Free Software Categories

Productivity
Office stuff, Graphics etc
Multimedia
Video, Audio etc
Communications
Email, VOIP etc
Internet
Internet specific Apps
Utilities
System & Misc. Apps
Security
AntiVirus/Spyware, Firewalls etc
NEW! Internet Marketing
Online Marketing, E-commerce

Free Productivity Software Page 7

PDF Creation

Adobe created the PDF format and for a long time the only real choice for those who wished to create a PDF file was to buy Adobe Acrobat. No longer is that the case. OpenOffice.org can create simple PDF files without using any other software and you will be pleased to know that there are other free programs available dedicated to the creation of PDF files.

Why would you want to create a PDF file? A few reasons. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. You can take a PDF file and open in on any computer whether it is running Windows, Mac OS or Linux etc and when opened, the document will look exactly the same and exactly as the author intended.

This is not the case if you were to open another type of formatted text or document file – you would find the formatting varied depending on the platform and which program opened the file. By converting a document to PDF you are effectively ‘locking’ the content and formatting and so preserving the integrity of the document. The document is still not secure but you can rest assured that there will be no accidental changes or deletions and it will look and print exactly as you want no matter who views or prints. Because of their nature PDF files are ideal for emailing and otherwise sharing documents.

I've tried a whole bunch of PDF creation programs and the two best ones I've found are:

Pdf995 is a program that provides another option for those who don’t have OpenOffice or for those who need more advanced features such as bookmarks and encryption.

PDF995 installs as a printer driver and as such is activated through the print menu. For example if you are using a word processor select print and you will be able to print to PDF using the installed PDF 995 driver.

PDF995 is one of three programs that make up a PDF suite of tools. Also available for free is PDFedit and PDFsignature.

The good news is that this software is excellent with more features than any other free PDF creator I have seen and even more than some quite expensive ones! The not so good news (for free software puritans) is that the free versions are supported by sponsor advertising which opens in a browser window. This really is a small price to pay for the use of such excellent software as it does not affect or watermark the PDF creation at all and you can easily just close your browser window . I’m a big fan of this software.

PdfEdit995 offers additional functionality, such as:

Combining documents into a single PDF
Automatic link insertion; hierarchical bookmark insertion
PDF conversion to formatted HTML or DOC (text only) integration with Word toolbar with automatic table of contents and link generation
Auto attach to email
Stationery and stamping

Signature995 offers the further features of security and encryption to protect your documents and add digital signatures.

All three products are available to download for free. The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software. If you do not wish to see this you can buy a license key.

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT 4.0/XP and configuration as a shared network printer and Windows 2003 Server is supported.

Download them from: http://www.pdf995.com

PDFCreator is another option. It is open source so you don't have any sponsor information displayed as you do in Pdf995 but it doesn't quite have all the features of the three programs above that make up the 995 suite. This makes it easier to use so if you don't need some of the more advanced PDF creation features I recommend using this excellent software.

Download it from: http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator

productivity software index