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Tech Tip: Save as PDF instead of printing

Convert files to PDF
Save as PDF

A good way to save paper, and keep electronic copies of documents with formatting intact, is to save as a PDF file. Adobe’s portable document format is pretty much the standard for storing and transferring digital documents while maintaining all formatting. As a result, most modern word processing and spreadsheet software provide an option to save as PDF out of the box.

Save as PDF in Microsoft Office

Office 2016/2019/365

Recent versions  of Microsoft Office offer the option to save as PDF along with all the other available formats by default. To save as a PDF in Office programs:

  1. Go to the File tab.
  2. Click Save As.
  3. Enter a name for the file in the File Name box, .
  4. Select PDF (*.pdf) in the Save as type list.
  5. Click Options to set the page output options and click OK when finished.
  6. Click Save.

Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 cannot save documents as a PDF natively, but you can add this functionality by downloading a free plugin.

Print as PDF with Adobe Acrobat installed

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can save documents as PDF by starting to print as usual. First, start to print as usual but choose Adobe PDF as the printer. Next, a dialog box will open allowing you to then choose the location and filename of the document to be saved. This works for webpages as well as other documents and can be the ideal solution for saving pages as they would be printed on paper. You can also combine multiple PDF documents using Acrobat.

Save as PDF using Google Drive

If you use Google Drive you can download most documents from there as a PDF file. The added benefit of using Google Drive to convert documents to PDF format is that the text of the PDF becomes searchable in Google Drive.

  1. Go to File
  2. Click Download
  3. Select PDF Document (.pdf)

Create PDF online

Finally, you can also use the Online PDF-Converter to upload multiple files and merge them into a single PDF without having to download or install any additional software. Supported source files include PDF,  Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Open Document and various images. You can use this option with non-sensitive documents that you are not afraid of uploading for the conversion process to take place. After conversion is completed you will be prompted to download the resulting PDF file.

Last Updated on February 19, 2023 by Nathan Vidal

2 thoughts on “Tech Tip: Save as PDF instead of printing”

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