How to create PDF files

Submitted by Steve Lockwood on Thu, 12/29/2011 - 21:39

Many organisers prepare their start and result sheets using Microsoft Word or Excel.  This is great, of course, but when you email the documents out to the competitors they can have trouble reading them:

  • They may not have Word/Excel installed
  • If you have the latest version and the recipient doesn't, they may not be able to read the file
  • The file size might be quite large, which can cause emails to get blocked

The simple solution is to convert your start and result sheets into PDF format.  PDF files can be read on nearly all computers and the PDF reader can be downloaded for free.  PDFs are also usually smaller files than the orgiinal Wrod or Excel documents so they are more suitable for emailing.

There are several ways to create a PDF file:

  • The expensive way is to purchase Adobe's PDF creation software - but there are several free ways also
  • The latest versions of Word and Excel have options for creating a PDF file - look for the menu option which lets you create a PDF and save it on disk
  • If you don't have the latest versions of Word and Excel there are several free alternatives:
    • CutePDF is free for personal use.  To use it you simply print your document and select the CutePDF writer as your printer.
    • OpenOffice is a free alternative to Excel and Word.  It also lets you open and work on Word and Excel documents.  Once the document is opened in OpenOffice you can use the Export to PDF menu option to save it as a PDF.
    • Sign up for a free Google (gmail) account and switch on the Google Docs service.  You can upload Word and Excel documents and, once again, you can save them as PDFs.

It is worth adding that there are excellent free alternatives to Word and Excel. OpenOffice gives you pretty much the same functionality.  GoogleDocs is also a very good alternative, particularly if you are collaborating with others online.

Tags: