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Creating a PDF file

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1st Mar 2006
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Simon HurstIf you can't convert them... 'print' them

Even if you are not particularly familiar with Adobe Acrobat you will almost certainly have come across PDF files. You might have clicked a link on a website to some sort of product information and found yourself looking at a brochure in Adobe Reader. You might have clicked on the 'help' option of a software application and seen a full product manual as an Acrobat file. You might even have come across PDF as an available output option in a software product.

In this feature we will look at ways in which you can create PDF files directly from your main office applications and also take a look at the options and settings that are available when you create a PDF file.

Converting with the built-in Adobe PDF Maker

When you install Acrobat Professional, you will find that new toolbars and menu options appear in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint, as well as other popular applications including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Access, Outlook, Publisher, Project and Visio. This built-in facility is known as the Adobe PDF Maker but as you will see later, you can easily output to PDF from any application simply by using Acrobat's Adobe PDF printer driver' ' the PDF Maker is just an optional, but very useful additional facility.
Let's look at converting a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Excel Menu

Here we can see the options in the Adobe PDF menu in Excel. The top three options (which are also available on the Adobe PDF toolbar) allow you to convert the spreadsheet into a PDF file and also:

  • save it as a file;

  • send it as an immediate email attachment

  • send it as an email attachment which can easily be reviewed and commented on by the recipient(s), even if they have just the free Adobe Reader.

    The other two options allow you to convert the entire workbook rather than just the active sheet, and finally there is an option to change the conversion settings.

    Before we convert our spreadsheet, let's just have a quick look at the conversion settings available by clicking the 'Change Conversion Settings' option:

    Excel Settings

    Here we see the 'Settings' tab. We won't go through every possible setting in detail, but note that there are a variety of different 'Conversion Settings' controlling output type and quality and size. You can also opt not to convert 'Document Information' ' effectively the source file properties such as title, author and company ' and so avoid potential disclosure of unwanted information. You will also see that there is a set of 'Application Settings' that are relevant to the particular application you are working in. For example, here in Excel we have an option to 'Fit Worksheet to a single page'. The Advanced Settings button gives you access to some very detailed settings options that you will not generally need to bother with.

    Now let's look at the Security tab:

    Excel Security

    Here we can start to see why PDF files are so useful, particularly in disciplines such as accountancy, where the integrity of documents can be so vital. Not only can we set up a password to restrict the ability to open the document at all, but we can also use a password to control the type of access to a document. For example, we could set the Printing Allowed status to 'Not Allowed' and choose Changes Allowed from a range of options, including 'None'. Obviously, it's all very well stopping someone editing an Office document, but if they can copy the contents and paste them into a new file, this may be ineffective. To guard against this eventuality, Acrobat security settings include an option not to 'Enable copying of text, images, and other contents'.

    We'll be covering the full range of Adobe Acrobat security features in another article, but as an example of what we could do, we will change the Permissions to: allow 'High Resolution' (i.e. 'normal') printing, prevent any changes and disable copying of content.

    Excel Permissions

    After clicking OK to accept our new settings, we will be prompted to confirm (and remember!) the password we entered. Note that these settings will remain as we have just set them for future conversions within Excel, until we change them.

    Now we will choose the 'Convert to Adobe PDF' option from the Adobe PDF menu, or toolbar. Because we did not select the 'Convert Entire Workbook' option from the menu, just the active sheet will be converted, and any Excel 'Print area' settings will be used. For those of you who don't have Acrobat or are just too lazy to follow our step-by-step instructions, we have included the resulting PDF file here for you to experiment with:

    Location of secure PDF

    Adobe PDF 'printer'

    As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, one of the great benefits of PDF is that you can use the PDF 'printer' to turn virtually anything you can print into a PDF file. Just use the normal 'File Print' option and find 'Adobe PDF' in your list of printers. The printer 'Properties' button will give you access to settings for Layout, Paper/Quality and as we can see here, Adobe PDF Settings:

    Printer Permissons

    Many of these settings are similar to those we looked at for the Excel worksheet conversion ' in particular the Adobe PDF Security settings, and the control over the addition of the 'Document Information' where available. However, where you have a choice of using a built in conversion via the PDF Maker or via the Adobe PDF 'printer', the former will enable you to add additional features to the resulting PDF, such as enhanced accessibility options and functionality specific to the application you are working in.

    Whichever option you choose, your document will be converted to a high quality PDF which meets all the requirements of the Adobe PDF standard and will therefore open seamlessly and reliably anywhere in the world.

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    Replies (7)

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    avatar
    By topfca
    10th Mar 2006 12:34

    Why pdf
    Thank you Simon.

    Very interesting and I have learned something now.

    Thanks (0)
    Simon Hurst
    By Simon Hurst
    09th Mar 2006 19:17

    Why PDF
    Hi Philip

    Contrary to any appearance of ignorance, your point is a very important one. Whilst this article didn't go into details of the 'why', we have been very careful to try and cover it elsewhere on the site. Have a look at our feature article on the '3Rs':

    https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=151390

    There is also a 'user story' that looks at why a four-partner firm of accountants creates and uses PDF files:

    https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=151538

    I hope that helps.

    Regards

    Simon Hurst

    Thanks (0)
    avatar
    By topfca
    09th Mar 2006 18:05

    Purpose of pdf files
    Forgive me for appearing ignorant but like so many technical articles, the author assumes that the reader has a certain level of knowledge.
    Could someone just tell me why one would want to create a pdf file. What advantages are there over retaining or e-mailing documents in their original programme formats?

    Thanks (0)
    avatar
    By david_terrar
    06th Mar 2006 17:46

    Good to hear about other tools
    Hi Simon,
    Obviously there was an element of devil's advocate in my comments since you only mentioned Adobe products in the articles I saw, and I'm delighted to hear you are going to contrast and compare some of the lower cost options. PDF is such an important interchange format, and practices need to understand the possibilities.
    David Terrar
    Mailto:[email protected]
    web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
    blog: http://biztwozero.com

    Thanks (0)
    Simon Hurst
    By Simon Hurst
    05th Mar 2006 17:34

    PDF and Acrobat Zone
    Thanks for all the comments so far. Just to deal with David Terrar’s questions.

    1. “Who is going to install Acrobat Professional?” – Well, I’m hoping that the articles that we publish in this zone will help people decide that for themselves. Those who only need to create the occasional PDF file may well be happy to use one of the many cheap or free PDF creators such as those referred to in the existing comments. It's worth adding that whilst Acrobat Professional does indeed cost about £395, upgrades from previous versions are just 1/3 of the price and of course there are cheaper Acrobat options. Have a look at our ‘3Rs’ article:

    https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=151390

    2. “Wouldn’t it be more helpful to highlight the lower cost ways you can create PDFs?” – This Zone is intended to help accountants discover ways to use PDFs in a more sophisticated fashion, rather than to choose a PDF creation tool. Have a look at our ‘welcome’ article: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=151389 . We discussed PDF creation to ensure members had the basic knowledge to take advantage from the other articles in the Zone. We are working with Adobe to create the Zone because we think that Acrobat offers excellent functionality of great relevance to the AccountingWeb community. Thanks to David for highlighting some of the other PDF creation tools – we will return to a comparison of the functionality offered by the various products in a later article.

    Regards

    Simon

    Thanks (0)
    avatar
    By david_terrar
    02nd Mar 2006 15:05

    How about lower cost options?
    Who, apart from somebody involved in serious publishing, marketing or design work, is going to install Adobe Acrobat Professional at £395 or whatever the street price is these days? Wouldn't it be more helpful to highlight the lower cost ways you can create PDFs with Scansoft PDF Create! or even the free download PDFCreator at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
    David Terrar
    Mailto:[email protected]
    web: http://www.d2c.org.uk and http://www.twinfield.com
    blog: http://biztwozero.com

    Thanks (0)
    avatar
    By AnonymousUser
    02nd Mar 2006 15:55

    Free pdf creator
    I heartily recommend Primo pdf for creating pdf files. It's free, easy to install and very easy to use. Get it here http://www.primopdf.com/

    Then any file you want to create, you simply select Primo as the printer and save the file to the folder of your choice.

    Thanks (0)