PDF files

[Dave]

Why do people use these?.. is there something i'm missing out on..?

[drpellypo]

It's because you can't edit them per se. Also means you don't have to worry what office version ppl have etc. Viewer is free on t'net. Also the compression is very high, so takes up less space.

[Rachel]

Cross platform portability. Size (usually smaller than the originating documents), and you also only need to have a reader to view the document. This means you, for example, do not need all of Microsoft Office installed to read documents or look at PowerPoint presentations if they are converted to PDF.

The latter (PPT->PDF) is something Cisco does well with its presentations and documentation.

You can also generate PDF files so no one can easily plagarise your work - not a bad thing in my work experience...

[drpellypo]

That's exactly what i said!

[Sparky]

Adobe were in the right place, at the right time. The reader is buggy, slow and the format isn't great, but they've populated a massive amount of users/browsers so new formats will struggle to get in. The file size of a PDF isn't always smaller than the original document, but most often it is.

They are good for security of maintaining the original document however.

[Dave]

OK.. that all makes good sense..

but if you have acrobat porfessional can you open it in that and then edit?

[Sparky]

Yes, if the document hasn't been passworded, and the author hasn't prevented editing rights on the file.

[drpellypo]

Yes and no. Depends whether the doc has been set as read only or not.

[Dave]

Right!!.. so you get the option to make it read only!!

Anyway around that?

[Sparky]

Yes. You can crack the password if you wish, but it's not easy. There are products out there, such as this one, that will attempt it for you.

http://www.crackpassword.com/products/prs/othersoft/pdf/

There are limits to this software, as quoted from their website:

[ QUOTE ]

Please note that APDFPR doesn't work with documents which have user-level passwords (preventing the files from being opened), if both user and owner passwords are unknown; and PDF files protected with any 3rd party security plug-ins such as FileOpen.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Mac]

I'm surprised Dave has any time at all to look at PDF files with all the ****ing he's been doing over the last couple of days

[Sparky]

[Dave]

[ QUOTE ]

I'm surprised Dave has any time at all to look at PDF files with all the ****ing he's been doing over the last couple of days

[/ QUOTE ]

That's probably why i'm so tired.. there just isn't enought blood for me and my cock

[Philbes]

You don't need MS office to look at a Powerpoint presentation, a Word document or a Excel spreadsheet. Free viewers are available on the Microsoft web-site and from anyone who has the Office CD.

[Sparky]

I'd have thought you'd only need a few litres, no?

[Dave]

[ QUOTE ]

I'd have thought you'd only need a few litres, no?

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell you what!, i'd be seriously fecked without a spleen

[danksy]