Converting Word Docs to PDF

[chris_f]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I have just off the phone to a colleague who is trying to convert some word documents (training manuals) to pdf's. He has told me that it is possible to do this in word via the print dialogue box. I can not find this option.

Does anyone know of a quick and free way to do this? Is there a convertor I can download from somewhere?

Thanks
Chris

addiional: I have Word 2000 but I don't know on which version he saw the option.

[Alternative Future]

If you have Illustrator it can be done from there!

Open the *.doc in Illu then opt for save as *.PDF

I am sure there are other wayz also but this is the first one that springs to mind.

HTH,

-gs

[chris_f]

If Illustrator can do it then I would assume Photoshop can. I think I've got a version of Photoshop.

[mat]

No, Photoshop can't. Neither does Word have the ability natively - lots of the converters plug-in as printer drivers - Win2PDF is a well known one.

However, for just a few documents there are countless online converters that will run a couple for free - even Adobe, if memory serves.

[Alternative Future]

Yeah just had a play around with Photoshop to see if it could be done *but* no joy :(

Found this tutorial online [aexx.net] this one uses GhostScript.
I am sure there is an easier way still looking for the other tutorial I once found...

-gs

[starec]

Some time ago I used a thing called gsview/ghostscript to convert things to pdf.

Worked fine.

[trismegisto]

It is possible to convert a .doc to a .pdf from the print dialogue box ONLY in MacOsX, the option is next to the print button.

Maybe your friend could go with someone with a Mac and do the conversion from there…

[txbakers]

There is a very inexpensive program called PDFfactory which installs as a print driver. From your print menu, you select PDF and "poof" it's a PDF document. I swear by this little program.

Available from www.fineprint.com

[kevinpate]

I use the print toggle to convert doc to pdf.
When the print dialog box arrives I simply switch the output source from the reg printer to acrobat distiller.
distiller gets it ready for the main adobe program and then i make sure any url's written in the new pdf file are activated and then save the pdf file.

[Jenstar]

When you have Adobe Acrobat (the full program, not just the reader) it will install a button into Word so you can automatically convert it into PDF. It is pretty likely that he saw this feature on a computer that had both Adobe Acrobat and Word installed.

Unfortunately, Adobe Acrobat isn't free :(

Adobe does have a program online where you can convert your Word docs into PDF - I believe it is $9.95 per month, and you get your first five PDF conversions for free. Hunt around the Adobe Acrobat part of the site, and I am sure you will find a link to it. It is not entirely quick - I think it takes about 10 minutes for them to send the converted PDF file to you via attachment.

[conor]

If you have Adobe Acrobat ( writer not reader ) it actually installs an option into MS Office ( I use 2000 ) to simply save as PDF and covert to PDF ftom Word.

[ShawnR]

I use pdf995. Free, and installs itself as a printer driver, so any program you can print from, you can also create a pdf from.

Alternatively, for a web service, I have used gobcl. Only drawback I found is that it prints pages using letter format; can't configure it to A4. Also, you can't configure various other parameters, such as resolution, which you can with the printer-driver solutions.

Shawn