Generating PDF files from the likes of Word documents and PowerPoint slides has always been a hassle. I've used two roundabout ways to accomplish the task in the past: i) use a PostScript print driver to print to a file and then run GhostScript's ps2pdf over the result; or ii) use a PDF print driver. Others have used Adobe's Distiller.

In a conversation last week, I learned that the latest version of Open Office included the export to PDF feature. I am aware of the feature and vaguely remember it being available on Linux but not on Windows. But that was way back when.

So I took another look at my Open Office 1.1.1 on Windows XP Pro. And sure enough, the "Export as PDF ..." item is right there in the "File" menu. And it works for text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Thanks, Open Office developers!

Responses[4]

Posted by Weiqi Gao on August 25, 2004 9:46:24 AM CDT #