disinfo Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Hi All, Can anyone reccomend a good free pdf writer for converting office documents to pdf. Im looking for one which can be easily deployed over the network preferably. When i greated the original ghost for the computers in question, i installed PDF995, but I did it really quickly and it doesnt seem to work without allowing full control over its installation directory. Hope someone can help Matt
Geoff Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 OpenOffice can do this. OpenOffice v2.0 comes as an MSI, so you can easily deploy it with AD GPO's. Just run the first stage of the installer to extract everything. http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.1/index-nojs.html
disinfo Posted March 2, 2006 Author Posted March 2, 2006 Thanks, I will look at openoffice as a possible solution, i've been wondering about installiing it for a while now mainly for conversion. Does anyone know off the top of their heads if it opens works docs? Thanks again
webman Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 PDFCreator @ Sourceforge. Installs it as a printer. Even has a server version so you can share it over the network
disinfo Posted March 2, 2006 Author Posted March 2, 2006 PDFCreator, nice one webman. Exactly what i needed, something which just installs and works without thinking. Will still look at openoffice, but as a development thing thanks again
ChrisH Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 I use PDFCreator as well I didnt realise there was a server version as well though
webman Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 @ChrisH: Neither did I until I upgraded a couple of weeks ago
MouseAT Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 I personally use Cute PDF. It's another print driver job. I've not tried deploying it in a network wide environment - at the moment I've only got it installed on my machine. Students here don't need to create PDFs.
ChrisH Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Im failing to see the server version :? Can you just share the main package now?
webman Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Yes, if you get the MSI version, you get the option during setup whether to install it as a server.
Geoff Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Does anyone know off the top of their heads if it opens works docs? Yes. But not directly. See here for more info: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=21448
Norphy Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Its not free but the latest Macromedia Studio suite comes with a PDF writer (Print driver jobby again). Useful to know if you're planning to buy or upgrade Studio.
disinfo Posted March 2, 2006 Author Posted March 2, 2006 Well i've got PDF creator installed on one of the IT suits, i didnt do it as a server i just deployed the MSI, its working really well. Students here need it when creating their DIDA e-portfolios. One thing to note is that when you deploy the MSI via Active directory, the machine reboots after installation.
Geoff Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 That happens with quite a few MSIs. Doesn't really matter. You need a reboot most times for a software installtion policy to apply correctly anyway.
kearton Posted April 8, 2009 Posted April 8, 2009 Yes, if you get the MSI version, you get the option during setup whether to install it as a server. I'm having problems finding an MSI version of PDFcreator. Am I being thick?
kearton Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 I'm having problems finding an MSI version of PDFcreator Does anyone know where I could find one please?
JJonas Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 Not an msi but we are using dopdf. Its small, free, no adverts and just creates PDF's. There are no options to configure and the pdf's are not the smallest but it gets the job done and is ideal for the less ICT able student. see PDF Converter - Convert to PDF free with doPDF
Quackers Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 If your using Microsoft Office 2007, there is a free Save as PDF plugin available from MS. Download details: 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF 1
kearton Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 Unfortunately I *need* an MSI version, and we only have Office 2003 so the 2007 plugin won't work for us either. *pout*
powdarrmonkey Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 (edited) PrimoPDF is pretty painless and is I think it's an MSI wrapped in an EXE, so you can grab it to deploy. Alternatively I use PDFCreator on a print server, and configure it to dump the resulting PDF into the user's home directory with the current date and time on it. Makes it even more foolproof, and no client installation neccessary. Edited April 9, 2009 by powdarrmonkey
OverWorked Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 Another vote for PDFCreator. As it works as a printer driver, it can convert anything that be printed. The resulting pdf file size is smaller than OOo too. I also like the way you can send several files to it, and it can sort them and combine them into one pdf document. OpenOffice is good, but I only use it for converting native OOo docs, as there's often issues with opening MS Office docs in OOo - some fancy formatting features don't come through right.
SYNACK Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 If you are using Office 2007 the free save to PDF add on is great: Download details: 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Should be easy to deploy to by extracting the MSI from the installer with the /extract switch and just deploying the MSI via group policy.
lionsl2005 Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 (edited) Yes its free. PrimoPDF. you can download it by clicking the following link PDF Converter , Free PDF Creator PrimoPDF Edited April 11, 2009 by lionsl2005
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