Good Day!

So, you want to create a PDF document. You have any number of software options available to you. One of the more common ones is OpenOffice.org 3.0 with its ability to export to the PDF file format. This is good if you're working with documents (or spreadsheets or slideshows).

But what if you're on a web page - let's say you're doing some online shopping, and you make a purchase and you want to save your receipt, but you don't want to print it? If you could save the receipt as a PDF file you could save paper and still have the receipt.

What if... you're in an Instant Messenger window, and you want to make a PDF of a chat dialog so you can store it for posterity?

What if... well, you get the idea.

Step 1: What You Need

What you need:

A computer with Windows installed.

Please download PDF Creator from PDFForge.org

Suitable, document-generating applications such as office suites, web browsers, or ANYTHING which you can open a "Print..." function to get to a printer dialog prior to printing your documents.

Step 2: Install the Software

Install PDFCreator software, accepting the default settings (unless you are a more advanced user and can understand the options well enough to change them).

Installing PDF Creator will add a printer to your system called "PDFCreator". You can probably see where this is going!

Step 3: Windows Application Printing

Open whatever application you want to print from. In my examples I am using Internet Explorer.
Navigate to the webpage you wish to make into a PDF document (I am using my webcomic's website here).
Click File, then Print...

Select the PDFCreator printer form the list of printers, and set up your print options just like you would any other document. Click Print.

The PDFCreator dialog will open. Change the filename to be more reflective of what you're saving as a PDF file, if you like. If you want to see the resulting PDF file before you close the web page you're on, leave the checkbox checked to open document with the default program. Click Save.

You're prompted with the standard windows Save dialog. Verify filename, and select the proper folder in which to store the file. Click Save.

If you opted to open the document in default program, that program (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader) will open and load the newly-formed PDF file. That's it!

This works with ANY application that can print, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, IE, FireFox, Outlook, ANYTHING! Enjoy!