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A PDF copy of your church newsletter is convenient for emailing your newsletter to your church's members. PDF's are easy for anyone to open - no more error messages or random characters when trying to open your file on a different machine. And the recipient sees your newsletter as you originally designed it - not different, as is the case in some instances.

Anyone can open a PDF by using Adobe's Acrobat Reader. It's available for free download from Adobe's website: www.Adobe.com.

What is a PDF?

Adobe developed the PDF file as a way to create a file that can be viewed on nearly any computer. PDF stands for Portable Document Format.

Some programs, such as Corel Word Perfect, allow you to create PDF files. Open Office. org's free word processer also allows you to save your file as a PDF.

Of course, the top PDF creator is the complete Adobe Acrobat software. It's a bit expensive for many church budgets, being around $300 at the time that this article was written, and there are no non-profit discounts.

However, Adobe does offer an online PDF converter at http://createpdf.adobe.com. Your first five PDF's can be converted for free.

If you go to Google.com and search for "PDF converters" or "PDF printers" you'll get a list of many programs available for purchase or free download. I use CutePDF's free download available at www.CutePDF.com and have been very happy with it.

In addition to emailing your newsletter to church members, you'll also will want to make your newsletter available online through your church's website. This can be easily done by making the PDF version available for download. Be sure to provide a link to Adobe's website for anyone wanting to download the Acrobat Reader on both your website and in your emails that you send the newsletter by.

So How do I Create the PDF?

Whatever PDF converter you use, it will come with instructions. Many are very simple to download and install. Once they are active you're ready to create your PDF.

For instance, let's say you have created a newsletter or brochure in Microsoft Word, and you have the PDF converter by CutePDF. With your Word document open, you go to your print menu and in the pull down menu for printers you will choose CutePDF. When you click OK it creates your PDF file. A box will ask you where to save the PDF. Make sure you choose a file that's easy for you to find it again.

Using a PDF converter gives you the freedom of creating your project in whatever software you're familiar and more comfortable with. And you'll end up with two copies, one in the original format you created it in and another in PDF format.

A PDF creator, on the other hand, allows you to immediately create your project in a PDF format. The most common PDF creator in use is Adobe's, but you'll find many others if you google "PDF creator" in the internet search engine. If you're doing a lot of PDF creation work, I suggest sticking with Adobe's as it's the most versatile for people to download, but there are many other cheaper options on the market also that will work well for normal use.