10 Reasons To Use PDF files instead of Word files

Ever get a poster, announcement, or handout in Word format that wouldn’t print right? If the person sent the information in PDF (Portable Document Format) you could print with confidence from any computer on any printer. PDF was designed to make printing easy regardless of the varieties of computer and printer combinations.

Here are 10 reasons PDF files are better for distributing information than Microsoft Word files, (which are made for easy editing not universal distribution and printing.)

1. Word reformats documents every time it opens a document on a different computer.
2. Word reformats docs every time a different printer is chosen even on the same computer.
3. This reformatting can change page numbers on long documents, ruining references and producing different versions for different people.
4. Reformatting can put hyphens in the middle of sentences making meaning of words harder to understand (mis-son or mission?).
5. Old versions of Word cannot open versions formatted for newer versions of Word (2007 vs, 2003 vs, 2000 vs. 97).
6. Word documents can easily be changed either accidentally or for reasons not agreeable to the author.
7. Every version of Word (or Word with add-ons to view different versions of Word files) is not available on all computers 
8. Free PDF viewers are easily available while Word is a commerical program that users must pay to obtain and upgrade.
9. PDF is created for electronic distribution and use on a wide variety of computer configurations.
10. PDF can be easily opened and viewed from the web sites.

PDF viewers

You probably already have one on your computer.  

Adobe is the creator of PDF and has the most common reader It is free, but I recommend unchecking the option box that installs McAfee Security Scan.

FoxIt Reader is also free and less demanding on computers. 

Making a PDF file

Version 2007 of Microsoft Office has a free download plug-in that will save files as PDF

Recent versions of Wordperfect have a built-in option to print to PDF

PrimoPDF has a free version that installs as a “printer” that prints by saving a PDF version of the document (or any file) to your computer.

CutePDF also installs as a “printer”

Wikipedia has a list of other PDF programs 

Online options (nothing to install!) include NitroPDF’s free pdftoword and Adobe’s CreatePDF (previously free, an annual paid subscription required) You send a file via a web page and they email you a link to download the PDF file in a few hours.

The original post was on Eastminster Presbytery’s website.

Comments

[Sean]

We have Ubuntu PCs / portables, Android smartphones and one elderly Nokia S40 mobile phone - nothing that runs Microsoft software. We tried everything to edit a job application recently that was in Microsoft Word, but the results were poor. I don't understand why Microsoft Word documents are so prevalent on the WWW - we should be filling HTML forms with the browsers we all have. It took me just a handful of evenings to whip up a web form / PDF generator that also offers data import / export:

http://firtl.com/2014/02/05/simple-web-form-generator-to-pdf/

And now that job application could be filled in and emailed as a PDF from any web device, including our elderly mobile phone.

Your point 10 isn't reliable: my Android PDF viewer doesn't handle transparency in images correctly and the old mobile phone won't display PDF at all. PDF's close to ideal for a 'final submission' medium for forms intended to be compared by eye, though.

[Christy Ramsey]

Thanks for comment!

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” ― William Faulkner,

I hope you will forgive me for not warning folks about troubles with Android phones and PDFs. This post is a requested reprint from one posted Oct 18, 2007, a year before the Android operating system was available to the public. The link is at the end of article.

Word (and PDF!) files are yielding to more accessible formats, Thanks for your efforts to keep the web open to all.