Pointers please?

[Nev the Deranged]

Hey!  I have given some thought lately to publishing a miniatures game I have written in PDF form, possibly making it available via website or submitting it to a major gaming magazine.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to go about doing so, except that it has something to do with Adobe Acrobat.

I'm sure this has been covered ad nauseum on this forum, so I'm not looking to reopen a can of worms that has been thoroughly... um... wormed.  Or whatever.  Just point me towards the appropriate posts so I don't have to wade through them to find what I need.

Also, am I on the right track?  Is PDF even the way to go?  Again, just aiming me at the existing info is fine.

If by some bizarre cosmic circumstance the info isn't already here, then, I guess I'm opening a new can of worms, but I highly highly doubt it.

Thanks for putting up with the newbie =>

[Michael Hopcroft]

Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is the preferred method of creating a PDF. What it essentially does is create an alternative printer format that your word processor, DTP software, or other layout program can 'print" to automatically. This enables you to create a fixed, universally readable electronic document that preserves the formatting of the original (most of the time).

There are other methods. Some third-party pieces of software (WordPerfect Suite 2002, OpenOffice.org, Serif PagePlus 8 PDF, etc.) enable you to save to PDF. And if you're using Mac OS X, PDF is the default format for final versions of word processor files. Acrobat is preferred for its accuracy and compatibility with all readers, however.

Usually, creating a PDF is as simple as printing. You want to make sure you have everything set up the way you want it, of course, in your document. If you don;t like the results, fix what;s wrong in your software and save it again as a PDF -- you can't usually rearrange things within Acrobat, but you can save over your old files.

All of Adobe's design and publishing suites come bundled with Acrobat. The free version you can download everywhere is a reader only.

[Nev the Deranged]

Alright, so the next question is where do I get a program to create PDFs?  Keeping in mind I have no money and a lousy computer.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Download OpenOffice.org. It's a freeware office suite that creates PDFs oin addition to Word files and other formats. You won't get quite the quality you'll get in Actobat, but it's good for PDFs on the cheap.

http://www.openoffice.org/

[Nev the Deranged]

Thanks.  I'll look into it.  And if/when I gt published I'll let you all know.