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Before You Begin 2 Create a New Document 9 Print a Document Adobe Systems, Incorporated designed a special file format called PDF that is readable on the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Many electronic books (often called eBooks ) conform to the PDF format so that Web users can download such books and read them online, save them to their computers for a later reading, or print them on their printers. The problem with the typical file format, such as Microsoft Word's DOC file format, is that Web browsers cannot read these files and they are not supportable on some of the major computing platforms in use today (although usually a plug-in utility program is available for most computers that do allow non-Windows users to read PC-based DOC files). KEY TERM
Writer (and the other OpenOffice.org programs) supports the PDF format in the following way: When you compose your document, you then can save that document in the PDF format. Once your document is in the PDF format, you can distribute it onto the Web, where most users will be able to read your document. Almost all computers sold in the past few years support the use of PDF files. For users of older PCs that cannot yet read Adobe's PDF format, the Adobe Reader is available free for download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html, where the download is quick. Again, almost every computer in use today can read PDF files. So Writer's native capability to save documents in the PDF format gives you the ability to compose documents that most others can read. TIP
Adobe sells Adobe Acrobat, a program that converts documents to PDF format, for several hundred dollars (full retail; wholesale often finds the price still high, at a little more than $300). Writer saves you money!
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