do PDF 7

Convert Micorsoft Word's files into PDF.

Printer-based freeware PDF utilities like Softland's doPDF Free are unobtrusive yet flexible and a great choice for the home office, small business, and individual user. You just have to click the Print command in any application, and then select the program from your list of installed printers. Instead of printing out your converted document, the program saves it as a PDF. You can set basic output options like document size and resolution, but doPDF is designed to be as simple and lightweight as possible.

Although doPDF works like a print driver, it installs normally like any Windows program. During the installation process, you have the option to set doPDF as your default printer, which can be handy for business PCs that are mostly used to generate electronic documents such as invoices and purchase orders. You can also set up the program with a wide range of languages, too -- all of them or as many as you need. When the installer finished, doPDF's Startup window opened, along with a tutorial on the program's Web site. The Startup window is an ultra-simple conversion wizard with a browsing file entry field and Create, Help, and Close buttons. Clicking Help opens a fairly substantial Help file, but doPDF prints all the instructions you need right on the dialog. You can open the Startup window from doPDF's Start Menu entry, but the easiest way to use the program is by clicking Print and selecting doPDF from your list of printers. That's also how you access the program's minimal settings, via the Printing Preferences and Print Properties for doPDF under Devices and Printers. The program's properties sheet includes a button linking to a paid upgrade that offers more features than doPDF Free.

We created PDFs with doPDF by choosing the Print command from an open document and by opening the Startup window. Clicking Save opens a Save File dialog with several options, including whether to create small files or maximize image quality; there's also an option to open the finished product in your PDF reader. For simple PDF conversions, doPDF is all that many users need.