January 21, 2010

You Can’t Change Me! Using PDFs in Business

Posted to Adam Stuart

While the title to this post might be a little misleading as to what I’m talking about it actually makes quite a bit of sense. For the past few years as I’ve been working in Property Management and Real Estate transactions I’ve become very acquainted with the popular PDF file. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF’s are great because they are not easily manipulated, they are relatively small (making them great to send as attachments in emails), and almost everyone that owns a computer has some type of PDF reader. The fact that the document can’t be altered is one of the biggest reasons we love them… hence “you can’t change me!”

There are expensive programs that you can purchase that allow the user to do all sorts of crazy things with a PDF file. I’ve seen programs that allow you to highlight, put in captions, bookmarks, comments, change the colors, create hyperlinks, etc. While these perks are interesting I don’t have a need to use them often. That said, I can’t justify spending several hundred dollars just so I can highlight a section of a PDF.

Awhile back I did some quick searching for a cheaper way to create a PDF from a word processing document. Cnet’s www.download.com has become a place for me to search for the latest and greatest, free or cheap software. While looking around I stumbled across a program called PDF reDirect. EXP Systems LLC created both a free and professional version of PDF reDirect. I have had the free version installed on my laptop for about a year and use it almost daily. The free version allows the user to create a PDF from just about any type of file. I have had success in creating PDF’s from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Publisher, Google Docs, WebPages, images, screenshots, etc. I love this program. The professional version costs only $19.99. It adds quite a bit of functionality to the free version. On EXP System’s website they have a comparison chart where all the differences between the free and paid version are listed. You can see that chart by clicking here.

As a Realtor® I often need to send offers, rental applications, lease agreements, etc. that have all kinds of sensitive information within the document. As we know not all email is secure. One of the best features that PDF reDirect offers is a way to encrypt (password protect) sensitive documents. I am now confident as I send emails because the recipient and I have established a password that must be entered before the file can be displayed.

To download the free versions of this program please click here. If you know of any other programs that might be helpful please let me know. If you have problems installing or using PDF reDirect I’d be happy to help. I can be reached at adam@welchrandall.com or on my cell (801)388-3035.

Posted By: Adam Stuart

Tagged With: homes in northern utah, northern utah real estate, pdf, pdf creating programs, secure documents and using pdfs in business

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