Tom's Guide to Online PDF File Creation : Working With PDFs Online

By Sean Kerner, published on May 12, 2008
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: , , | Themes: Software, The Internet
Contents

1. Working With PDFs Online

Working With PDFs Online

Introduction

Love it or hate it, Adobe’s Portable Document File (PDF) format is everywhere.

But what happens when you want to convert a file into a PDF format and you don’t have any desktop tools (or maybe even a desktop)? No sweat.

PDF creation once was the domain of only Adobe Acrobat and desktop tools, but that’s no longer the case. It’s also no longer enough just to be able to create a PDF file, since there is also a real-use case to be made for being able to convert PDF files into other usable and editable formats.

There are a few online services that are now available to help you out. In this review, we compare online PDF services including:

In addition to being online services, they all either offer free or trial versions of their tools.

We also take a look at the online PDF services and see where they work, where they fail and how they stack up against each other overall.

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Comments


jitpublisher 05/13/2008 3:36 AM
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jitpublisher
Good Article. Micosoft Word and Excel are horrible programs for desktop publishing. Converting to PDF from these programs without reflow and pagination errors when passing the file from one PC to another is tough. The only way to guarentee 100% success is to generate the PDF on the PC the document was created on.
I have been in the print on demand and publishing business with a large firm for 18 years. Anytime someone sends native files in Word or Excel, we absolutely cringe. It can be very time consuming to convert the documents and have them turn out the exact way the creator sees the documents on their end. So, I guess you could say that in the end, you get what you pay for. Free service.....I wouldn't expect miracles with Word and Excel.
Deleted profile 05/13/2008 6:41 AM
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May also want to take a look at PDFescape (an online PDF editor):
http://www.pdfescape.com

Good article for those looking to create PDF files though
Deleted profile 05/13/2008 4:37 AM
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I'm very happy with having pdf "printers" installed on my computers. Saves me from all the troubles and hassles on services you just listed. Plus they are more secure and flexible when concerning private data like web purchase receipts and such. Sourceforge.net has several on it that are free and easy to install. I think it would be more natural from a users point of view too.
randomizer 05/14/2008 8:09 AM
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randomizer
Ah how I love OpenOffice, I have yet to have any problems with it's PDF converter.
randomizer 05/14/2008 8:09 AM
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randomizer
Ah how I love OpenOffice, I have yet to have any problems with it's odt/doc to PDF converter. Admittedly I have only ever converted text and tables with it.
Regulas 05/14/2008 3:39 AM
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Regulas
You could always use a Mac and you can convert about anything from any program to a .pdf file. Built into OS X through the print function.
When you tell a program to print something a print box appears. You can then tell OS X to save the document to a .pdf file.
I do love my Mac.
Glenn
justjc 05/14/2008 3:42 AM
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justjc
Good article. I hope I can get you to consider making a simular one on making the new Words docx documents into the old doc format, so I can read them using OpenOffice.
Deleted profile 05/15/2008 8:21 AM
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I have to mention that from an Adobe perspective, even though the PDF spec is public and open for anyone to use, Adobe does not guarantee the stability and accurateness of PDF files created from third party applications (meaning, programs other than Adobe Acrobat). That's not a sales pitch - that's just a fact of using an open specification that any programmer can interpret and potentially mess up. So what is my point? Be very careful of the programs you use if storing stable PDF files is critical for you.
Deleted profile 05/17/2008 12:20 PM
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Another great product for creation / conversion into PDF format are any of the products from www.cutepdf.com

We use at my work and I love it. Very inexpensive too.

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