PDF (Portable Document Format) files are open file format files created by Adobe Acrobat or similar products and are one of the most popular ways to share digital files over the Internet. Many of the publications or forms that can be downloaded or viewed online are in the .pdf file format, which can be printed and viewed on multiple platforms exactly as the file’s creator intended.
Advantages of PDF files
These documents are preferable to Word documents for several reasons: PDF is a universal file format: it is specifically designed to work and look the same on any platform or device. Any user with Adobe Acrobat Reader, a freely available program that can be quickly downloaded from Adobe’s website, can open, view, and print a .pdf extension.
Multiple Word documents can be combined into a single file, a process that will compact the documents into a much smaller file without compromising quality. The same can be said for very long documents, or documents that include large photos or need spreadsheets attached. PDF documents save space on your hard drive and on the hard drives of the people you share documents with.
The layout of the documents will be exactly preserved and will not be editable by others, unless specific editable fields are created. These documents are secure and can be encrypted to ensure that only those who intended to view your work can do so, or that your files are not duplicated, modified, or printed without your permission. For this purpose, a password is usually created and distributed to the intended recipients. Because these files are so secure, they are generally the required format for many legal documents, since the .pdf document cannot be edited without leaving electronic fingerprints.
The United States government is one of the largest users of PDF technology, and federal courts use this file format exclusively for their electronic documents. You may have noticed that all the tax forms you download from the IRS website are in .pdf file format. This widespread official use of this extension pretty much guarantees the longevity of PDF files.
People trust this file format as it is known to be much less vulnerable than Word programs to various viruses.
How to convert a Word document to PDF file format
Typically, a document is created in another program such as Microsoft Word, and then that file is converted to the PDF file format. Microsoft Word does not come with the “Save As.pdf” feature, so a third-party application is needed to create this type of file. Creating the document can be a very simple process if the right conversion software is used. Some programs can also convert these files into editable Word documents, or convert Word or other documents to JPEG or other image files. Creating a PDF with conversion software is a simple and quick process that usually only requires one or two mouse clicks.
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