COE Exchange

PDF is THE file format to use when sharing documents with colleagues electronically.  While many tend to send word processor files, presentations, and spreadsheets in their native editable formats, they most quickly discover that not everyone purchases the same programs, much less have the same version, and this isn’t even getting into whether they have the same fonts available on their machine! Enter the Portable Document Format (PDF), which as its name suggests, is portable.  It allows you to create documents, presentations, etc. and share them with colleagues knowing that everyone will be able to view the document and be able to view it just as you want it to be viewed. However, most think that in order to create PDFs it is necessary to purchase Adobe Acrobat¹.  Not so!  Mac users have the ability to create PDFs built-in to their operating system.  Windows’ users can install a free open source project called PDFCreator and get the same functionality, again, at no cost. This post addresses common issues, tutorials and tricks to help maximize the proper use of PDFs, while paying particular attention to the needs of COE students, faculty and staff.

Converting an Original File to PDF

If you already have a digital document (Word, PowerPoint, email, webpage, etc) or image (JPEG, TIFF, or even another PDF) and all you need is to quickly turn it into a PDF, there is no need to purchase a proprietary solution such as Adobe Acrobat. There are free solutions for both major platforms (Mac/Windows):

In Windows

We highly recommend for Windows’ users a free open source solution developed by pdfforge.org called PDFCreator. Be careful, don’t be fooled by knock-offs that go by similar titles.²

1. Download and install PDFCreator, just accept the default settings during the installation process³
2. Once installed, open any document that you’d like to convert to a PDF and click on File > Print…
3. Now, instead of using your default printer, select the PDFCreator virtual printer instead, now select Print
4. You will now see a dialog asking for you to approve metadata about the document, click Save
5. Finally, you’ll be asked to give the document a name, click Save
6. Your new document will open in your preferred PDF viewer

HELPFUL TIP: You can also perform this exact process with another PDF as your source document if you’d like to optimize it to a standard resolution and file size. This is especially useful for documents that you’ve scanned at a high resolution but do not wish to rescan.

In Macintosh

Macintosh users are in luck. Every version since 10.1 of the Mac OS has had the ability to convert documents into a PDF as a built-in feature of its operating system.

1. Open any document that you’d like to convert to a PDF and click on File > Print…
2. In the resulting dialog box, pop down the PDF drop-down menu (typically at the lower left), select Save as PDF …
3. It will now ask you for a name and location to save the PDF (I recommend using the Desktop for easy retrieval) along with some metadata, select Save when finished.

Scanning Documents to PDF using VueScan

There are, of course, many scanners available out there in the world and each one of those has their own way of handling this process, but here at UM Saint Louis we use a program called VueScan in all of our computer labs.

1. Click on the Output tab
2. Change Default Folder to your Desktop for easy access using the @ button
3. Select the check box for PDF file (uncheck the other image files if need be). If making a multi-page PDF, check PDF multi page as well
4. Place page on scanner, align as indicated on the device, click Scan. If necessary, repeat for each page of the document, select File > Last Page when finished
5. Document will open in your PDF viewer for your inspection

High Speed Scanning using the TLC Document Centre

When needing to convert larger documents from hard copy to a PDF, placing one page after another on a flatbed scanner (especially when in the 100s) is simply not a good option.  The TLC maintains a high-speed document scanner that allows you to convert –within minutes– documents 50 to 60 pages long into a PDF delivered directly to your UM Saint Louis inbox.⁴

1. From the main console menu, select Scan
2. Select Scan to File
3. From the resulting menu, select either PDF_Search or PDF_Image from the templates menu⁵
4. Select the Filing Options > Document Management Fields
5. Select the SSO ID button. Input your UM Saint Louis SSO ID.  Use More Characters to get to numbers and special characters⁶
6. Load the document into the top feeder, press START

Please be certain that your inbox has enough room to accommodate its new addition, otherwise it will be bounced to nowhere and you’ll have to repeat this all over again.

TIPS:

• For two sided or reduced size documents, select Scan Setups
• To name a document or set metadata before the document is scanned, select Filing Setups > Document Management Fields
• For a customized workflow, talk to your systems administrator
• Longer documents take longer to process. Please be patient and do not overload

Footnotes

1. $80 at educational prices, several times more for regular consumers [↩]
2. Knock-off titles such as PDF-creator, Solid PDF Creator, Cute PDF, etc. Some of these knockoffs use PDFCreator’s code but build-in prompts to get you to buy it. PDFCreator should only be downloaded either through the pdfforge.org site or their project page on sourceforge.net [↩]
3. I do recommend that you do not install the PDFCreator Browser Add On which is essentially just a Yahoo! toolbar. This isn’t so much of a problem as it is annoying. [↩]
4. Larger documents can also be handled but will need to be broken down into 50 page sections and appended one to the other.  However, this requires special TLC staff assistance.  Please ask at the front desk. [↩]
5. PDF_Search to make the text within the document searchable or PDF_Image for just the image of the document, smaller file size [↩]
6. Sometimes referred to as a GatewayID, the same username you use to log into MyGateway and your email [↩]

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