et a free copy of Corel's Presentations
9
If you want to create Web-ready slide shows, multimedia presentations, and
interactive demos, the Presentations program is a nice choice, and now it is
being given away as a free download.
See www.corel.com/freebies/cwpfreebies.htm |
reating Freeware PDF Files
Ever wonder how to create PDF files without spending all that money on the
Adobe Acrobat software (currently about $250 US)? For those of you who just
want to create the odd family newsletter in PDF format (the only kind of
newsletter for my family is odd) an investment in the expensive PDF creation
program is out of the question. So, what are your options?
First, remember that some software already incorporates the PDF creation
function in the program itself. For example, with WP Suite 2000 (stable with
SP3 installed) just click 'File', 'Publish to PDF' to generate a PDF version
of any document created in the Word Processor (WP9). Unfortunately, the same
function is not incorporated into the other programs in the suite. To print
other types of documents (e.g. from a Quattro Pro spreadsheet) you may try
the following procedure, which allows us to virtually convert any printable
file into a PDF file.
What You Need
- Your Windows 95/98/ME program files on CD-ROM or preinstalled on disk.
- The free GSview and Ghostscript programs. Download and run the following
two self-extracting EXE programs from the internet:
- gs650w32.exe,
AFPL Ghostscript 6.50 for Win32, and
- gsv36w32.exe,
GSview 3.6 for Win32.
- Note: The latest program version numbers change from time to time, so
see the website below for the latest information on these programs:
www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost.
- The free Acrobat
Reader program - also downloadable from the internet. Note: Although
you can use the GSview program above to view PDF files, the image quality
of documents viewed by the Acrobat Reader is usually better. Many of you
already have this utility program already installed on your system.
The Process
- Create a postscript file from the document you want to convert.
- Print the document you want to convert through a postscript printer
driver to a file. Then, convert the resulting postscript file through
'pdfwrite' device from GSview/Ghostscript.
Preparation
- Download and run the Ghostscript, GSview and Acrobat Reader programs.
- Order of installation is not important, but after all three are
installed, run the GSview (Ghostview) program
- Click 'OK'.
- Click on the 'Options' tab.
- Select 'Easy Configure'. If you specified a installation folder
other than the default (C:\Ghost), you can override the changes made by
selecting 'Advanced Configure'.
- Install a Postscript 'Print to File' Printer Driver
- Unless you already have a postscript printer driver installed, follow
these instructions:
- Click 'Start' -> 'Settings' -> 'Control Panel' ->
'Printers'
- Your 'Printers' folder will be displayed.
- Double click the 'Add Printer' icon.
- The 'Add Printer Wizard' window will pop up. Click 'Next'.
- Choose 'Local printer'. Click 'Next'.
- Select a postscript printer driver. How? Choose one with
"PS" or "PostScript" attached to its name. Apple
laser printers use postscript drivers, so they are a good choice. It is
a good idea to choose a color postscript printer because you might want
to make a colorful PDF file. For example, 'HP PaintJet XL300
Postscript' should do the job. I myself use 'Apple Color LW 12/660 PS'.
- Click 'Next'.
- Set 'FILE:' as printer port.
- Name your printer and decide if you want it to be your default
printer. I named mine 'PDF Print'.
- Click 'Next'.
- Choose 'No' for printing a test page because we have a few further
changes to make yet.
- Click 'Next' .. you may be prompted to insert your Windows
98/95/ME CD-ROM.
OK! You should now have yourself a new printer driver. Now look at the
new 'PDF Print' item in your 'Printer' folder.
- Right click on the printer icon and choose 'Properties'.
- Click the 'Paper' tab and select 'Letter', unless your standard
paper is different.
- Click the 'PostScript' tab. In the PostScript output format box, you
can choose 'PostScript (optimize for portability - ADSC)'.
- Click on the 'Advanced' button, and ensure that 'ASCII data' and the
'Send CTRL+D after job' checkboxes are both set on.
- Click 'OK' and the 'OK' again to finish.
That's all you need to setup the printer driver. However, you can
experiment with other option settings later and see what the output will
come out.
Try it Out
Now you are ready to create your first PDF file. Remember, the process is
create Document file -> Postscript file -> PDF file.
- Start with any printable document.
- Create a postscript file from the document.
- Open the document.
- Click 'File' -> 'Print'.
- In the 'Printer Name' box, choose the printer you have just installed.
(e.g. 'PDF Print' ).
- Click 'OK'. Then you will be prompted to name your postscript file.
- Specify the name of the file and click 'OK' to save your
postscript file. Note: The default file extension is .prn. You can
override the default by typing out the full name (e.g.
'c:\windows\desktop\test.ps') to create a .ps file named test.ps on the
default desktop.
- If your Windows doesn't show the file extension, you may display them
by opening 'Start' -> 'Windows Explorer'. Choose 'View' -> 'Folder
Options'. Click the 'View' tab and uncheck 'Hide file extensions for
known file types'.
- Create a PDF file from the postscript file.
- Double click the .ps file created in the previous step.
- GSview will pop up with your postscript file open.
- Click 'OK' to dismiss the registration box.
- Click 'File' -> 'Convert' from GSview menu panel.
- In the 'Device' box, choose 'pdfwrite'.
- Select the Resolution you want. (Normally larger resolution means
larger file and better quality).
- Select the pages you want to print.
- Click 'OK'. You will be prompted to name your PDF file. Write your
file name with .pdf extension. (e.g. 'c:\windows\desktop\test.pdf')
- Click 'Save' and you're done.
Double click on the newly created .pdf file to view it. Acrobat Reader
will pop up and display your amazing results.
Suggested Shortcuts
- The default file extension for 'print to file' files is .prn while the
expected extension for postscript files is .ps .. I like to have the GSview
program set as the default for .prn files You can reset the default start
program yourself:
- Right click on any .prn file,
- Selecting 'Open With' -> 'Choose Program',
- Click the 'Other' button and navigate to the location of the
'gsview32.exe' file (usually 'c:\ghostgum\gsview\gsview32.exe')
- Click 'Open'. This adds the gsview32 program to the list of programs.
- With 'gsview32' highlighted, check the 'Always use this program to
open these files' check box and then click the 'OK' button.
Result: When click on a .prn file the GSview program opens by default.
- I don't like searching around my hard drive for the file last created ..
so when prompted for the name of the .prn file, I always click the C: root
folder and then select the same generic filename (e.g. pdf.prn ) for
output.
- Creating a shortcut to that generic filename on the desktop keeps the
file front and center and easy to find.
- Find and right click on the generic filename,
- Select 'Send To' -> 'Desktop (Create Shortcut)'
Result: Can quickly click on the desktop shortcut to startup the GSView
program to process the latest file to view / convert to PDF.
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