Convert Word to PDF
There are many choices for you to convert your Microsoft Word documents (.doc) into an Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), but most of them require special software.However you can find free software that can make this conversion efficiently.
Lets learn how to do it.
Why turn Microsoft Word Files into PDFs?
There are two reasons why most individuals or organizations convert their MS Word .doc files into Adobe’s .pdf files:
The number 1 reason is that .pdf files will be viewed identically on all platforms. That is to say, PDF files are the same format and look the same on all platforms, no matter what Operating System you are using. If you want to, PDF is also a great way to make sure no one modifies a file that you don’t want modified, so that no one can alter either its formatting or the text. This fact makes PDF perfect for ebooks.
The second reason is that word files can only be read on computers with Office, while PDFs can be viewed with a program that anyone can download for free called Acrobat Reader.
Three Ways to Convert Word to PDF
OpenOffice
OpenOffice is an open source office suite application that provides very powerful and useful features. It includes word processing application, spreadsheet application, presentation application, etc and its style and interface is similar to MS Office.
OpenOffice also has a PDF writer built into the word processor application that lets you create PDFs or cut & paste PDFs or convert any documents into a PDF easily.
Convert with Free Software
There is another way to convert your MS Word .doc files into .pdf, for free. Follow this instructions:
• Install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Install a driver for a postscript printer. It doesn’t matter if you do not have a printer hooked up to your computer or if a printer is already hooked up to your computer, all that matters is that you load a PostScript compatible printer driver.
• Go to your Start/ Control Panel/ Printer and Faxes and then click add a Printer to add the driver, select Local Printer and remember that the printer port is File.
• From this point you can add an actual printer driver (any printer driver that is compatible with postscript will do).
• Download and Install two free programs, Ghostscript (found at http://www.ghostscript.com) and GSview (also found at http://www.ghostscript.com)
• Open MS Word and print the file you want to convert. When you are prompted about which printer to use, select the postscript printer that you just installed.
• Then you will have to name the file, so enter the name without the .doc extension. Use the extension .ps (i.e. myfile.ps) instead.
• Click OK. Now you have created a PostScript version of your original file.
• Open GSview and find the file you saved as .ps, double click on the file to launch in GSview.
• Then click File/ Convert and a dialogue box will pop up, choose pdf write and then choose the resolution.
• Click the OK button, and a new file dialogue box will appear where you’ll add the extension .pdf to the file name.
• Now you have a PDF file.
Purchase Conversion Software
Other tools available to convert your MS Word documents to PDF files are fee based. Some applications may be shareware and include a free trial with different limitations.
