GENERAL

INFO.

 

The instructions below will show two different ways (besides scanning) in which you can convert a document to .pdf format.

 

Installation of Adobe Acrobat Writer adds a special “printer” device that is actually a .pdf creator.  However, the default setup of Acrobat, does not install the “Adobe PDFWriter” printer driver, it only installs the “Adobe Distiller” printer driver, so a “custom” installation is required. Testing has indicated that the “Adobe PDFWriter” creates smaller .pdf files than the “Adobe Distiller” does and conversion using “Adobe Distiller” takes longer.

 

See the separate instructions instructions for “Installing or
Re-Installing Acrobat Writer 5.0” if you do not have “PdfWriter” as a printer choice.

 

 

 

 

 

Converting Using The “PDFWriter” Printer

 

 

 

STEP 1

 

Open the document that you wish to convert if the document is not already open by double-clicking on the document’s name in the file folder.

 

 

 

STEPS

2 - 3

 

Click on “File” in the menu bar and then click on “Print” in the menu that now appears

 

 

 

 

PRINT DIALOG BOX

 

A “Print” dialog box similar to the one below will now display.

 

 

 

 

STEP 4

 

Use the  arrow in the printer’s “Name” box to select “Acrobat PDFWriter”.

 

 

IMPORTANT PRACTICE TIP:  If you complete the above steps when you first go into your word processor to create a document, you will actually create the document in .pdf format and conversion will not be necessary.  This is helpful because you will see the exact way that the .pdf document will be formatted and appear when filed.  Thus, things such as page breaks, etc. won’t be unexpectedly changed as sometimes happens during the conversion process.

 

 

 

STEP 5

 

Click the  button.

 

 

 

STEP 6

 

A dialog box will appear showing a folder and its contents.  Use the  arrow to navigate to the folder where you wish to save the .pdf document.

 

For the training case, we are going to save the document into the “Onassis, Jacqueline” folder.

 

 

 

 

STEP 7

 

Once you have navigated to the correct folder, the document name will already be in the “Name” field and the type will already be .pdf as shown below.

 

 

Click the  button to finish the conversion.

 

 

 

FILE NAME NOTES

 

It may not appear that you have converted your document to .pdf format because the title bar at the top will remain unchanged.  In the example below, the document still ends in .doc and still shows “-Microsoft Word” at the end.

 

 

This is because when you convert a document to .pdf format, you do not delete the original document.  A copy is made of the original document and the copy is converted to .pdf format.

 

So, when you close the word document and go back into your folder, depending upon where you saved the .pdf version, you may have both the original document and a .pdf version of the same as shown in the example below.

 

 

You can, of course keep both versions in the same file folder, but this can be confusing.  You may want to save the .pdf version in a different sub-folder.  You could delete the original word-processed document and save only the .pdf version, but be careful if you decide to do that because it is hard and sometimes impossible to revise a .pdf document.  If you need to make revisions, it is much easier to get back into the original word-processed document and make your revisions and then convert the revised document to .pdf format.

 

NOTE:  When you browse to send this document to the court, be sure that you select the .pdf version of the document, not the original.

 

This icon -  - is the picture that indicates that a document is in .pdf format.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Converting From Within Your Word Processor

 

 

 

STEP 1

 

NOTE:  Depending on the word processor and version, this may not be an option for all users.

 

NOTE:  This method is NOT the preferred method because the .pdf file created will be 10 times larger than the same file created using the previous steps shown.

 

After installing Adobe Acrobat Writer, it may show up in your word processor.

 

 

By clicking either the  Toolbar button or the Acrobat Menu option and “Convert to Adobe PDF” you will get the “Save PDF File As” dialog shown below.

 

 

This is the same box shown in the instructions above, so the same steps will need to be followed as those set out above.

 

 

 

FINAL NOTE

ON FILE SIZES

 

Creating a 6-page PDF document from the MS Word tool button (as pictured below) creates a 206 kb file.

 

           

 

Creating the same 6-page PDF document by printing to the Acrobat PDFWriter printer (as pictured below) creates a 25 kb file…a file size almost 10 times smaller.

 

 

Also, if your word processor has a choice in the file menu “Save as PDF”, do NOT use it.  That method uses the word processor’s internal method to convert the file to .pdf format.  Since the word processor’s internal method is not the method created by Adobe Acrobat, it creates an extremely large-sized file.  The WordPerfect conversion method may produce a file as much as 100 times larger than using the steps shown above depending upon what version of WordPerfect you are using.  You may have trouble with your internet connection timing out when you try to file a large-sized .pdf file.  Also, the judge may have trouble opening such a document to review it.

 

NOTE:  There is currently a 4 MB file size limit per document/attachment.

 

 

 

 

 

Converting With Your Scanner

 

 

 

 

 

See the separate instructions on “Scanning Documents for Attorneys” and the separate “Scanning Guidelines”.

 

 

 

TIPS RE: REVIEW  AND PRINTING OF  THE .PDF PLEADING

 

Conversion to .pdf can change things like the pagination of your document, the fonts used in your document, the spaces of lines in your document, etc.  Once a document has been converted to .pdf format, you may want to open the .pdf version of the document and review it before filing it.  This way, you will see the document exactly as the court will see it.

 

Also, if you are saving a paper copy of the pleading, you may want to open the .pdf document and print it instead of the original word-processed version so that your file copy will exactly match the court’s official copy.

 

 

 

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

 

 

QUESTION:

 

Do I need to use certain fonts when creating my documents?

 

 

 

ANSWER:

 

Testing has shown that 7 fonts (found in both Word 2002 and WordPerfect Version 10 and commonly used to create legal documents) were unaffected by conversion to .pdf format.  The testing was done with documents whose text was 12-point size.  The court recommends that you use one of these fonts to create your pleadings:  Arial, Bookman Old Style, Century Gothic, Courier, Tahoma, or Times New Roman.

 

 

 

QUESTION:

 

I converted a document to .pdf format using Acrobat PDFWriter and the image quality is poor.  What can I do to improve the quality?

 

 

 

ANSWER:

 

Try re-converting the document and use Acrobat PDFDistiller instead of Acrobat PDFWriter.   This will create a larger size file and will convert more slowly, but the quality should be improved.

 

 

 

 

QUESTION:

 

Can I revise a document after it has been converted to .pdf format?

 

 

 

ANSWER:

 

You can make minor revisions (such as substituting one word for another similar length word) using the “Text Tool” in Adobe Acrobat.  However, if you tried to make more major changes, such as inserting a phrase into a sentence, you could run into trouble.  For example, there is no word wrap feature, so if the phrase made the sentence longer than the page width, the ending words would be pushed off the edge of the page and lost.

 

It is usually simpler to make the correction to the original word-processed document and then convert the revised document to .pdf format.