It’s not obvious, but that enlarged document is a PDF. Tap the “Share Sheet” icon in the top right-hand corner and select the app or place you want to save or send the PDF.įor Android users, the steps are similar to iOS, except instead of a “pinch and zoom” gesture there is a “Save to PDF” option to select from a dropdown menu. Microsoft Office, both for Windows and Mac, offers the ability to save most files as PDF, including Word files.įor iOS users, you have the same ability, but it’s just more hidden. Tap the “Share Sheet” icon in the app and then tap “Print.” When the print preview for the document opens, do a “pinch and zoom” gesture to expand the document. The document will enlarge on the screen. Just select the PDFs you want to combine in File Explorer, right-click, and select “Print.” The limitation here is the PDFs are combined in whatever order they appear in File Explorer there’s no re-ordering. Windows users have a similar capability in Windows 10. Select “File” and “Print” (or “CTRL” + “P” on your keyboard), select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer, and click “Print.” A dialog box will appear asking you to name the file and select a place to save it. Windows can also print multiple PDF files to a single combined PDF file. MacOS users have had PDF creation ability since 2001. PDF creation is a system-level feature accessible through the print dialog box. Select “File” and “Print” (or “CMD” + “P” for keyboard fans), and “save as PDF” is located at the bottom center of the print dialog. Ten or more years ago, if you wanted to create a PDF out of a document, you purchased software from Adobe or one of its newly minted competitors. If you’re running recent versions of macOS, Windows, or Microsoft Office, you don’t have to buy anything to create a PDF document of another electronic file. What can free do for you? - Creating PDFs Now there are tons of PDF creation software packages at different price points. Adobe’s Acrobat Pro is still the gold standard and requires a subscription, but there are great alternative options, including free ones. It was not at the time.Īdobe’s second major strategic move came in 2008 when it took its PDF specifications and made them open source. With the specifications free to all, any developer could create software to create or read PDFs without running afoul of Adobe’s copyrights. Similarly, Adobe had a version of Acrobat Reader for all platforms, not just Microsoft Windows, another major difference in the late 1990s when Apple macOS were a tiny, shrinking market and Linux was unheard of outside of nerd circles. Today, when we do so much computing through websites and phone applications, this move seems obvious. We’re accustomed now to opening Microsoft Word documents, for example, on devices that don’t have Word installed so you can read, but not edit, the file. That was hardly the case when Adobe took that innovative step. Adobe decided to charge a bundle for the PDF creation software (Adobe Acrobat) and give away the software to read, but not edit, the files (Acrobat Reader). The first decision was made in the mid-to-late 1990s, at the start of the internet boom. The primary reason for PDF’s ubiquity in our lives comes from two business decisions Adobe, PDF’s creator, made 15-25 years ago. Even in our personal lives, PDFs are ubiquitous: appliance instruction manuals, new car brochures, bank statements, etc. The PDF format’s great attraction is that it reproduces electronically exactly what a printed document looks like. And it does so across any device – smartphone, iPad, computer, TV, etc. By Jeffrey Schoenberger, Affinity ConsultingĪs a legal professional, you have encountered your fair share of PDF files and assumably created more than a few.
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