Freese

Tach Doug, 0x2B859DE3 (PGP-PK-ID)

There is a free printer driver that produces pdf, called RedMon.
I saw a few of freebees but as an old tools writer I know that support
for many of the free tools can be risky. I felt more comfortable with
a product that had a formal support structure behind it even if I paid
a few bucks. I did not want to get a few hundred people converted from
paper and suddenly tke a system fix etc and I'm suddenly dead in the
water.

Ok, I understand this demand. For me, the best solution is a printer
driver that intercepts the printing queue to produce PDF (conversion
must be tricky because .doc is not documented very well). So I can tell
you that for some years now Ghostscript (the part that converts to PDF
in RedMon) is developed by a small enterprise in Australia. Every some
versions they release an old software in Open Source, the "commercial"
one is free of charge, only the PS viewer can be obtained: URL:http://
www.ghostgum.com.au/
Secondly you can choose software from JAWS, the Creator (a printer
driver) costs about 80 US-$, I can't tell about quality, I only used
their Editor which is an alternative for home users to Acrobat Editor:
URL:http://www.jawspdf.com/pdf_creator/index.html.

Or you use the AdobePS driver to produce PostScript, then convert it
with ps2pdf. In any case you need Ghostscript. LaTeX can produce PDF
directly via pdflatex and it sounds to me you need a DTP program, not
a word processor, otherwise you could use plain text. Maybe
OpenOffice Writer is a choice for you, it has direct PDF support.
I looked at the Postscript stuff and more than I wanted to play with.
I even used LaTex a hundred years ago. I wanted to keep it simple.
While the majority of the letter is text I'm also using .bmp and .jpeg
etc. for graphics.

No problem to include in LaTeX, but I am not here as an LaTeX
evangelist, although I prefer it over any word processor (I did not even
use Word for six years now). But so, OpenOffice (or StarOffice, its
commercial pendant) may be an alternative.

In my over simplistic mind it would seem that MS could tuck this
support into the product without much effort or cost.

Would be better to fix some bugs in Word first before adding new
features.

It would seem to me this feature that might generate some additional
income - at least in my naive world.

In terms of a long-term strategy I do not think so...forms to fill in
will be a huge market and MS has its own ideas what system should be
used instead of PDF. Connected to their software for merchants
(Navision) it is the bigger market.

V-Li

--
Fingerprint: 68C5 D381 B69A A777 6A91 E999 350A AD7C 2B85 9DE3
http://www.gnupg.org

Hi Christian

Christian Faulhammer wrote:
[..]
I'm writing a running newsletter and I
want to put it into PDF for it's compaction plus the Adobe reader is
free.
[..]
and it sounds to me you need a DTP program, not a word
processor, otherwise you could use plain text. Maybe OpenOffice Writer
is a choice for you, it has direct PDF support.

For a Newsletter that is primarily read on-screen and printed out on
unknown machines – I can't imagine there's much Word cannot do in that
field ... Esp. since you mention OO (which is a text-processor as well).

2cents
..bob
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