Does anyone know...

[Kester Pelagius]

..which PDF related programs out there will directly convert Microsoft Works Word Processor files?

In my search I've found a few sites that claim to be able to handle WPS files of earlier versions of the software I have, but those were essentially subscriptions services.  I want a honest to goodness, installable, totally under my fintertips for editing control, program.

Anyone know of something like that?

(Or know what files Adobe Acrobat can handle first hand.  Their site was not as helpful in this regard as I had hoped.)

Thank you for your time.


Kind Regards.

[Jake Norwood]

Adobe acrobat (full version, not the reader) will, but it's expensive

Jake

[Bailywolf]

Depending on how squishy your morality is, Acrobat can be had from Kaaza via simple download.  If you don't have a high speed connection, then don't bother though, and don't fool with anything but Kaazalite (an ad-free variant).

-Ben

[greyorm]

Of course, installing a file-sharing program like Kazaa is like opening a window and shouting, "Hack me!"  So unless you've got a good firewall running and know how to disable spyware, I wouldn't recommend either Kazaa or Morpheus, nor a couple of the other similar file-sharing proggies.

This, however, is drifting wildly off-topic.

[talysman]

here's my suggestion: ghostscript and RedMon.

RedMon is a printer port redirection monitor; it creates a fake printer port that, when you print to it, sends the output to a program instead.

if that program is ghostscript, it can be used to translate postscript for a non-postscript printer ... or it can be used like adobe acrobat distiller to create a PDF.

this is exactly the method I use. it doesn't matter what word processor you use, as long as it lets you choose which printer to print to. I use it with OpenOffice ... thus, my word processor and PDF producer is all completely, legally free.

I have this set up on a different computer, but if you are interested, I can look up how I set it up. it's not that hard. I made one stupid mistake, so it took me 15 minutes to figure out what I did wrong and get it working. it really should only take 5 minutes.

(oops, forgot to add: you do not need kazaa for any of this.)

[Andrew Martin]

this is exactly the method I use. it doesn't matter what word processor you use, as long as it lets you choose which printer to print to. I use it with OpenOffice ... thus, my word processor and PDF producer is all completely, legally free.

From the Open Office announcement list, the 643 Developer build:

On the other hand, developer builds are likely to be more interesting.  643
includes many new and interesting features.   Among them,
   *Native PDF export capabilities

[Bailywolf]

talysman

That is a very cool solution.  


Please ignore my miscreant earlier suggestion.

[Christoffer Lernö]

I'm using OpenOffice currently, but I think they wrote that the current version only offers that on linux. Anyway, Kester is using Works, so I think the RedMon thing would work. I couldn't install Ghostscript on a chinese version of XP though, so I was kinda forced to go with the program I'm currently using.

[Kester Pelagius]

...thanks for the input.


Didn't come across any information about most of the programs mentioned when I did my initial web searches.  Will have to save this thread to disk and look into your suggestions.

So, next to Adobe, which is the best PDF software (with file conversion capabilities) out there?


Kind Regards.

[urbwar]

..which PDF related programs out there will directly convert Microsoft Works Word Processor files?

Anyone know of something like that?

Try here: http://site4.pdf995.com/download.html

They have 3 programs you can download: 1 to make convert to pdf (you send file to print, and chose the program as the printer, and you have a pdf. I tested it today, so it does work), 1 is an editor for said pdf files, and 1 is a signature (ie encryption) program. They are free, but there are some kind of web ads that pop up unless you register the programs. Individually, it's $9.95 each, or $19.95 to register all 3. And they take paypal. I only played with a word document of text only, so I can't say how it handles a file that has images in it yet, but the file I made looked fine to me

[razgon]

Also, you want to check out http://www.planetpdf.com/ for more info on pdfs

[Jason Lee]

I assume this is not a macintosh question?

OS X has native support for PDF output...

File|Print|Save as PDF

...from any os x application you want.

If you have a mac, that is.