Convert to PDF
When publishing a document on the Net, it is important that it be easily consulted by users and that its content is displayed in the same, identical way on any computer, device or operating system.
One of the best ways to achieve this is to use standard file formats, such as PDF, which despite being patented by the company that created it (Adobe) can be used freely without paying royalties.
I bet that you too, sometimes, need to convert your documents to PDF and then distribute them in public. Well, with today’s guide we will discover together some of the best tools to do it, at no cost and without any effort.
If you use a computer equipped with Windows, the program I recommend you try is DoPDF . It is a virtual printer that, once installed in the system, allows you to convert any type of printable file to PDF : Office documents, Web pages, photos and much more. It can be used free of charge for both personal and commercial purposes.
To download DoPDF on your PC, connect to the program’s website and click on the Download Now button twice in a row. When the download is complete, open the DoPDF installation package ( dopdf.exe ) and if you are prompted to download the Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 , click first on Accept and install and then on Yes . In the window that opens, put the check mark next to the item I have read and accepted the license conditions and click first on the Install button and then on Finish to complete the setup.
After that, the DoPDF installation should start automatically. To complete it, all you have to do is remove the check mark from the Install novaPDF add-in for Microsoft Office item (to bypass the installation of the novaPDF plugin for Office applications which is not essential for the functioning of the PDF printer ) and click first on Install now and then on Close .
As widely anticipated, DoPDF is recognized by Windows as if it were a printer. This means that if you want to transform an Office document, a web page, a photo or any other file into a PDF, you have to open it with the program that is most suitable for the purpose (e.g. DOC documents with Word, web pages with Chrome, photo with IrfanView etc.) and call the Print command from the File menu of the latter.
In the window that opens, you must then select DoPDF from the list of available printers, choose the quality level of the document to be obtained ( High quality for maximum quality, Medium for an average compromise between quality and weight of the file or Smallest file to create PDF of low quality but very “light” in terms of MB). Then choose the destination folder of the file by clicking on the Browse button and start its creation by clicking on OK .
If you are using a Mac, know that you don’t need any third-party application to convert documents, web pages or images to PDF . You can safely leave the work in the hands of the PDF printer included “standard” in OS X. Using it is a real breeze.
As seen on Windows with DoPDF, all you have to do is open the file to be transformed into PDF and call the Print command from the File (or Archive ) menu . In the window that opens, then click on the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left and select the item Save as PDF from the latter.
Finally, choose the folder in which to export the document, enter the information relating to the title of the file, its author, etc. and click the Save button to start creating the PDF. If you need to convert a series of images into a single document, find out how by reading my guide on how to convert JPG to PDF .
If you don’t need to convert documents to PDF very often and would like to avoid installing other software on your PC just for this purpose, contact the Go4Convert online service that allows you to transform Word documents, Excel sheets, photos and ePub books into PDF directly. from the browser. All free.
To use it, linked to its home page, click on the Choose file button (top left) and select the document to be transformed into PDF. That’s all! The system will upload the file online, convert it and download the resulting PDF to your computer.
