Ozarks Genealogical Society

Portable Document Format (PDF) files have become the de facto method for publishing everything from utility bills to family histories. This session will look at searching, browsing, printing and creating this type of files for our genealogical research.

PDF was created by Adobe systems in 1993 as a file format that could be used on any system, independent of software or hardware. Graphics, text and fonts are constant in any environment.

Almost everyone uses PDF. Companies have adopted it to send out everything from bills to tax documents. At OGS, we use it to send out the monthly newsletter, to store permanent records (audits, minutes, etc.), and to transfer files for printing. There are also numerous uses for PDF in genealogy. Thousands of family history books are available online at sites such as HeritageQuest. Most genealogy software (Family Tree Maker, Rootsmagic) will export reports in a PDF file. We can store research documents such as census records, and marriage and death certificates in this format.

There are several reasons to use PDF files.

First and foremost is the idea that What You See Is What You Get. All that is needed is a free file reader such as Adobe Reader. We don’t need to worry that the person receiving the file has the same software, e.g. Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop. The document can be created on a Windows PC, and read by someone using Linux or a Mac.

PDF makes information more accessible. As noted above, for example, thousands of books are readily available. Sharing information with other people is much easier than mailing a book, for instance. At home, it’s much easier to pull up a computer file than to search for an individual book or record.

Our information is more portable. You can take all your genealogy research, and your reference library, with you on one flash drive.

Numerous cost savings accrue from using PDF. We don’t have to pay for storing tons of paper. E-mailing a file is essentially free; mailing a book or report is not. Less time is involved in each endeavor.

The information you send is somewhat secure. It’s more difficult to "cut and paste" information from a PDF document than a text file. You can password protect (and encrypt) a PDF file.

Finally, it’s a "green" alternative. Save a tree.

As mentioned above, browsing a document in a PDF file requires only a free reader. Mac computers have the capability built-in. Most Windows users are familiar with either:

Adobe Reader: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Foxit Reader: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

In most instances, clicking on a PDF file will automatically open your reader. As an alternative, you can open the reader, then open the file. Either way you have the document open in a window that can be browsed page by page, jumping to a page, using bookmarks, or whatever is most comfortable.

These files are very easy to search, either for a keyword or a phrase. In the current document, it’s easiest to type what you are looking for in the "find" box and hit "enter." Each time you hit "enter", you are taken to the next instance. You can also start a more advanced search using the "Open Full Acrobat Search" button. This allows you to more closely define what you want to search for. This option also allows searching more than one document at a time; you can search an entire sub-directory.

Clicking the "print" button, or File -> Print, opens up a number of options for printing from a PDF document. You can choose which page(s) to print. You can choose which printer to use. There are many other options such as portrait or landscape, number of pages on a sheet, two-sided printing, and so forth.

Now that we’ve seen how powerful this technology can be, how can we create our own PDF files? There are basically three options.

Many software programs allow you to "print to" a PDF file. Some examples include Microsoft Word 2007, Open Office, WordPerfect, and Family Tree Maker. Rootsmagic has you generate the report. Then when you "Save" the report, you are given the option of either a Rich Text File (RTF) or PDF.

For programs that don’t have the option built in, you can install a "virtual" printer. The two most common are:

PrimoPDF: http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx

PDF995: http://www.pdf995.com/

In either case, go to File -> Print as you normally would, but choose this option instead of a physical printer such as your inkjet or laserjet.

The third option is for documents or photographs that need to be scanned. Once the scanning is complete, most software gives you several options for the type of file. Instead of JPG or whatever, choose PDF. If your software doesn’t give the option of "saving" to a PDF, you can always "print" a PDF file as outlined above.