Hi. I'm an aspiring writer and using MS Word for much of my freelance writing. I've recently started shopping around for a PDF converter to I can convert some documents I have to PDF. Stuff like Word and text documents to PDF. I'd also like to convert some things from PDF back to Word.

I've found that there a TONS of PDF conversion programs out there. :eek: Reviews for these programs are quite sparse and often from many years past. I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations on a PDF converter? I just want something where I can scan a PDF and the text be searchable. Having the PDF converter not take a long time to convert is also something that would be nice.

Edit:
Oh yeah, I'm also wanting to buy a scanner and scan some pages out of an old book into PDF format. I assume that the scanner software will have the software for that, correct?

Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 will do whatever you need. It's not free software, but try to consider it as part of the cost of doing business. Best of all, it's legal.

If you just want to make PDF's, from Word go to "print," choose PDF writer or something from your printers (there's always something), and "print." Dialog boxes will open up and ask you where to save the PDF document.

Personally I like http://www.neevia.com/print_to_pdf/ to make PDF files out of Word. It is cheap and has macro support to generate a TOC from you document which many do not. For more serious work I use framemaker which has PDF support built in.

Dale

Hi dodger

As you have discovered, there are lots of PDF creating software, and from free to the cost of a small car (joking but not so much so).

To create PDF’s from your documents and using office you have 2 fast options (both free):

1 - if you have office 2007 (and it just works for this version), get the Microsoft free plug-in to create PDF’s with office programs (go to the Microsoft site and search for “2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS”);

2 - get open office, it supports saving in PDF by default and you can even launch it from a USB pen or a any external media if you do not want to install it on your computer (you can get it to be launched that way in http://portableapps.com).

Concerning the scanner, yes almost all of today’s scanners have some software who permits the creation of PDF’s.

Do you really need PDF? It's not really a nice format for books.

Jey js, what alternatives would you suggest for book?

I like Nitro PDF Professional. It is not free and it does takes a bit of time to feel comfortable with it. They do provide excellent support. Only free for a short period but they are very quick to respond. I have used it to convert Word to PDF. I create the TOC in Word and then create the links in Nitro. I am not an expert on PDF conversion programs but I do believe this one is worth checking out if you don't mind paying for the program.