[compnovo]

I'm looking for a free Word to pdf converter --- have any of you had personal experience with one? Google brings up several options but I'm leery of untried free downloads since they sometimes come with unwanted goodies.

[AgentF]

I use Primo PDF and it works great. It installs a printer driver so when you're done with the document, go to print it and select Primo PDF. After a moment, a screen like shown below will popup to save the document as a .pdf


Edit: typo

This post has been edited by AgentF: 25 April 2010 - 09:52 AM

[compnovo]

AgentF, on 25 April 2010 - 09:52 AM, said:

I use Primo PDF and it works great. It installs a printer driver so when you're done with the document, go to print it and select Primo PDF. After a moment, a screen like shown below will popup to save the document as a .pdf


Edit: typo

Thanks agentF,
That was just what I was looking for.

[Flashorn]

Hey compnovo !!

If you are using MS Office 2007, there is a Add-On that will let you convert your Words to PDF from the File context menu.

Read on :
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/10/14/download-add-on-for-2007-microsoft-office-to-convert-ms-office-documents-to-pdf-format/


FLASHORN.

[compnovo]

Flashorn, on 25 April 2010 - 07:21 PM, said:

Hey compnovo !!

If you are using MS Office 2007, there is a Add-On that will let you convert your Words to PDF from the File context menu.

Read on :
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/10/14/download-add-on-for-2007-microsoft-office-to-convert-ms-office-documents-to-pdf-format/


FLASHORN.

Thanks Flashorn, but I'm using Office 2003.

[Flashorn]

Hey compnovo !!

Well, I tried LOL! My Daughter also prefers 2003 to 2007. Just a matter of getting used to it I guess.


FLASHORN.

This post has been edited by Flashorn: 25 April 2010 - 09:42 PM

[compnovo]

Flashorn, on 25 April 2010 - 09:33 PM, said:

Hey compnovo !!

Well, I tried LOL! My Daughter also prefers 2003 to 2007. Just a matter of getting used to it I guess.


FLASHORN.

Actually I'm using Office 2007 at work and it's fine, I just haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade at home (unlike OSs, where the only reason I need is that it's NEW )

This post has been edited by compnovo: 26 April 2010 - 03:19 PM

[smax013]

AgentF, on 25 April 2010 - 09:52 AM, said:

I use Primo PDF and it works great. It installs a printer driver so when you're done with the document, go to print it and select Primo PDF. After a moment, a screen like shown below will popup to save the document as a .pdf


Edit: typo

I use that as well on my Windows desktop.

On my Mac, I just use the built in PDF creation function (I also have the full Acrobat for the Mac OS as well).

[TechWW]

try Advance word to PDF converter its good

[LiveBrianD]

compnovo, on 26 April 2010 - 03:19 PM, said:

Flashorn, on 25 April 2010 - 09:33 PM, said:

Hey compnovo !!

Well, I tried LOL! My Daughter also prefers 2003 to 2007. Just a matter of getting used to it I guess.


FLASHORN.

Actually I'm using Office 2007 at work and it's fine, I just haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade at home (unlike OSs, where the only reason I need is that it's NEW )

Actually I'm using Office 2007 and prefer it to 2003. The ribbon interface just makes far more sense to me than the old one... Go figure!

[rgreen4]

There is a solution that will work not only with any version of Word, but any software, even internet browsers. PDF995 is a printer emulator that creates a PDF document from what you send to the "printer". I have it on all of my machines and was given a heads up on it by a friend who is a computer professional. There is a free version that each time us send a job to the "printer" will post a small ad while it is generating the document. You can avoid that by paying the $9.95.

[gourken]

compnovo, on 23 April 2010 - 08:57 AM, said:

I'm looking for a free Word to pdf converter --- have any of you had personal experience with one? Google brings up several options but I'm leery of untried free downloads since they sometimes come with unwanted goodies.

I have used PDF Creator (1.0.2) for a few years now and have never had a problem with it. You print to the PDFCreator driver, add some meta-tags (optional) and voila, a well formatted .PDF document. It works from any Windows based software that prints, including web browsers, etc. It is freeware and has been reviewed by the editors at this cnet URL.

[GavinHarrison]

The authors of PrimoPDF are massive hypocrites.

ALADDIN FREE PUBLIC LICENSE
(VERSION 9, SEPTEMBER 18, 2000) –
SECTION 0 REVISED FOR PRIMOPDF (FEBRUARY 9, 2004)
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Aladdin Enterprises,
Menlo Park, California, U.S.A. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2004, activePDF, Inc., Mission Viejo, California, U.S.A., All Rights Reserved

NOTE: This License is not the same as any of the GNU Licenses published by the Free Software Foundation. Its terms are
substantially different from those of the GNU Licenses. If you are familiar with the GNU Licenses, please read this license
with extra care.
Aladdin Enterprises hereby grants to anyone the permission to apply this License to their own work, as long as the entire
License (including the above notices and this paragraph) is copied with no changes, additions, or deletions except for
changing the first paragraph of Section 0 to include a suitable description of the work to which the license is being applied
and of the person or entity that holds the copyright in the work, and, if the License is being applied to a work created in a
country other than the United States, replacing the first paragraph of Section 6 with an appropriate reference to the laws
of the appropriate country.
This License is not an Open Source license: among other things, it places restrictions on distribution of the Program,
specifically including sale of the Program. While Aladdin Enterprises respects and supports the philosophy of the Open
Source Definition, and shares the desire of the GNU project to keep licensed software freely redistributable in both source
and object form, we feel that Open Source licenses unfairly prevent developers of useful software from being
compensated proportionately when others profit financially from their work. This License attempts to ensure that those
who receive, redistribute, and contribute to the licensed Program according to the Open Source and Free Software
philosophies have the right to do so, while retaining for the developer(s) of the Program the power to make those who
use the Program to enhance the value of commercial products pay for the privilege of doing so.

Despite its name, this is not a free software license because it does not allow charging for distribution, and largely prohibits simply packaging software licensed under it with anything for which a charge is made.

[kevin88]

AgentF, on 25 April 2010 - 09:52 AM, said:

I use Primo PDF and it works great. It installs a printer driver so when you're done with the document, go to print it and select Primo PDF. After a moment, a screen like shown below will popup to save the document as a .pdf


Edit: typo

[henrywilliams]

compnovo, on 23 April 2010 - 08:57 AM, said:

I'm looking for a free Word to pdf converter --- have any of you had personal experience with one? Google brings up several options but I'm leery of untried free downloads since they sometimes come with unwanted goodies.

I have used several word to PDF converter but no one bring some unwanted to my computer since you can use a trusted version by using an online application that won't ask you to install something to your PC.

[lunaxflip]

compnovo, on 23 April 2010 - 08:57 AM, said:

I'm looking for a free Word to pdf converter --- have any of you had personal experience with one? Google brings up several options but I'm leery of untried free downloads since they sometimes come with unwanted goodies.

Well, if you use Office 2007, you can download the 2007 add-in Word to PDF from microsoft.com, install it.
Open your word, click the Save as, you will find you can save your word file as PDF.
Hope this helps!

[saessie]

Hi,

I always have very "complicated" .docx files, sometimes needed to be converted to PDFs. I tried almost every single Word-to-PDF converter, all occurred to be no good for me. Here's why:

1. The one built in Office 2007 (Save As -> PDF): images are highly compressed, so very poor quality.
2. All "virtual printers" (like CutePDF, Foxit printer etc): they do not save internal links. If I have a link to a specific chapter (picture/table/formula/whatever) in the .docx, in converted PDF I can't click on it and go to the specified location. I still can do it with Office 2007 PDF converter. Good news is that virtual printers do not compress images.
3. Adobe Acrobat Pro: can't install it to my MS Vista.
4. TBA with new software...

Is there any solution that will satisfy all my needs? I'm ready to try everything free and some of non-free stuff...
Thanks!

[CrazyHorse19]

You can use Freeoffice.

It's a free office suite, and word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software are 100% compatible to Microsoft formats and have a direct pdf export implemented.

You can download FreeOffice, open your document with word processor FreeOffice TextMaker, and convert it to pdf. Works great.

[saessie]

Ok, tested FreeOffice - one of the worst performances I've ever seen for such kind of software:

- table of contents had black, not underlined internal hyperlinks - got converted to blue underlined ones;
- doesn't understand where underscipt/superscript ends, so text gets underscipted/superscripted up until the end of line, not where it ends in the original .docx;
- instead of "Table 1", "in expression 6", "see picture 17" I get "Table 0", "in expression 0", "see picture 0" (1, 6, 17 supposed to be internal links);
- doesn't understand any MS Office 2007 formulas, just deletes them;
- does preserve some internal hyperlinks, but mostly ignores them and treats like regular text;
- changes regular text to italics for whole paragraphs for no apparent reason;
- killed all external hyperlinks: they became links to the folder with my original .docx;
- the most important thing: it inserted only first ~5 pictures in the output pdf. After that it is only text, so ~90% of pictures are absent. Probably related to the complains about "Unsufficient memory" in the end of PDF converting process. But MS Office 2007 does the job on the same computer!!

So, this piece of software doesn't work for me. Thanks for the suggestion though!!