Of
all the computer tools and utilities – that I use in my
genealogy work on a daily basis - - - few are so helpful
across
the board as is the “PRINT to
PDF” capabilities on most computers these days - which avoid any
reliance on paper - and allow me to print to a file that is stored on
my computer instead.
I use it almost every day in my
genealogy work.
I highly recommend it as something to
learn and leverage if
you aren’t already using it. And a clear way to get away from “killing
all the
trees” by those who continue to insist on printing paper – when for 99%
of the
cases there really is no need.
PDFs
are particularly useful
for many companies in the business world. Whether you’re invoicing
clients,
maintaining customer records in a consistent format, or sending
important
memos, you can be sure with PDFs that the person viewing the document
will see
it as it was intended to be. It can also be
extremely useful int he world of genealogy.
Here
are 7 big benefits to making the PDF format a part of your
business operations, and some options for how
to create PDFs.
1.
Document
format is maintained. One
of the problems with
sharing documents made in Microsoft Word or other word processors is
that when
you share a file from one computer to the next, the formatting can
prove to be
very different. This can cause confusion, or make you look bad to your
clients
or colleagues. You can rest easier with the PDF format, that your
document will
be presented exactly how you layed it out. It’s also ideal for sending
documents that are intended to be printed out.
2.
The
format is ubiquitous. Because
it’s so good for what
it sets out to do, PDF has been widely adopted all around the world.
The format
is easy to view and share, so whether you’re sharing a document with
someone
down the street, or on the other side of the world, PDF is a safe
choice to send
it in.
3.
They
tend to have a small file size in comparison to other formats. The TIFF
file format has many benefits beyond PDF,
but the PDF format has the big advantage of compressing high-quality
files to a
relatively small file size. That’s ideal for saving hard drive space,
particularly if you’re working with limited storage resources.
4.
The
files can be protected by password. If
you’re a business of any size, it’s possible, or even likely, that
you’re
handling some of your customers’ sensitive information. PDF files can
be
password-protected, giving you the ability make sure prying eyes are
kept away
from your important business documents.
5.
It
works on any operating system. PDF
works on all the
major operating systems currently in use. So whether the viewer is on a
PC or a
Mac, or even on a newer mobile operating system like iOS and Android,
there’s
almost no worry about the receiver being unable to view the document.
6.
Easily
integrate non-text elements (e.g. images, hyperlinks, etc.) PDFs
allow you to maintain visually-pleasing layouts, and make use of links
that
will open up in the viewer’s web browser when viewing the documents on
a
computer or mobile device.
7.
It’s
not likely to go away. Technology
moves quickly, but
PDFs are probably here to stay for the long-haul. The format is so
widespread
and has so much history behind it that it would take a fundamental
shift in
computing for everyone to adopt a different standard. An investment in
PDF
software now is sure to stand up in the long run, and give your company
an
excellent return on investment.
Getting
to know Print to PDF on your computer
Windows 10 Print to PDF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpnDHkpnwk
MAC Print to PDF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKL8Z5f2CQ
Note that though most computers come
with print to pdf
options now – there are still various freeware applications that maybe
go beyond the basic
capabilities of the standard
print to pdf.
as to how this applies to your genealogy work.
Genealogical
Forms/Charts ( Pedigree Charts/ Family
Group Sheets/ Descendants Charts )
Any report/form/chart that is
generated using a genealogy
program can normally be converted to pdf format (if the software allows
for
“printing” of the item. Simply
select
the “print to pdf” option in your list of printers.
As you click print – a window will
pop up for you to create
a pdf file name and designate a storage location on your hard drive.
Just about any document file produced
by just about any
program can be
converted to pdf format –
simply by choosing the print option – and then choosing the print to
pdf
printer option.
Photos/Images
Image files (jpg, png etc) are great
to record/store family
related images – the problem is that each file stands alone – and it is
usually
nice to be able to brig multiple images together into a single
document.
This can be done by selecting the images and then clicking on print – and selecting the print to pdf – printer option. Aother method is to create a word document and importing in the image files into the word document and then printing the word document nd selecting the print to pdf printer.
Email
Genealogists often have a large amount of email
communications – and all so
often, however, people don’t think about
preserving these email communications outside of their
email system.
If an email account is closed – they
could potentially lose
a large amount of information (especially attachments) that have been
sent.
Attachments can be downloaded from
the email system – but
the emails themselves are often eventually lost.
To avoid this people can convert their emails
to pdf format.
This can be done either one at a time (quite tedious process), but there are also means by which a batch process could be run to do a mass conversion.download to pdf format.
ScanningMost
people these days know how to scan a document or image. But
it is
surprising how few people know how to scan multiple pages to a single
pdf file - using the paper feed of the scanner.
A great time saver
- so you dont have to sit there in the slow and tedious
process
of repeated scan on a slow desktop scanner.
Learn how to use the paper feed to pdf option - a true time
saver.
Web Pages
Any Internet web page that you visit
can be converted to a
pdf file – simply by clicking on the print option of the browser and then selecting the PDF
print option among
your list of printers. This is a nice
way that you can save a permanent version of the web page that you can
keep
locally.
Sometimes because of the complex
subcomponents of a web page
– this results in a pdf document that is hard to read – another option
is to
copy and paste the pertinent information into a word document –
formatted
exctly the way you wish and then print to pdf from the word processor.
Entire Books
You may have noted that Google and
other sites have uploaded
various books in the public domain to the Internet.
Many of these you will be able to download
in their entirety in pdf format.
FamilySearch also provides similar
capabilities.
Here are some examples.
Google: https://books.google.com/books?id=MxBWAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
In the case that
you
want to create a pdf of only certain pages of the entire book - you can print to pdf –
but then only select
the pages that you want to include.
PDF Utilities
Password Protection, compressing,
converting, rotating,
splitting, merging, watermarking
– are
all just a few of the actiions that can be applied to a pdf file.
Here is a great FREE site
allows for some of this.
https://www.ilovepdf.com/
(you should never upload a confidential document to
a public web site like this – but most
genealogy documents are not confidential)