Hehe,

I just purchased a new laptop to replace my formerly trusty Dell inspiron 4000 laptop.

Given that Acrobat 5.0 is not compatible w/ Office 2003, I had to look at the Adobe site for the upgrade or the the full version. I nearly fell out of my chair how expensive it was. The full version is over $400. Damnit, don't make me spend my mod money on software!

So I did a google search for "free pdf writer" and sure enough, there was one that I downloaded and it works like a charm! Sure, its not integrated into the office toolbar up top, but so what?

Its called "cutePDF writer". if youve used cuteFTP, its the same people, so trustworthy. http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

also, download and install the free converter. you HAVE to do this or it wont work

creating a pdf is easy: just open the file you want to convert, click print, and then choose "cutepdf writer" from the printer selection drop down and then it prompts you to give it a file name and location. and thats it.

bob

 

Awesome find Bob!

I have the full version of all the Adobe software thanks to the fact that my wife is a teacher and gets software at a significant educational discount!

PDFs rock!

 

brian,

yeah, i use pdfs all the time to send documents overseas. its about the only thing thats universal as far as docs go

one thing that may persuade me to buy a used copy on ebay is the feature where you can create user writable forms. but its a nice to have and not a requirement for me

bob

 

another one that i have found that works pretty well is primo pdf

www.primopdf.com

 

I've been using Cute PDF writer for a while - no complaints.

 

Awesome find! I don't know what I'm gonna use it for, but I like it!!!

 

ya...I've been using Cute PDF Writer for 'bout 6 months now. I love it, and you can't beat the price!

 

I actually switched to openoffice a while ago, and it allows you to create pdf files right from the file menu. I moved away from ms office altogether and run openoffice instead. If you approach it with an open mind, it is more then adequate for just about every homeuser, and it's free.
Check it out: www.openoffice.org

 

Hey Bob, isn't it possible to add a new button to the Office toolbar, or Word or Excel for that matter, and then link it to the Cutewriter excecutable? I coulda sworn I did something like that many years ago with a different program.
Hmmm...maybe I'll check it out and if I can get somewhere I'll do a write up...hehe


EDIT: 11 1/2 hours later...uh...nevermind.

 

Here another freebie I have used on a few computers that didnt have adobe.
http://www.pdf995.com/

 

i worked at an open source software company as a consultant a little while ago and they forced me to use open office. yes, it does what you need it to do (not as refined), but the problem is cross-MS office compatibility. you lose alot of formatting and that drove me nuts

i believe the whole opensource industry will definitely gain traction, but in terms of office suites, it will be very difficult to dethrone MS. by the way, MS Office for Macs kicks ass!

pierre: i didnt find a way to add cutepdf to MS office. i dont htink there is a wya to do it either. but in anycase, the night i foudn this, i was a click away from buying the adobe acrobat professional suite and that wouldve been a big mi$$$$stake!

bob