Sometime we need to put a document file on the web for circulation. And the most common file format to be used to do so is pdf file.

Most of us write our documents using Microsoft Office Word. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office does not provide export to pdf file facility in the package. We may need to purchase other software to do so.

Alternatively, we can also convert the file online. This will be a time consuming process if we want to convert a very big file.

There are free software packages available on the net which allow us to convert the document files to pdf format.

I personally like OpenOffice.org.

First it is free. Second, it can be used to edit Microsoft Office files. Thirdly, it has almost all the functions provided by Microsoft Office. And of course, it can be used to convert Microsoft Office files to pdf format.

What I usually do is, I would open the file using the OpenOffice.org equivalent software. Then I would easily export the file to pdf format, with a few clicks.

The equivalent of the OpenOffice.org software is as follows:
MS Word – Writer
MS Excel – Calc
MS Powerpoint – Impress
MS Access – Base

The result is quite amazing. Once I have to upload a very long report. The author has converted the original 27MByte file into a 17MByte pdf file. When I converted the same source file using Writer, the new pdf file is now only 2MByte.

OpenOffice.org is a free software which not only can be used to edit Microsoft Office Document, it can also be used to convert Office files to pdf format.

OpenOffice.org is available for download at http://www.openoffice.org/

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