OS X Mountain Lion Portable Genius

Opening and Saving PDFs in Preview

PDF files have become a standard document format that almost anyone who uses a computer has seen at some point. Most documents on the Internet are PDF files. Anyone on any computer can open PDFs, whether the computer runs OS X, Windows, or Linux, as long as a PDF reader application, such as Preview or Adobe Reader, is installed.

Preview can open many types of files (see Chapter 12 for a comprehensive list), but this chapter maintains a laser-like focus on PDFs. To open a PDF file in Preview, do the following:

1. From within Finder, choose Go→Applications and then double-click the Preview icon to open the application. You could also launch Preview from Launchpad.

2. The Open window will appear. You have the option of choosing to browse for files that are stored locally or in iCloud (if you have enabled your iCloud account): Click either the iCloud or On My Mac button in the upper left of the window. If the Open window doesn’t appear, choose File→Open or press +O to display the Open dialog.

3. Browse to the file you want to open, click its icon to highlight it, and then click Open, as shown in Figure 7.1.

7.1 Choose the file you want to open in Preview.

If the Preview icon is in your Dock (either because it’s already open or because you keep ...