Google Apps Hacks

42 GOOGLE APPS HACKS

HaCK 15:

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If you need to convert a Word document into a PDF—or one of

many other formats—take it on a trip into and out of Google Docs.

Even if you have no need to store it or edit it on Google Docs, this is

a quick way to generate a PDF!

Google Docs has both import and export functionality. Using the two in combination means that you

can convert documents; for instance, you can upload a Word document and save it as a PDF le.

To upload a Word le, go to the Google Docs home page (http://docs.google.com) and select

Upload. In this example, I’m uploading a Word le containing a story by the Grimm Brothers,

as pictured in Figure 2-14.

The maximum size of an uploaded Word le, including embedded images, was 500 KB at the time of

this writing. If you need to convert a larger Word le, consider installing Adobe Acrobat, the free CutePDF

(http://www.cutepdf.com), or the free OpenOfce.org (http://www.openofce.org), which can also save

documents as PDFs. Mac OS X can create PDFs natively from any application that can print.

After the upload nishes, you’ll be taken to the newly uploaded document. Click the File menu and

select Save as PDF as shown in Figure 2-15. You will now be able to download the PDF, as shown in

Figure 2-16. How well the layout survives the conversion greatly depends on the document. For simple