• Posted Oct. 12, 2012, 6:21 p.m. - 11 years, 6 months ago

Get Over Your Fear of PDFs

Many people avoid creating PDF files like the plague.  Some people would rather go back to parchment paper, a quill and a bottle of indelible ink before creating a PDF file.

 

Everyone who has a computer has used a PDF file, or should I say opened one for reading.  There are many free readers with the most notable being the Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Since everyone has read a PDF, why is there such an adverse reaction to creating a PDF?

In the past, you needed a complicated PDF creation and editing software that was very expensive.  Now, prices have come down to affordable levels.  For a lot of uses, you do not even need a dedicated PDF creation program.

Many programs including Microsoft’s Office suite and the OpenOffice suite now include a print as a PDF function.  Even LinkedIn can create a PDF of your resume from your list of job experiences.  So the capability to create PDF files is within reach of just about everyone.

Your browser of choice like Firefox and Internet Explorer have add-ins available that let you print web pages as a PDF file.  Google’s Chrome browser even has a built-in save as a PDF function to capture that interesting web page.  Most accounting packages like QuickBooks even include report printing in PDF format.

So, you see that PDFs are all around you and creating PDF files can be as simple as printing!  There is no reason to fear creating PDF files.

Just go into your favorite application and make use of the PDF functions.  Everyone can open a PDF document, but not everyone can open other document formats.

Once you overcome your fears of creating PDF documents, you will reach a comfort level where you will want a more advanced PDF product like Infix or Acrobat.