How to convert a document or spreadsheet into a PDF file

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The benefits of a PDF file are:

• most computers in the world will open it,
• it maintains the look and feel of anything you can view on the screen and
• it stops people from editing your files

Adobe Systems Incorporated are the owners of the PDF (Portable Document Format) standard and they have traditionally made money by making the viewer program available for free, but charging for the program which actually creates the PDF files. This is common with many other programs like Flash (for website animations) where you can download a player to view them, but you have to buy the software if you want to create them.

There are a number of applications available which allow you to easily convert any file you can print into a PDF. These files don’t necessarily have the full functionality that is available with the Adobe Acrobat “creator” software but many people don’t need these features.

The program we have found is CutePDF and the video attached to this post (click here or on the title if you are viewing this as an email) shows you how to download the program, install it and use it to convert files to PDF. Please feel free to send us some comments if you know of a better product or want to share your experiences.