Difference between revisions of "Creating a PDF from a File"

Revision as of 08:53, 26 September 2016

This article assumes you do not have Adobe Acrobat Pro installed.

Microsoft Office Users (Mac and Windows)

PDF creation is built-in to Microsoft Office

1. From any MS Office Document go File > Save As
2. Choose PDF from the File Format dropdown

Mac Users

PDF creation is built-in to the Mac OS. You do not need any special software installed.

1. From any application on your Macintosh go File > Print
2. From the PDF drop-down menu (lowerleft) choose "Save as PDF"
3. Enter the filename and location to save your pdf
4. Click Save to create and save your pdf

Windows Users

PDF creation for Windows users requires the installation of software to generate pdfs. Check to see if you already have pdf creation tools installed. You may have a "create PDF" button in the toolbar or an export feature under the File menu. Otherwise, choose "Print" from the File menu, and see if you can change the name of the printer to "Adobe PDF" or "PDF Creator."

If none of those options are available, you'll need to install new software so that you can "print to PDF." This is a bit more complex because you'll need to download and install third-party software. Once installed, making a pdf is very easy.

Free PDF writers for the PC:

• CutePDF Writer
• PDFcreator

Printing to PDF (on a PC) After you've installed any of the above pdf creation tools:

1. Open the file you want to convert to PDF
2. From the File pull down menu, select Print. This should bring up a print dialog box.
3. Change the printer to either "Adobe PDF," "Cute PDF Writer," or "PDF Creator" depending on which software you have installed. Then click the Print button. This will bring up another dialog box that will ask you a file name and location to save the PDF file.
4. Select a file name and location and click on "Save". You now have a PDF file of your current Moodle front page that you can email and share.