How to create a PDF file, cheaply?

[Roger Redford]

Dear Experts,

I have a document that I would like to email
to a number of people, in read only form.

What is a cheap or free PDF document writer that I
could use to convert MS Word files?

Also, if I write to PDF, is there any way that
someone could modify the information, say, with
Acrobat Writer?

Thanks

 

[Mike Koewler]

Roger,

Don will post his favorite response about pdf programs, I'm sure.

Yes, your information can be modified, your pictures altered, words added.

Mike

 

[Tom Beer]

There are some knock-offs available. PDF995, PDF-XChange are two of them.
Bear in mind that they are NOT Adobe products therefore you might not get
the same results as with the real thing.

I haven't heard of Acrobat Writer. I did a search at Adobe's website and
didn't get any hits on a program by that name. If you are asking if, for
example, I could edit a .pdf file you create with a Brand X program with my
Acrobat Standard software, I wouldn't want to guess one way or the other.
Your document may "appear" to be a real .pdf file but that doesn't mean it
will behave like one.

Do yourself a favor - spend the money for the real thing. You won't regret
it. I don't.

How is Acrobat the "real thing" while the competitors are not? The spec is
public and there are many products that comply with the spec - indeed some
are more compliant than Adobe's products.

I use ghostscript / ghostview with great success, and the price is right
(ie. free).

We also use pStill (www.pstill.com) in our commercial environment with much
success (The level of support for this product is great).

Tom.

 

[Bob]

Dear Experts,

I have a document that I would like to email
to a number of people, in read only form.

What is a cheap or free PDF document writer that I
could use to convert MS Word files?

The new version of OpenOffice (v 1.1) makes pdf files. I've used it a
couple of times; seems to work nicely and simply.

bob

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

If you are not using the PDF for pre-press then any junk PDF program will
do, as that is all the PDF wanna-be programs are.

If you are doing pre-press work or expect and demand quality, then only the
full version of Adobe Acrobat will do.

--
The US should free all those
illegally held prisoners they are
torturing, abusing and denying
human rights being held at
Guantanamo Bay.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

Hi Waldo ([email protected]),
in the Microsoft® newsgroups
you posted:

|| Pre-press work in MS Publisher??? ;-)

Been doing it for years, and it's been working awesome. Publisher 2003 has
improved 10 fold with the composite cmyk support, making it that much
better.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Office Publisher MVP
Official Publisher MVP Site:
http://www.kvalheim.org

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Dick Harper]

William Penrose eloquently commented in misc.writing

Newer versions of Word will allow you to lock documents so they can be
opened and read, but not changed.

People with older versions of Word (or no versions of Word)
cannot read those). People with WordPerfect 11 can not only read
them but can break the lock.
And speaking of WordPerfect, Corel bundles an excellent PDF
publishing tool in CorelDraw from version 9 on and, I think, in
some WordPerfect Office versions.

--Dick

 

[Mike Koewler]

Dick,

Are you taking about the Word Document or the pdf created from Word?

Mike

 

[Scott OQ Elyard]

Waldo no issue doing pre-press work in Publisher. Have done since
Publisher 2.0. With tools like QABOT and Enfocus Pitstop it is not an
issue. Now with programs like Publisher 2003 and Serif PagePlus 9.0
there is no need for the majority to spend mega dollars on programs like
Quark, PageMaker etc.

Unless you value your sanity.

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

Unless you value your sanity.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
And people posting to a Microsoft Publisher newsgroup may find it helpful
not to go on about how bad Microsoft Publisher is (especially seeing as it
isn't that bad at all)
Have you tried the commercial print features in Publisher 2003?

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Ed you can never help the poorly educated. They know not what they talk
about as they know little to nothing.

--
The US should free all those
illegally held prisoners they are
torturing, abusing and denying
human rights being held at
Guantanamo Bay.

 

[JR Boulay]

Ed you can never help the poorly educated. They know not what they
talk about as they know little to nothing.

Yes, but trying the free soft RagTime (solo) will defitively convince
you about so-called Publisher "qualities"...
;-)


JRB

 

[Scott OQ Elyard]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message


People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I agree. I don't live in a glass house (i.e. one made by Microsoft; I
can just imagine the security issues that go along with _that_.)

And people posting to a Microsoft Publisher newsgroup may find it helpful
not to go on about how bad Microsoft Publisher is (especially seeing as it
isn't that bad at all)
Have you tried the commercial print features in Publisher 2003?

Shan't, and won't, because everything else I've ever used made it
absolutely unnecessary from the word go.

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

Shan't, and won't, because everything else I've ever used made it
absolutely unnecessary from the word go.

Shan't and won't mean the same thing, don't they?
And what things do you use that make Microsoft Publisher totally
unnecessary? Quark/PageMaker/InDesign? Or do you use something that the
common mortal can afford?

 

[Dr Zen]

Actually, they may not in some cases.

From The Elements of Style, Third Edition:

Written when?

[old chestnut excised]

Zen

 

[Mary Sauer]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0205191584/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-8309472-8140966#reader-page

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/getting_started.htm

"JL Amerson" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Actually, they may not in some cases.

From The Elements of Style, Third Edition:

Written when?

[old chestnut excised]

Zen

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

Hi JR Boulay ([email protected]),
in the Microsoft¨ newsgroups
you posted:

|| Yes, but trying the free soft RagTime (solo) will defitively convince
|| you about so-called Publisher "qualities"...


Care to share what the *so-called* qualities you are trolling?

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Office Publisher MVP
Official Publisher MVP Site:
http://www.kvalheim.org

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Scott OQ Elyard]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message


Shan't and won't mean the same thing, don't they?

No.


And what things do you use that make Microsoft Publisher totally
unnecessary? Quark/PageMaker/InDesign? Or do you use something that the
common mortal can afford?

There's no need to deify me, even if I am pretty cool. (Well, cooler
than you anyway.)

Regardless, the puny mortals always (but always) forget FrameMaker.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

Hi Scott OQ Elyard ([email protected])
in the Microsoft® newsgroups
you posted:

|| Regardless, the puny mortals always (but always) forget FrameMaker.

I am pretty sure it's not that they have forgotten, but chosen to erase it
from their mind.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Office Publisher MVP
Official Publisher MVP Site:
http://www.kvalheim.org

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Dick Harper]

Mike Koewler eloquently commented in misc.writing

Are you taking about the Word Document or the pdf created from Word?

The original Word document.

--Dick