Creating PDF’s for Free
I had a requirement a few days ago to convert a Microsoft word document to PDF for archival and distribution purposes. I didn’t want to go out and spend a heap of money on Adobe Acrobat Distiller (actually I didn’t really want to spend any).
I tried 3 or 4 different free converters which installed as print drivers, they all did the job more or less. Some required the additional ghostscript software to be installed, while others where complete software packages. Of all the print driver installations they all lacked on thing - the ability to create bookmarks from the document headings. As the document was a fairly large and well organised having content nested with heading, this was a rather important requirement for me.
I ended up downloading and installing the latest version of OpenOffice. It is a few years since I have tried it and I must say that it is now a rather good set of office applications. With a polished design and intuitive user interface. If it wasn’t for the fact that I already have Microsoft Office I would be using it all the time. The big benefit of OpenOffice is the ability to create PDF’s straight from the applications with te click of the mouse. Best of all the all the headings are added as bookmarks in the resultant PDF document for easy navigation.
There are some differences in terminology and the interface, for instance the document map in Word in accessed via the Navigator In OpenOffice Writer. This didn’t take to long to figure out.
This is all well and good if you if you are trying to convert a Word or Spreadsheet document but what if you have a requirement to convert some other type of document? The answer for me was very simple. Most of the time I will use OpenOffice to create my PDF’s any others that I need to create I will use an application like PrimoPDF print driver. As long as you can print the document, then with a PDF print driver you can convert it.
If your requirements are more sophisticated then you may need to look at a commercial application to fill the gaps of free software. For me and my current requirements there is no justification on spending the money.
