PDF Document Management Software, Services & Support

Why Send a PDF?

Thursday, April 1, 2004

by Duff Johnson

Introduction

There are lots of reasons to think about the files you email to other people. Of course, first and foremost, you want to know that they can read the file when they receive it. That's a good place to start - and a good reason to start with PDF.

Dependability

When you make a PDF file and view it, you know that page will appear exactly the same way to your recipient. No guessing about page-breaks. No worries about table formatting. If it looks good to you, it will look good to them too.

No Viruses!

Unlike some OTHER file formats, PDF files are almost never a concern when it comes to viruses, spyware, or any of the other nasty concoctions that float through your browser. A PDF is pretty straight-forward. Anything else is there by design of the author - so you basically have nothing to worry about.

Small file size

Entire networks are slowed by the passage of email and rapidly ballooning email attachments. Heedless of bandwidth, many users throw unwanted and unneeded megabytes of Power Point and Word and JPEG and TIFF files out into the email servers of the world... many of which choke and groan under the pressure. IT administrators have responded by limiting or prohibiting email attachments... but this just means bounced emails, frustration and lost time.

With PDF, the document creator may choose a preferred level of image-quality, then make the smallest possible file for that document. It's as simple as that.

Built-In Functionality

One of the great things about PDF are the built-in navigation features that are easy to add and use. Bookmarks are invaluable for longer documents, and handy for short ones too. Hyperlinks get users back to a website. And form-fields allow you to type directly onto a form.

PDF has immense power, and small improvements to the way PDF files are created and used can mean tremendous savings in time and effort.

Originally posted on planetpdf.com