WORD to PDF conversion for cheapskates -- help!

[doc47]

My book on my experiences as a doc in West Africa is finished and looks good. I need to convert it to a .PDF file to send it to the printer.

Adobe Acrobat is costly and I'm trying to keep expenses to a minimum. (All profits from the book go to charity.)

So, does anyone know about freeware I could use (the book is in 6X9 format).

OR, is there someone out there who could do this for me if I sent the file on disc or as an email (zip file)?

It's for a good cause!!!!

[Boffin]

Open Office

 

Andy

[bakerzdosen]

Anybody with a Mac could do it rather simply, just print to PDF. Let me know and I'll have it back to you 10 minutes after I get the file. PM'ed you my email (not that it's tough to guess.)

[randys]

Cute PDF

 

http://www.download.com/CutePDF-Writer/3000-6675_4-10206470.html

[Gregori]

The problem with sending a word file to someone to PDF is that you potentially lose formatting, fonts, and so on. If it has any photos or graphics, moving a word file from a PC to a Mac often screws them up.

That's one of the main points behind using a PDF (and why your printer wants the file that way) - it keeps it looking exactly as you intended. (The other biggie is that anyone can download the 'Reader" for free, so they don't have to have a copy of whatever software you used to create the document.)

 

If you only plan to need Acrobat this one time, just download the full version from Adobe, and run it in 'Demo" mode. It will work exactly as the full version for 30 days.

 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Gregori's option (demo download) looks like the best, since you can fiddle with things directly and convert multiple times if the end result isn't quite right.

 

Another option:

http://www.adobe.com/acom/createpdf/

 

If all else fails, I have the full version of Acrobat, and I can do the conversion for you; PM me if interested.

 

So, if I'm counting right, you've got five options now:

 

1. Open Office

2. Conversion on a mac

3. download a 30-day Acrobat demo

4. convert online

5. Conversion on a PC

 

At least one of those ought to work for you.

[Jerry Johnston]

Another vote for CutePDF. It's a free program that works well and is simple to use. You just choose it as one of your printer choices.

[smiller]

 

And another free option is PrimoPDF.

[Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs]

Cute PDF

 

http://www.download.com/CutePDF-Writer/3000-6675_4-10206470.html

Out IT guys put it on all of our machines. I "print" it to the CutePDF writer.

[Scarecrow]

I use PDFCreator a free opensource program. I don't know if it works with Windows Vista, but it works nicely with XP.

[Art..]

Cutepdf rocks. I don't use Adobe acrobat anymore. It's become WAY too proprietary.

 

 

[doc47]

I did download one of the free printer-style pdf creators. When I sent my file to it it formatted it as 8 1/2 X 11. The book itself is 6X9. So, there I was with a lot of text and photos huddled forlornly in the middle of a prairie.

Couldn't find a way to change the PDF creator's formatting options.

Do these other PDF creators allow that option?

[DavidEBSmith]

In PDFCreator there's a Properties button which brings up the Layout page, which has an Advanced button, which brings up a variety of properties, one of which is Paper Size, which brings up a list of paper sizes, one of which is PostScript Custom, which allows you to set the paper size to anything you want. I tried this and Acrobat Reader tells me the resulting page size is 6 x 9, but I have no way of printing it here.

 

PDFCreator, BTW, is open source software. The others are proprietary.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Doc,

I assume you will be giving this to a commercial printer, right? Just send them the file in PDF format and let them handle the page fitting stuff. They will have the tools.

[TyTass]

Doc,

 

Ed is correct. If you are sending this to commercial printer, they will be able to accomplish the approapriate adjustment. Besides, this way you could easily print some of your own pages out on your local printer which would result in some extra white space should you want to do a last minute mark-up/edit.

 

If you are sending your file to someone else (Kinko's or whatnot), then I recommend the opensource PDF creator Ebie recommended.

 

Though I agree with Gregori's point about not trading Word file's around and the reasoning, I'm not crazy about loading any Adobe products as trials. They are very invasive to a Windows registry and often result artifacts, etc. due to not being removed properly when you finish with it.

 

(BTW: Just providing confirmation as this is what I do for a living.)

[Pilgrim]

To those suggesting alternatives to Adobe - feel free to throw a BS flag on what I've been told, but here it is.

 

Doc and I talked this over and I think he's using the same printer that I do for my book, an outfit called Lightning Source.

 

Their online instructions make it pretty clear that Adobe is the only .pdf generator in which they have any real confidence. I went over this with them during a personal visit in May. In brief, they say that Acrobat is the only .pdf generator from which they can guarantee you'll get back in print form what you sent them as a file. Other software apparently generates the .pdf in a way that may (note "may") not play nice with their printer software - they are using high-speed (800 ppm) laser printers.

 

They provide nothing by way of layout or editorial services, period. What you send them is what you get back, so what you send better be right.

 

This is particularly true for photo books, where formatting is more of an issue than with a simple book block of text.

 

Kent

[pbbeck]

If you can open the file on a Mac running OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you can convert any file to PDF using the standard print dialog window. Use the FILE>PRINT... command, and in the lower left corner of the print dialog, there is a popup menu entitled PDF... which lets you save the file as a PDF.

 

[leikam]

In that case, I say spring for the Adobe software and call it a cost of producing the book. Better to put the money in up front and know what you're getting back than cheap out and risk a book run that isn't right.

[doc47]

Pilgrim is correctamundo. Lightning Source has very specific instructions which I managed to access once and now can't seem to find. This probably doesn't matter since I didn't understand them anyway!

Both Pilgrim and I have used a printer called Lulu. Their software converts my Word file to PDF and their cover creation wizard does something similar. I downloaded both to my computer and saved the files. I'm thinking that if those files produced an acceptable book when Lulu printed it I should be able to send those same files to LS and have them print them.

What think you all on this line of reasoning?

[steve.foote]

Doc, if you are using Word 2007 you can download and install an add-in from Microsoft to create PDF's.

 

Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

 

[edit] And, yes it's free. [/edit]

[doc47]

I'm using Word 2003 and the add-on doesn't seem to be available for this version.