Adobe Acrobat 9 is a recent version of the Adobe professional software package that allows users to create and send PDF files. Version 9 was released in 2008. Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer is an application included in the package. The application can be downloaded directly from Adobe’s official website. According to Adobe Acrobat’s official website, the most current version of the software is faster than previous versions. However, the Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer application included in the software package continues to perform the basic functions noted in this post.

1. Create a portable document format (PDF). Open a document that you created in an application, such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Click “File” and “Print.” Use the drop-down box next to the printer options and select “PDF” to save your document in PDF format.
2. Step 2

   Edit the files. Click “Tools” and “Advanced Editing” to make changes to your PDF document. Use the drop-down box to select “Crop” to trim borders off images. Click “List Box Tool” in the drop-down box to add a list to the PDF. Click “Link Tool” to embed a website link into the document.

3. Step 3

   Attach files and insert and delete pages. Click “Documents” and “Attach a File” to attach other documents to the PDF. Insert pages by clicking “Documents” and “Insert Pages.” Locate the document that you want to insert into the PDF. Double-click on the document and add the document to the front or end of the PDF. Delete pages by clicking “Document” and “Delete Pages.” Type in the range of pages you want to delete from the document. If you want to extract pages from the document, select “Extract Pages.”

4. Step 4

   Track changes. Select “Comments” and “Tracker.” Double-click on “My Review” to view the history of all comments and edits you have made to the document. Double-click on “Participant Reviews” to view the comments and editing history other users have made to the document. Double-click on “Offline Documents” to review all changes made to the documents you moved out of the file to work with offline.

5. Step 5

   Add security to files. Click “Secure” by the lock icon at the top of the toolbar. Use the drop-down box and select “Show Security Settings for This Document.” Under “Security Method,” select “Password Security” and input a password for the document.

his article explains the misnomer, Adobe Writer, which has developed over the years to refer to any utility that produces Portable Document Format (PDF) files and especially to the Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer. The article then goes on to discuss the Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer, including a short history about the product, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. The benefits and uses of PDF files, in general, are also discussed.

Misconceptions

1. Let’s start this off by saying that there never was a product called “Adobe Writer”. This has become a misnomer for the Acrobat PDF Writer and any utility that produces PDF files.
   Over the years, the term “Adobe Writer” has become synonymous with utilities that let users produce and distribute PDF files. The name “Acrobat Writer” has also been used to refer to this product, but, again, this is not the actual name.

Function

2. The PDF Writer is a PDF creation tool that used to come as part of the Adobe Acrobat software. The Acrobat PDF Writer would install on your computer as a printer driver, letting users easily create PDFs to distribute to their customers. They would simply print to this so-called printer and a PDF would be created. The PDF Writer was a quick way to make PDFs, but did not give a full-functioning PDF. It is no longer distributed with Acrobat.

Expert Insight

3. According to a presentation given by James C. King (PDF architect and principal scientist, Advanced Technology Laboratory at Adobe Systems Incorporated), the shelf life of Acrobat PDF Writer was from 1993 to 2001. One of the slides in this presentation refers to the product as a poor solution and he gives a number of reasons. He writes that it’s a “faux print driver” and the user only gets what they print. When the Acrobat PDF Writer was used, the PDF did not include the table of contents, hyperlinks or notes. It allowed for only a little structure, used glyphs and not Unicode and provided the lowest level of graphics with no EPS.

Prevention/Solution

4. To include some of the missing functionality, the Acrobat Distiller had to be used. Nowadays, Adobe sells a different product, Adobe Acrobat, which includes the same functionality along with many other features.

Significance

5. So, why would someone even need to create a PDF? Once a PDF is created, other people can read it using the Adobe Reader, which Adobe makes available for free. PDF files make it easy to share content with others, since the document will appear the same on every computer.

PDF (Acrobat) files are a great way to make sure documents are viewed with the correct layout and fonts – even when the recipients don’t have the program you used to create the documents. It’s also a format that is viewable across multiple platforms. In order to create a PDF file in Windows you need to be using Adobe Acrobat Distiller.

1. Open the file you want to make into a PDF.
2. Step 2

   Choose File, then Print.

3. Step 3

   Use the PDFwriter option when printing from a word-processing application: Choose PDFwriter from the Name pull-down menu in the Print dialog box. Fill in the document information, then click Save.

4. Step 4

   Use Acrobat Distiller option when printing from a page layout or design program: Choose Acrobat Distiller from the Name pull-down menu in the Print dialog box. Fill in the document information, then click Save.

“MPP” is the file extension for Microsoft Project documents for Windows PCs. To convert an MPP file to PDF, a PDF imaging utility or software is needed.

Download and Install PDF Imaging Utility

1. Step 1

   If your computer does not have a PDF imaging application such as Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional, or Omnipage, or a PDF imaging utility such as CutePDF, which installs a virtual PDF printer, search the Internet for a PDF utility program.

   Use keywords such as “PDF writer” or “PDF freeware” to identify utility programs appropriate for your operating system.

2. Step 2

   Download the installation file from the manufacturer’s site.

3. Step 3

   Install the utility according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Print MPP as a PDF

4. Step 1

   If you have Acrobat Standard or Professional or a PDF writer utility installed on your computer, a virtual PDF printer will also be installed and you can generate a PDF from MS Project. Open the MPP file to launch the MS Project application.

5. Step 2

   In the top menu bar, under “File,” select “Print.”

6. Step 3

   From the drop-down menu of printers, select your PDF printer. For example, if Acrobat Standard is installed, a printer named “Adobe PDF” will be listed; if the PDF utility CutePDF is installed, “CutePDF” will be listed as a printer.

7. Step 4

   Click the “Print” button.

8. Step 5

   Type in your desired file name and select the destination for your converted MPP document in the dialog box.

9. Step 6

   Click the “Save” button. Your PDF will be saved on your computer and can be viewed using Acrobat Reader

A Portable Document Format (PDF) file allows users to maintain formatting options across different computers and operating systems. It ensures the user that the formatting is exactly as the creator wanted it presented down to the exact font. Creating a PDF can be as easy as choosing a print option through your favorite word processing program.

1. Download and install PDF Writer or a similar program.
2. Step 2

   Follow the prompts in the installation process leaving the default settings intact. Click Finish when the installation process is complete.

3. Step 3

   Open your web browser, word processing program or any other program capable of printing.

4. Step 4

   Choose “File > Print.” From the printer options menu, select the “PDF Writer” printer option and select “Print.”

5. Step 5

   Choose the settings for the file after the PDF Writer menu has appeared. Name and save your file in a convenient location.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that essentially allows you to print files to your computer as an electronic image. PDFs can be viewed, edited, and forwarded to others. This article gives the steps for printing to PDF in Windows Vista.

1. CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT HAVE PRINT TO PDF CAPABILITIES ALREADY.

   Sometimes, print to PDF features are automatically installed along with all other computer software. To check to see if you have these capabilities, open a Word document and select the option to print. If you see “Cute PDF Writer” as printer option, then you already have print to PDF capabilities. Next, open a new document and select the “save as” option. If you see an option that reads “PDF or “XPS”, you already have print to PDF capabilities.

2. Step 2

   DOWNLOAD MICROSOFT’S FREE PRINT TO PDF ADD-IN.

   The link for the download page is in the resources section below. Follow the download instructions.

3. Step 3

   TRY THE PRINT TO PDF ADD-IN.

   Open a document in Microsoft Word. Select “Save as”. An option should come up for “PDF or “XPS”. Select this option and save the file (different from the original if you want to keep a copy in Word). When you reopen the file using this new name, it should be in PDF format.

If you are a frequent Java developer, chances are good that you will run into the need to create PDF documents dynamically. Java lets you do this using an external library, called iText. Once the iText library is installed and configured, you can add PdfWriter objects to your Java code that create pdf files quickly and easily. The Eclipse Java IDE will also be needed to edit, run, and test your Java code, as well as make the installation of iText easier.

Initial Configuration

1. Step 1

   Download and install Eclipse.

2. Step 2

   Download the iText Java Library by navigating to the “Download iText Library” link and clicking “Download Now.” The entire library is packaged as a single “.jar” file. Save the file in a place you will remember.

3. Step 3

   Open Eclipse and click “File,” “New,” “Java Project.” Name the project “iText” and click “Finish.”

4. Step 4

   In the “Package Explorer” (the left-hand side toolbar), double-click the “iText” folder and select “Properties.”

5. Step 5

   Select “Java Build Path” on the left, and then click the “Libraries” tab in the window on the right.

6. Step 6

   Click the “Add External JARs…” button. Navigate to the directory where you saved your “.jar” file and click “Open” and then “OK.” The iText library is now installed for your Java Project, and you can use it in your code to create PDFs.

Creating a PDF Document

7. Step 1

   In Eclipse, go to “File,” “New,” “Class.” Type “Test” in the Name field, under the “Which method stubs would you like to create?” select “public static void main(String[] args)” and click “Finish.”

8. Step 2

   In the Java editor window, select the whitespace above “public Class Test {” and type or copy-paste the following three “import” statements:
   import java.io.FileOutputStream;

   import com.itextpdf.text.*;
   import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.*;

   The first import statement allows you to create files. The last two import the iText library into the current file and allow you to generate PDFs.

9. Step 3

   Select the white space under “public static void main(String[] args) {” and type or copy-paste the following code:
   Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 50, 50, 50, 50);
   try{
   PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
   new FileOutputStream(“iTextTest.pdf”));
   document.open();
   document.add(new Paragraph(“My First PDF document.”));
   document.close();
   } catch (Exception e){
   System.err.println(e.getMessage());
   }

10. Step 4

    Click the green play button at the top of Eclipse to run your program.

11. Step 5

    Navigate to the iText folder in your Eclipse Workspace directory. Double-click the “iTextTest.pdf” file. This is the PDF file that was created in the previous step, and it will read “My First PDF document” at the top of the page.

Create a small Java program that demonstrates a few capabilities of iText library. You will learn how to create a document, add a pdf writer (listener), add some content to the created document, and last, but not least, close the document.
This is just a quick intro to the creation of PDF files with Java, if you’re serious about automatic PDF creation using Java, then read Bruno Lowagie’s tutorial (link at the end).

1. Make sure you have Java Runtime Environment, Eclipse and iText installed.
2. Step 2

   In Eclipse create a new project, and name it what ever you might like at that particular moment. Then right click on the project name > Properties > Java Build Path > Add External JARs > Find your iText-2.1.5.jar > Press open > Press Ok.

3. Step 3

   Create a document object:
   Document document = new Document();

4. Step 4

   Create a writer that listens to the document and directs a PDF stream to a file:
   FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(“c://ElloUniverse.pdf”);
   PdfWriter.getInstance( document, fos );

5. Step 5

   Open the pdf document using this java code:
   document.open();

6. Step 6

   Add some text (i.e. two paragraphs) to your PDF document:
   document.add(new Paragraph(“ELLO UNIVERSE!!!”));

   CMYKColor color = new CMYKColor( 0, 1, (float)0.2, (float)0.667 );
   String text = “kievan wrote more: different color and font type.”;
   Font o = FontFactory.getFont( FontFactory.TIMES_BOLD, 14, Font.BOLD, color );
   Paragraph p = new Paragraph( text, o );

   document.add( p );

7. Step 7

   Close the PDF document:
   document.close();

8. Step 8

   //This is the complete
   //Java source code that
   //generates a PDF document.
   // ElloUniverse.java //
   ///////////////////////

   import java.io.FileOutputStream;
   import java.io.IOException;
   import com.lowagie.text.pdf.CMYKColor;
   import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;
   import com.lowagie.text.*;

   public class ElloUniverse
   {
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
   System.out.println(“ELLO UNIVERSE!!!”);

   // create a document object
   Document document = new Document();

   try
   {
   // create a writer that listens to the document
   // and directs a PDF-stream to a file
   FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(“c:\\ElloUniverse.pdf”);
   PdfWriter.getInstance( document, fos );

   // open the document
   document.open();

   // add a couple of paragraphs to the document
   document.add(new Paragraph(“ELLO UNIVERSE!!!”));

   CMYKColor color = new CMYKColor( 0, 1, (float)0.2, (float)0.667 );
   String text = “kievan wrote more: different color and font type.”;
   Font o = FontFactory.getFont( FontFactory.TIMES_BOLD, 14, Font.BOLD, color );
   Paragraph p = new Paragraph( text, o );

   document.add( p );
   }
   catch (DocumentException de)
   {
   System.err.println(de.getMessage());
   }
   catch (IOException ioe)
   {
   System.err.println(ioe.getMessage());
   }

   // close the document
   document.close();
   }
   }

You can now convert PDFs to the free OpenOffice 3.0 format, and from there to Microsoft Office, if you like. OpenOffice (also known as Open Office) is the free, open-source, Microsoft Office alternative.

1. Download OpenOffice 3.0. You must have version 3.0 or later; previous versions will not import PDFs. Get it at the official OpenOffice site: http://www.openoffice.org. Follow the simple directions to install it.
2. Step 2

   Download the supersecret Sun PDF import extension. None of my geek friends seems familiar with this plugin although it’s free, completely legitimate and they should know better. It’s called pdfimport.oxt. Get it here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/874

3. Step 3

   Find where you downloaded pdfimport.oxt and click on it. Follow the directions to install.

4. Step 4

   Open a PDF file with OpenOffice. Tada! Now you can show off your knowledge to those kids who come to dinner parties dressed in “No I Won’t Fix Your Computer” t-shirts. And you can also edit PDFs.

   Tips & Warnings

   • OpenOffice is the flagship product of the Open Source community. It includes a word processor equivalent to Microsoft Word, spreadsheet equivalent to Excel, a Power-Point-type presentation program, a vector drawing program, a database program you can use instead of Mirosoft Access, and a math equations module.
   • In OpenOffice 3.0, your PDF will open into OpenOffice Draw. When 3.1 is released, you will be able to open it in OpenOffice Write as well.
   • If you find that your PDF has converted into graphics files, it’s likely that the original author simply used graphics files to create the PDF in the first place. If you need to manipulate the text, try running the graphics pages through an OCR (optical character reader) program.

You don’t have to spend a dime to create professional PDF documents right from your computer! There are many free PDF creator or writer products available, but CutePDF Writer is one of the most popular. This article will walk you thru the install of CutePDF Writer and will show you how to create your first PDF document.

1. Click on the link below to download and run the CutePDF Writer. Choose to Run, rather than save the program.http://www.acrosoftware.com/download/CuteWriter.exe
2. Step 2

   Choose the default on each setup screen and click install.

3. Step 3

   During the setup process, you will be presented with a screen like that to the left. It asks if you would like setup to download and install PS2PDF converter, choose yes here as it is required for Cute PDF to function properly.

4. Step 4

   When the install completes, a web page will display like the one on the left and a CutePDF printer will be installed.

5. Step 5

   Open a document in whatever program you wish to create a PDF from and then choose File and then Print. In the Name dropdown box, choose CutePDF Writer and hit Ok

6. Step 6

   You will be prompted to chose where you want the PDF saved and for a document name. Enter that information and hit Save.
   You will now have a PDF version of the document in the location you chose!