How to Make a PDF File

Download PDFChef onto your computer; it will be saved in the Downloads folder by default. Run the downloaded executable and install it by following the on-screen instructions.

To create a PDF file from scratch, click Ctrl + N or click New in the tools list. The program will automatically create a blank document.

Click Edit on the toolbar to switch to the Edit mode. Choose the Text option from the drop-down. Move the insertion point to the beginning of the document, click the left mouse button, and, in the text box that appears, type the title.

Once in the Edit mode, click Text, position the pointer where you want to place the text, and just start typing. Newly inserted text is fully editable – you can change the font, style, and size using the options under Font in the right-hand panel.

Click the Image button on the drop-down list. In the dialog box that opens, locate the image you want to import and click Open.

When all your edits are complete, click the Save button (the floppy disk icon) on the toolbar or just press Ctrl + S (Cmd + S for Mac). The dialog box lets you choose where to save the new file and how to name it.

To assemble multiple images into one PDF file, first, download and install the software on your PC or Mac.

Launch the application and choose Merge from the tools list at the bottom of the window.

In the dialog box that appears, select the files for uploading into the document and click Merge.

To save the new PDF, click the floppy disk icon on the toolbar or use the Ctrl + S (Cmd + S for Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut.

If you don’t need to create a PDF from scratch, you may want to just turn your Word, Excel or other file into a PDF. It’s easy to transform documents into PDFs. Using PDFChef by Movavi, you can easily create a PDF from JPG or from a Word document.

Download PDFChef from this web page. Double-click the downloaded file to start the software installation.

Run the program and click Convert in the lower-right corner of the program window.

Drag and drop the files you want to turn into PDFs into the workspace – the program will automatically identify the format of the files. The output format will be automatically set as PDF.

Click Convert, select the target folder, and wait for the program to transform the files into PDFs. When your files are ready, you’ll see a dialog box. The files are automatically saved to the folder you chose. But if you want to open them in the program right away, click Open.

You can use Word, Pages, or pretty much any other word processing software in order to create a new file that you can then turn into a PDF using PDFChef online.

Visit PDFChef and choose which option you need to turn your document into a PDF. You can convert Word documents or PPT documents into a PDF online using Movavi’s online tool.

Online PDF converter

For example, if you want to convert a Word file into a PDF, select the Word to PDF option on PDFChef.

Choose the file you wish to upload to PDFChef from your computer, you can click and drag into the uploader or click Choose File and search your computer using a dialog box. The tool will then start to convert the file to the required extension.

It’s as simple as that. Click Download File and the new file will be saved in the "Downloads" folder of your computer by default. Here, you can rename or move the file if required.

If you need to edit the PDF file, you can also use PDFChef to do this. The simple online tools allow you to combine multiple PDFs into one document, extract pages to save as a separate file, rotate the pages of a PDF, reorder the pages in the document, remove one or more pages from the PDF.

The upload process is the same as creating a new PDF, from here, you can follow simple on-screen instructions to delete or edit the required pages.

Once you upload a multi page PDF, PDFChef will bring up a window showing you each of the pages. You can click one of the pages, and select editing tools including Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Delete, and even Add Files if you want to add additional pages. This allows you access to a full PDF editing suite right within your browser, for free. When you are done, simply press Save and Download to generate your new version of the document.

If you are a Windows user, you can make a PDF using Microsoft Word. If you are starting from scratch and creating your document within Word, it is easy to save it as this file format, allowing you to share it with any other user with Adobe^® Acrobat^® or Adobe^® Reader^® software. Microsoft Word is free software that comes included with the Microsoft operating system. The following steps allow you to create your PDF in Word without using third-party software.

You don’t need to do anything specific when starting your text document to tell the software you are making a PDF. Fill your document with images and text as you ordinarily would.

Click the Office button and hover to the Save As button. You should select PDF or XPS. From here, you will be able to choose PDF in the Save As Type drop-down list of file extensions.

Open the file after publishing your new PDF. You will be able to do this if you have any form of PDF reader such as Adobe^® Reader^®. The next option is choosing between Standard or Minimum size. Minimum gives a lower file size, whereas Standard gives more quality for printing and sharing. On the Options tab you can set the right print options for you.

Click Publish in the reader to finalize the PDF creation. You will be able to select a destination folder where the PDF will be published. If you find that you need to make any changes in the future, you won’t be able to do this in the PDF reader, as this is just for displaying the PDF itself. Instead, you can go back to the original Word document to make these alterations.

After these steps, you are free to share your PDF, attach it to emails, upload it, and save it wherever you need to.

If you are a Mac user, you won’t find Microsoft Word installed on your machine by default, but there are still ways to create a PDF on a Mac. Some Mac users find it hard to get their hands on good software, as a lot is made for Windows only. Luckily, PDFChef by Movavi has a Mac version which is just as simple as intuitive. If you are making a PDF document from scratch on Mac, this is one way you can avoid having to open numerous pieces of software in order to create the PDF.

Learn more about PDFChef for Mac

If you need to create the document from scratch on a Mac without using Movavi, there are some steps you can follow below.

If you want to make a document from scratch then you can use a piece of software such as Pages on your Mac. This is similar to Microsoft word. When you finish, go to File and then Save As. You can save as a .PDF file. If you already have a document in a format you wish to save as a PDF then don’t worry about Step 1. You can follow the rest of the steps.

Preview is like Mac’s version of Adobe^® Reader^®. It comes free with your Mac. It can open many kinds of files including PDFs and virtually every type of image file. If Preview is not the automatic program to open the document, you can right-click on the document and select Open With, and then Preview.

Within Preview, click on File in the main menu, and then Print. You’re not printing the document on a printer, but this is the same menu that allows you to create your PDF. Click the PDF pop-up menu and then Save as PDF.

From here, a window will open allowing you to create file Title, Author, Subject and even add Keywords to the document. This makes it easier to search your PDF using the Mac Spotlight feature.

You can also optionally set a password. If you need to do this, click Security Options and then add a password. This means when you send the document to someone, you will need them to enter the password to access it. Most of the time, you won’t need this extra layer of security.

Pressing print will create the PDF, saved in the folder you have specified. Your document should now be ready to share and distribute as required.