Making PDF Files On Your Mac (Any File) 8
Tip
Hey
I’ve been asked this question many times by my friends. How do you make that file, whether it by a word document, html file, image or anything in between, into a PDF. Thankfully Apple has gone to the trouble of adding a PDF creator within your Mac operating system, so you don’t have to install or download anything. I use this little function all the time, when sending files to people over email, or I just want to store them as a PDF file for myself.
Creating a PDF file on your Mac is as simple as hitting print. In fact any application that has a print dialogue box can create a PDF file. For example open your file, it can be anything, you can use this web page as an example. Go to File > Print. Don’t go the usual route of loading up your printer, instead click on the PDF drop down menu and select one of the PDF options. Use the first option “Save as PDF” for the default PDF option.
Let it work away and run. It may take a couple a seconds to mintues for it to work it’s magic. There may be nothing to show while the application is working and you might not be open the file until it has finished. Unfortunatly the save function doesn’t have hundreds of options to choose from unlike a normal PDF creator, however for basic PDF files it should be sufficent.
If you have any questions or tips, please leave a comment below.
Where To Next?
8 Responses to “Making PDF Files On Your Mac (Any File)”
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And if you make a shortcut (Shift-Cmd-P) for the Save as PDF…-command, then it’s even easier:
-Hit Cmd-P to get print menu.
-Hit Shift-Cmd-P to save as pdf.
-Enter file name, and you’re all set.As easy as 1-2-3.
Comment By piratepinion on July 18th, at 2:52 am
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Thank you for your useful advise. Yet, it seems to work with one document only. I tried to save several images as a single PDF file using ‘Preview” but it could only save one image at a time.
giladopComment By Gilad Ophir on July 20th, at 1:56 pm
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we can use textedit or Microsoft word to make PDF Files too….
Comment By Brian Bent on July 30th, at 4:37 pm
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The Shift-Cmd-P didn’t work for me. Suggestions?
Comment By kelli on August 23rd, at 12:55 am
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But PDF created by Mac throw garbage characters when taken for professional printing. I had harrowing time, tried .ps file and then made pdf, nothing works.. anybody who has solved it?
Comment By Kat on October 7th, at 3:54 pm
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@Gilad Ophir Did you make sure you selected Print Selected Images?
Comment By Katherine on December 1st, at 11:35 am
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I need to create a single PDF document that has multiple section breaks. Each time I go to create a PDF of my document it automatically splits it into three files according to the section breaks. The sections are necessary because the page layout switches from portrait to landscape.
Thank youComment By Phil on February 21st, at 5:51 am
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I have a folder in my documents which has a selection of photos and reports that I need to attach as just one file please help
Comment By Stephen on March 1st, at 2:44 pm