Acrobat 9: Need a Quick PDF? What a Drag!

by David R. Mankin, the Acrobat Czar

You have a file that needs to be converted to PDF format. You're in a hurry, and the thought of waiting for your document's native application to load and convert the file to PDF is making you crazy under your rushed deadline.

Here's a very cool trick that is extremely handy. Create a shortcut on your desktop of the Acrobat 9 executable (acrobat.exe).

After creating the shortcut, all you need to do to convert a file to PDF is simply drag the file's icon over the Acrobat.exe shortcut and drop the file.

The file will be converted to a PDF, and Acrobat will  automatically start once the conversion is complete with your new PDF file. Drag multiple files… get multiple PDFs! The files will then need to be saved, so this gives you the opportunity to write the files to the destination of your choice. Mac users? No problem. Create an alias of the Acrobat executable & start dragging & dropping.

A pleasant surprise is waiting for you if you use the PDFMaker (MS Office file to PDF Conversion Tool). If you drag a Word document over the Acrobat icon, Acrobat uses the PDFMaker's settings for the conversion, allowing your new PDF file to have your Word style-based Acrobat bookmarks created on the fly! Sweet! Now that's a drag I don't mind one bit.

Looking for Acrobat training? We run an online Acrobat class once each month. Click here for more information and class dates.

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About the author: In addition to recently being named the nation's Acrobat Czar, David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.