In a previous article on Paperless Living, I made mention of the ability to archive and store your own documents in order to cut down on printing.  The use of the PDF format is a very popular solution and step towards paperless living.

What is .PDF?

PDF stands for – Portable Document Format.

As the name suggests, it makes the document portable and it does it in this sense.  It optimizes and compresses the document for use for fast internet transfer and accessibility.

Document Security

Most documents such as .DOCX have no reading, editing, or printing security built-in.  This basically means that anyone can change your document and print it.  This is not so with PDF files, if you make use of Adobe Professional.  In Professional, you can set security limits on document editing, printing, and so forth.  So for you business environments out there – stop sending DOC files to clients!  They are unsecure and in the case of say, a contract, they can be easily changed.  A PDF file is not easily changed.

Compression and Conversion: How to convert .doc / .DOCX Word Files to PDF

It is known that you can convert your doc, rtf, and .DOCX files to PDF format easily within Word by installing this Add-on.

1. DOWNLOAD and Install PDF Add-on for Microsoft Word

2. Open Microsoft Word

3. Type out your Document or open an existing one

4. Click top-left Office symbol, Scroll down to Save-as

5. Choose Save-As PDF/XPS

6. Name your file and then click Publish.

7. You’re done! It’s that simple.

However you can also convert JPG files and scanned images to PDF as well and it will compress the file while it converts to PDF.  Secondly, depending on how advanced the setup or the software you use, you can even scan directly to PDF and make the document searchable (More on this below).

How I’ve used it in business environments: Archiving and OCR (Character Recognition)

With the use of a scanner, you can scan in documents to be converted to a searchable PDF.  This means the software decodes the wording on the page and recognizes common characters on it (aka Character Recognition).  Most scanners do include software to bundle, and offer basic scanning and conversion.

Commonly, I’m handed some ancient document (that was typed on a typewriter in some cases) and asked to re-type if possible.  Although I am superfast at typing, this idea does not appeal to me.  What I do however, is use a good scanner and do a direct scan-to-PDF with the OCR function enabled (making it searchable or copiable).

The difference between a regular scan and OCR scan is large.  OCR scan detects all the characters and enables you to Highlight, Select, Copy, and Paste the characters just as in Word.  In a Regular Scan, it basically treats any document as a photo and scans it as such – which is un-editable.

Many organizations have been or are starting similar batch jobs of document conversion for archiving.  They are removing all those paper files from the cabinets, throwing them into a commercial scanner (40 pages per minute scans!) and “tagging” the documents by subject, year, etc into a Document Management System.  Where do the papers go?  Well anything usually older then 3-5 years is thrown out.

Guess what – from that point on you can pretty much make a pact not to print anything and go completely digital – then transfer documents to archive via PDF on a server.  Ok I am getting ahead of myself – but you see the possibilities don’t you?  Yes!

Best Software for PDF Creation and Conversions

It goes without a doubt that Adobe Professional is best suited to creating original .PDF files.  You can download Adobe Reader for free, but it is highly limited it functionality such as editing, scanning to PDF, converting, or managing a PDF document.  You can only really read PDF files with it and not scan, edit, or add security features.

Hand-down, as many may guess, Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 is the best PDF creation and conversion software.  A few great features are such as these:

Easily create Adobe PDF documents
Create Adobe® PDF documents with one-button ease from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Windows® users can also create PDF documents with one-button ease from Outlook, Internet Explorer, Project, Visio, Access, Publisher, AutoCAD®, and Lotus Notes files.

Scan to PDF with OCR
Scan paper documents with OCR technology to create compact, searchable Adobe PDF documents.

Convert e-mail to Adobe PDF files
Convert e-mail in Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes to Adobe PDF documents to facilitate searching, archiving, and retrieval. (Windows only)

Capture web pages as Adobe PDF files
Convert web pages to Adobe PDF documents to easily print, archive, mark up, or share. (Windows only)

Create in PDF/A or PDF/X
Create documents in PDF/A, the ISO standard for long-term archiving of electronic documents, or PDF/X, the ideal format for high-quality, professional printing

Combine and optimize documents
Combine documents, drawings, and rich media content into a single, polished Adobe PDF document. Optimize file size, and arrange files in any order regardless of file type, dimensions, or orientation.

Maintain individual file security settings
Maintain individual digital signatures and security settings in PDF files and forms when combining them into a single PDF package.

Include only the pages you need
Specify which pages, layouts, or sheets should be included from source files in your final, combined Adobe PDF document.

Optimize Adobe PDF output
Select from multiple file size and quality settings to optimize PDF output for your intended purpose.

Combine and optimize documents
Combine documents, drawings, and rich media content into a single, polished Adobe PDF document. Optimize file size, and arrange files in any order regardless of file type, dimensions, or orientation.

Maintain individual file security settings
Maintain individual digital signatures and security settings in PDF files and forms when combining them into a single PDF package.

Include only the pages you need
Specify which pages, layouts, or sheets should be included from source files in your final, combined Adobe PDF document.

Optimize Adobe PDF output
Select from multiple file size and quality settings to optimize PDF output for your intended purpose.

Apply passwords and assign permissions
Restrict access to Adobe PDF documents using 128-bit encryption. Set document permissions to help restrict who can print, save, copy, or modify a document.

Sign documents digitally
Apply digital signatures to authenticate documents, manage their status, and help protect against unauthorized modification.

Hungry for more?  Download the – Printable feature overview (PDF, 234K)

Conclusion

Obviously, using PDF technology and Adobe software is quite diverse, and I’ve only scratched the surface.  But that is the whole point on this blog – to scratch the surface of your creativity and lend some insight.  I’d be happy to hear from other users of the PDF format, Adobe, etc and know how they are doing business or working in paperless environments, archiving, and collaborating.

Related Blog’s on the Topic: 5 Benefits of PDF – 10 PDF Tricks – Convert anything to PDF online