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Print to PDF in Windows Vista
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 10:30 PM on July 7, 2008
The go-to Vista fix-it guy, The How-To Geek, offers a much-needed tutorial and walk-through on installing print-to-PDF functionality in Windows Vista. To start saving paper and creating PDFs, you'll need to install a copy of previously mentioned PDFCreator, but with the trick of turning off User Account Control while you install to enable its direct PDF-creating capabilities. For a simpler but much more restricted and feature-lacking solution, you could also try installing doPDF. Hit the link for some how-to wisdom. (Original doPDF post).
Tags: pdf | print | vista | windows vista | work
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Scott D. Feldstein
Posted 11:28 PM 7/7/08
I don't have any inside information at all, but I would suspect that Adobe has no reason to prevent Microsoft or anyone else from using the format they invented. On the other hand, Microsoft has a good reason not to include it in the standard Office install: PDF is a competitor format for Microsoft's own proprietary ones. If anyone's foot-dragging, it's Microsoft themselves.
Mac plug: sweet jebus how I love this feature in OS X. Any app that can print can make a pdf. It's been so for seven years.
Scott D. Feldstein
cdbreeden
Posted 11:12 PM 7/7/08
@B1663R: For Office 2007 you simply need to install the Save as PDF add-in.
cdbreeden
LifesSweetDrug
Posted 11:11 PM 7/7/08
@B1663R: I believe Microsoft tried to add PDF printing as standard but Adobe refused to allow them, so programs like Microsoft Office requires you to download additional plug-ins to save or print as PDF's.
LifesSweetDrug
chrisgeleven
Posted 11:08 PM 7/7/08
Now that PDF is an actual standard, there is no reason for programs and operating systems not to support PDF. It should be a requirement for everyone.
chrisgeleven
whiskeyspider
Posted 11:07 PM 7/7/08
This isn't already in Vista? That's really surprising.
whiskeyspider
B1663R
Posted 10:59 PM 7/7/08
why isn't PDF printing standard now? i mean why do i need to download a bunch of stuff for office 2007?
why Microsoft, why?
B1663R
ian320
Posted 11:56 PM 7/7/08
I'm going to stick with BullZip PDF [www.bullzip.com] for now. It is the only one I have used so far that satisfies the following constraints:
1. Works flawlessly in Vista
2. Easy workflow: Hit OK in the print dialog, and you are immediately presented with a NATIVE save dialog (this is optional, and sadly is no longer the default, but is easy to change). After hitting save, you are presented (optionally) with the option of opening up the pdf or not.
3. That's it.
All others I have tried either present a jumbled interface after hitting OK in the print dialog, or use some proprietary save dialog with ads in it. I could care less that the installation of BullZip also comes with GhostScript, because I only install it once but use it many times.
ian320
rainbowsky
Posted 11:53 PM 7/7/08
Yes, CutePDF et. al. were all fine ages ago, but Office 2007 supports PDF, OpenOffice supports PDF, WordPerfect 12 (very inexpensive) supports PDF, and I just saved a web page using LH recommendation Nitro PDF 2.0--works fine. Maybe LH readers could use comparison/contrast charts for PDF needs or a recent MS Steady State discussion which came right after Returnil (excuse the digression). Which program does what? Which is easiest with the most features, etc. As it is, readers face a trial/error game that could be eliminated.
rainbowsky
nka
Posted 11:52 PM 7/7/08
@B1663R: It's standard on the Mac.
nka
uncommontime
Posted 11:44 PM 7/7/08
Microsoft is trying to push its XPS (XML Paper Specification) format as a replacement to PDF, so it's no wonder that they don't natively support the PDF format. It's kind of funny: Microsoft lists both PDFs and XPSs on its website, and the XPS files are significantly larger than the PDF files. Frankly, I don't think it will take off.
uncommontime
Norcross
Posted 11:39 PM 7/7/08
There is an Office 2007 add-in that will allow saving as a PDF, and also having Acrobat Professional will give you the option as well.
That being said, I've used CutePDF for some time now, and it's always worked great.
Norcross
Ellie
Posted 11:34 PM 7/7/08
doPDF is a lifesaver! :) I don't mind installing it - it is lightweight and feature-filled!
Ellie
tom
Posted 11:33 PM 7/7/08
this especially usefull now google.docs supports an online PDF-reader.
tom
Stravos
Posted 12:22 AM 8/7/08
Strange, I've never had to turn off UAC to get PDFCreator working. Just set up a new 64bit Vista install and PDFCreator installed without a hitch.
Great tool nonetheless!
Stravos
SEMW
Posted 12:03 AM 8/7/08
@Scott D. Feldstein:
> I don't have any inside information at all, but I would suspect that Adobe has
> no reason to prevent Microsoft or anyone else from using the format they
> invented.
...Well, Adobe must have *thought* they had a reason, or they wouldn't have done it! What do you need "inside information" for -- they loudly and repeatedly threatened to sue Microsoft if MS included Save as PDF functionality in there by default. The move to a downloadable plugin was a compromise settlement.
SEMW
Scott D. Feldstein
Posted 12:49 AM 8/7/08
@SEMW: So I guess you can see that I truly don't have any inside info--or even much outside info!
So you're saying Adobe threatened to sue Microsoft if they included a save-as-pdf option in Office? I'm not sure I get how that can be, since the portable document format is an ISO open standard format. Anyone can use it without licensing a thing, right? Perhaps you can set me straight.
Scott D. Feldstein
The How-To Geek
Posted 1:17 AM 8/7/08
I'm honestly very puzzled why the installation required disabling UAC on my testing setup. I've now been able to install CutePDF on another machine with no issues, so I'm not sure what was going on.
Either way, CutePDF, doPDF, PrimoPDF... the point is that printing to PDF and saving some trees is a good idea =)
The How-To Geek
Obfuscate Penguin
Posted 1:08 AM 8/7/08
@Scott D. Feldstein: I read that Adobe didn't want Microsoft to take yet another standard and "improve" it with proprietary extensions that would allow them to further monopolise the market. See this article for statements from Adobe.
Obfuscate Penguin
seanmcleary
Posted 1:07 AM 8/7/08
I've been using PrimoPDF on Vista without any UAC tinkering. Just installed it and "printed". I'm going to look into this Office 2007 add-in, though. Most of what I PDF-ize is in Word or Visio.
seanmcleary
j3st
Posted 1:07 AM 8/7/08
Nice, but the HowTo seems to be unnecessarily long. I recently installed something really similar called PrimoPDF, which is free and didn't seem to require that much expertise. Prints to PDF the same way.
j3st
Al Iguana
Posted 3:24 AM 8/7/08
I always save a PDF copy of any documents I create in Word 2007 (just in the event that if Microsoft change the Word format in the future, I won't be able to open the saved docx file).
All I really need is a simple way to save a web-page reciept as a PDF. doPDF looks perfect for that. (I am surprised that Firefox 3 doesn't have "print/save as PDF" built in. Ah well)
Al Iguana
Thor
Posted 3:11 AM 8/7/08
Just use Open Office - it's free and you can click on the PDF icon in any of the programs to create a PDF.
Thor
Samuel Wat
Posted 7:37 AM 8/7/08
@B1663R: There is a plugin for Office 2007 coded by Microsoft that prints to PDF. Heres the link to download it
Samuel Wat
squarepants
Posted 1:02 AM 8/7/08
@Scott D. Feldstein: Adobe's threat to sue MS over including "Save to PDF" in Office 2007 is pretty well documented. Check out the following stories:
[www.pdfzone.com]
[www.infoworld.com]
In a nutshell, Adobe thought that the inclusion of "Save as PDF" would amount to MS extending its monopoly over office apps to the PDF space. So, MS now can say that the products out of the box do not include this capability. It is however very painless to install the add-in and it works flawlessly.
Hard to put any blame on MS over this one.
squarepants