Is there a good program available to convert documents to PDF's without having to lay out the $400 Adobe charges? I love the Adobe product (tried it on a 30 day trial) but it's just so damn expensive.
OpenOffice will do it for you Bret. My company uses it and you can export right from the document editor to PDF. Not being a power user, I don't know what limitations it might have though.
http://www.openoffice.org/
I've got an unopened Adobe Acrobat 8.0 (Full Version) that I'd be happy to send you. The software came with a scanner I bought but I didn't need it because I already have (and use) the Pro version.
Let me know if you're interested and I'll drop it in the mail,
CAZ
Posted by Jesse Speer on July 31, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Ditto Nat. You have a mac. Apple does get some things right (damn itunes).
Posted by Jim Casteel on July 31, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I was going to say I have a free copy of Acrobat 7 you could have but 8 is better than 7. The company I work for sells high dollar scanners so we have probably a dozen or so copies of 7 laying around.
Posted by Jack Garrett on July 31, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Thanks for this topic Bret. I didn't have a file converter and I just downloaded Cute PDF and it worked perfectly...converted a doc in about 2 seconds...bravo for freeware!
Posted by Lance Warley on July 31, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Caz, if Bret doesn't want it, I'll take it and happily pay the postage.
Jack, does Cute PDF convert multiple pdf's into 1 file?
Posted by Jack Garrett on July 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Lance not sure about that. I did convert 2 separate word files to pdf. Then I opened word and used drag and drop to bring them back into word and it seemed to work just fine. On the opposite side, I dragged and dropped 2 separate word files into one new word doc and saved to pdf..that worked fine too. I then drag/drop 2 pdf files into word, did a file convert back to pdf and that is fine too. It might be a little more work but the end result seems the same
CutePDF can be downloaded and installed and shows up like a print driver does. You select to print the file and select CutePDF Writer as the printer, then you provide a filename and the pdf is saved. Quick and easy.
Nathan
Posted by Fred Stearns on July 31, 2009 at 7:14 PM
CutePDF works fine for me. It is also a whole lot smaller than the full blown Adobe Acrobat.
Posted by Bob Falcone on August 2, 2009 at 4:52 PM
I'm using NitroPDF...there are a few versions, and it costs a little bit (around $50 IIRC), but it's more capable than CutePDF, and not nearly as expensive as the full version.
Also, the latest version of MS Office can save to PDF.
Posted by Les Barstow on August 6, 2009 at 2:38 AM
If all you want is essentially a document for printing, you can use any number of free PDF converters... I've used PrimoPDF; it's just fine for basic document output. The other suggestions here are also just fine for that use. You can also save as PDF from newer versions of Photoshop.
If you want embedded links, PDF form elements, or control of presentation features, then you'll want something more robust. The full Acrobat, the latest MS Office, and OpenOffice provide most of these features. Although it's still a bit quirky, I find that the open source Scribus desktop publishing package provides some of the best tools for creating full-featured PDF documents.
Discussion
15 repliesThanks!
http://www.openoffice.org/
On Windows, CutePDF Writer does the same thing, for any app.
I've got Acrobat Pro myself, but use only a fraction of its features.
I've got an unopened Adobe Acrobat 8.0 (Full Version) that I'd be happy to send you. The software came with a scanner I bought but I didn't need it because I already have (and use) the Pro version.
Let me know if you're interested and I'll drop it in the mail,
CAZ
Jack, does Cute PDF convert multiple pdf's into 1 file?
CutePDF can be downloaded and installed and shows up like a print driver does. You select to print the file and select CutePDF Writer as the printer, then you provide a filename and the pdf is saved. Quick and easy.
Nathan
Also, the latest version of MS Office can save to PDF.
If you want embedded links, PDF form elements, or control of presentation features, then you'll want something more robust. The full Acrobat, the latest MS Office, and OpenOffice provide most of these features. Although it's still a bit quirky, I find that the open source Scribus desktop publishing package provides some of the best tools for creating full-featured PDF documents.