Using PDFs

1. What is a PDF?
2. How to Create PDF Documents

What is a PDF?

PDF is an acronym for "Portable Document Format." It is an open creation by Adobe Systems, as a successor to its very popular PostScript and was created so documents could be viewed on the Web in the same format as would be seen if printed. Besides static text, however, PDFs can contain color, graphics and multimedia objects such as sound and video.

To view PDF files, you will need the free viewing application, Adobe Acrobat Reader available for most platforms (Macintosh, Windows, Unix, etc.).

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How to Create PDF Documents

To create PDF documents, you need access to Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Professional. All Penn State students can download Adobe Professional for free. If you need help in converting your file to a PDF, contact the Thesis Office.

The general steps to create a PDF in Windows:

1. Open or create a file with Microsoft Word.
2. From the "File" menu choose "Print".
3. In the list of printers, choose Adobe PDF.
4. When prompted, name and save the file.

The general steps to create a PDF in Macintosh:

If you already have a "postscript" file, go to step 4 below, otherwise:

1. Open or create a file with your word processor choice from the "Word Processing" folder. We will assume Microsoft Word.
2. Save the document file (name.doc) and then pull down "File" to "Print."
3. Change the print "Destination" to a "File" and when prompted save the output on the desktop. This will create a postscript file (name.ps).
4. Open the "Presentation" folder in the "Software" folder and double click the "Acrobat Distiller 4.0" icon. Be sure the "Job Options:" setting is "ScreenOptimized."
5. Drag and drop the postscript file on the desktop to the "Acrobat Distiller 4.0" tile in the lower left portion of the screen, or pull down "File" to "Open" and select the file created in step 3. This will create a PDF file (name.pdf).
6. To view the PDF file, simply double-click on the icon created in the prior step which will then open the "Acrobat Reader 4.0" or drag and drop the icon on the "Acrobat Reader 4.0" tile on the desktop.
7. If you want to edit the PDF file, open the "Presentation" folder in the "Software" folder and double click the "Adobe Acrobat 4.0" icon, then drag and drop the PDF icon on the "Acrobat 4.0" tile on the desktop.

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Questions and suggestions may be directed to gradthesis@psu.edu.