Dr. Mac's OS X Tip-of-the-Day  

The Doctor shows how to make a PDF using almost any application in Mac OS X without spending a dime.

Did you know you can create a PDF file in OS X from any program that can print, without any third-party software (i.e. no need for Acrobat)? And it's so easy once you know how, you'll use it often. Just choose Print in your application, then click the menu that says "Copies & Pages" and choose Output Options. This panel lets you save whatever you are "printing" as a PDF file instead.

This is the ultimate solution for sharing your files with people who don't have the application that created the file. And the PDF file will work perfectly on almost any platform or operating system.

You can also click the "Preview" button on the Print dialog box (but usually not Print Preview in the application's File menu, whihch some applications offer). OS X will open the file in the Preview application (or Acrobat Reader,, if you've configured your system so PDFs open in Acrobat as I have). The point is that either program allows you to Save the document as a PDF file.

This works with any application that prints in OS X and is brought to you by the Quartz graphics layer of OS X, absolutely free of charge.

To discuss this tip (or anything you like) in Dr. Mac's OSXFAQ Forum, click here:

Bob LeVitus is a leading authority on Mac OS and the author of 38 books, including Mac OS X For Dummies and The Little iTunes Book.