The PDF format, as you know, is universal, due to the fact that in any program for viewing files of this type and in any operating system, the contents of the document are not visually changed. It is not surprising that almost all technical documentation in electronic form is presented using this particular format. But let's see how to save a document in PDF format on our own. This can be done in several simple ways and with any type of source files or programs.
How to save any document in PDF format: standard methodology
Many computer users may not know about the universal technique. If you are working with Windows of the tenth modification, the question of how to save the document in PDF format (and regardless of the type of the source file) is solved quite simply, even without using third-party tools or additional tools.
To do this, you can use the Microsoft Print to PDF virtual printer integrated in Windows 10. Here the main condition is the availability of a program to open the initial file. What in office applications, what in graphic editors, first you need to open the desired file and send it to print. When choosing a printing device, you just need to specify a virtual printer. Next, configure the output parameters specifying the file as the output object (if necessary), give the file to be created a name, select a save location and activate the start of printing. At the end of the process in the specified location and get a PDF-format object.
Note: if you disabled the print service due to the lack of a physical printer in the Windows components of the system, the virtual printer will not be available, therefore, to use it, the necessary system component must be activated again.
PDF file: how to save in Word 2010 and higher?
Since the Word text editor is especially popular among users when creating various kinds of documentation, the developers made sure that there was no need to use third-party programs. It has its own tools.
So, for example, the question of how to save a Word document in PDF format is solved in the most standard way. You just need to open or create a text file, and then when saving in the document type, select the PDF format and specify the desired location of the saved object.
Saving a document in Word 2003
With versions of the editor below 2010, the problem of how to save the PDF format in Word is no less simple, although the methodology is somewhat different.
In this case, you need to activate the create and send line through the file menu, then select the creation of the PDF / XPS document from the list, specify the file name and save location, and then click the publish button.
By the way, exactly the same function is available in later versions of office programs, only there it is called by activating the export.
Third-party save programs
If the built-in tools of the system and office applications of the user are not satisfied, you can always use third-party utilities, of which a large number have been developed to date.
The problem of how to save a document of any type in PDF format has a universal solution, which consists in using the ABBYY FineReader recognition system. Only it is necessary to scan not printed material, but to indicate the opening from a file, and after recognition, save the document in the desired format.
If the initial screen with the display of necessary tasks is not disabled, you can immediately choose to send in PDF format and specify the source file.
Using converters and online services
In principle, many users prefer to use specialized programs for converting formats between themselves, called converters, for such purposes. Everything is simple in them too: choose the final format, add the source files and activate the conversion process.
The disadvantage is that there is no one universal converter for converting files of any type to PDF, so you will have to install one application for graphics, another for Word, third for Excel, and so on. But the advantage is that you can use batch conversion, when several files of the same source format are set for processing at the same time.
You can, of course, take advantage of online services that are advertised quite actively on the Internet today, but processing will be too slow, you will have to add files one at a time, then you will need to download them to your computer, and that’s all the time. In general, it is inconvenient, and such a solution is provided solely for educational purposes in order to cover the main issue in full.
What to use?
That's all the basic methods that make it easy to solve the question of how to save a document of any source type in PDF format. What to use as an optimal solution? It goes without saying that users of the tenth version of Windows can only get by with a virtual printer (this is both faster and easier). In the case of systems of a lower rank, you can use the means of the "Office", in extreme cases - a system for recognizing text or images. But the use of converters is justified only when batch processing of the same type of files is required. The use of online services, as is already clear, is not at all. However, depending on the situation, a decision should be made regarding the application of the above methods, since for different cases the methods that differ from one another in the final goal may turn out to be either more or less suitable.