a Mac question
 

okay, i didn't find a thread with this question, but if there is one ((& i just didn't see it, let me know))

now to the question:
i have a G4 iBook ((OS 10.4.6)). I am looking for an program ((freeware would be AWESOME)) that will turn my .txt, .rtf, and .doc files into .pdf.

i have found two programs already. one of them is made just for Mac and works with the Automator, but i can't seen to get to do what it is supposed to do.

so i downloads a Bee product called Text to PDF.app, there is three problems with this program:
1: it doesn't not convert my page breaks ((so everything runs together))
2: it doesn't convert my fonts ((so everything comes out in Times, i hate Times))
3: all my pictures disappear.

is there any programs out there that you know of, that would convert everything, fonts, line/page breaks, and pitcures ((and that will work with my lovely Mac))

i downloaded OpenOffice.org. it works great, my pictures & my line/page breaks are there. but all of my fonts ((from pages, text edit, & word)) do not transfer over to OOo . . . . so there is a way, if you are not picky about yout fonts . . . i went from 87 fonts to about 20 & none of them are "cool."

the problem is: i am picky about fonts . . .


so the search continues

Every program on a Mac can print to a PDF. It is built into the Print dialog.

You generally need to tell PDF converters to include fonts. The defaults often do not in an effort to save space/bandwidth at the expense of device portability. Check page setup for an "include fonts" option.

Do you have to have Adobe or something to open PDF as text? Or something that you can change?

Yes, you need Adobe Acrobat (not the reader obviously) to edit an existing PDF file. It is possible for the original PDF creator to lock the PDF file in Acrobat so that you can't change it though.

You can use Preview (which comes with your Mac) to open the PDF (it should do that by default). Click on the letter A in the toolbar to get a selection cursor. You can then copy the text out to a word processor for editing. You can also use the dotted-outline box in the toolbar to copy graphics.

New Question (related to the old) How do you take a number of PDFs and turn them into one document? Can my Mac do that or do I need to download something else?

(By the way, thanks for the other tips and directions, they worked just fine.)

You probably need Adobe Acrobat for that. There's a feature called "Combine Files," where it allows you to take multiple files/images and make it into one document. I think this includes more than just PDFs.

There is also "Create PDF" from the File drop-down menu, where "From Multiple Files" is an option.

This is in Acrobat; I'm not sure Reader can do any of this. Probably not.

There are programs and services that "merge" PDFs. I'm not familiar with any, however. Just Google "merge pdfs" and see what turns up.

Actually, you can do it with the built-in application Preview.

10.5: Use Preview to merge or create multi-page PDFs - Mac OS X Hints

Oh, wow. Nice find, Redlemon.

God, I love OS X.

Preview needs a new name. It has huge amounts of power hidden inside it, and most people just use it to view PDFs.

Yeah, you're probably right. It's even worse for me because I have Adobe Acrobat Professional, so all my PDFing goes through there, plus the PDF print option in the OS.

I only use Preview as a quickview tool for images; it's set as that as default.

Redlemon, if I had 10.5, this would be great. Just one more reason for to wish I had a newer machine.

Baraka, I have tried a number of google searches, and found a number of downloads that say they would, and either they really don't, or I can't get them to work. While Abode is great, I need something cheaper than that (and free would be great, but I don't think that's gonna happen).

You can load 10.5 on that machine, can't you? It was 10.6 that required Intel.

No, I was going to, but the Mac man told me that it wouldn't be worth it because of my RAM - which is like 512 or something.

You should be able to find some 3rd party RAM for not a lot of money.

1GB of ram is the max for a G4 iBook I believe. It's really cheap but I don't know if it would help all that much for a 10.5 upgrade.