Trying to convert a word document into a PDF? Sounds fairly easy and straight forward, but unfortunately it really isn’t, as I’ve found out.

In fact, if you are embedding links into your PDF it’s a pain, but there’s a solution. First, unless you have the proper Adobe software like Distiller, you are going to need something to go from Microsoft Word to a PDF, because Word alone can’t do it. But there are some options.

Primopdf is a simple to use, free program that does that jobs almost perfectly. If you have no links in your document, you are golden because the conversion is virtually flawless. However, if you do have links – as people often do – that’s where there’s a problem. PrimoPDF doesn’t covert those embedded hyperlinks (unless you type out the URL) and it’s next to impossible to manually enter them into the finished PDF.

So much for a local, free PC-based solution. Onto the internet.

Google Docs actually offers a viable alternative. Through Google Docs you can upload your document and then save it in another format, say PDF and the links do stay intact. And it’s free of course. Only problem is you may (and in my case do) lose the formatting and page breaks which really becomes a nightmare if you are trying to maintain the layout during the conversion.

It probably isn’t that big a hassle, but for me it is. So I moved on.

Solution you ask? Well the best one I’ve found is freepdfcovert.com, which sticks it cold. Upload your file  (or you can email it) to their site server and then minutes later you have a perfect rendering of it in PDF format. How can you beat a good PDF?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Adobe, Microsoft.