Which applications will open PDF documents?

Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that captures all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that can be viewed, navigated, printed, or forward to someone else whatever the platform they use.

Several applications may open Adobe PDF files, typically these are:

Google Chrome (view only)

Microsoft Edge (default in Windows 10, view only)

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (reader and form-filling)

Adobe Acrobat DC (full editor, if licensed)

Selecting the default application for opening PDFs

In Windows 10, by default PDFs are set to open in Microsoft Edge, this option can / should be changed simply by selecting a PDF file in your saved documents, right-clicking on the file, and from the menu pop-up selecting Open With and select Adobe Reader

Opening PDF email attachments

If you receive an email containing a PDF as an attachment, select the default application as above before trying to open the attachment.

Using Adobe Acrobat DC (if available)

Note that all versions of Word can create PDF documents, simply Save As and select PDF as the file type. Any large or complex documents should be created in Word and then converted to PDF for publication. Always ensure that the original Word document is retained as converting PDF files back to Word can be very error prone.

Adobe Reader supports reading and form-filling of existing PDF forms, whilst Adobe Acrobat DC can be used for making small edits to existing documents, creating forms, or manipulating / automating multiple PDF files. The license is however expensive, so you may have to request a licence from IT.

Assuming you have a licensed version of Acrobat DC on your computer, then you can open Adobe Acrobat DC from the Start menu.

Once opened, on the main screen select Tools….

And select Create PDF…

From here you can create a PDF from any file format. You can choose to create a

• A single document

A single document takes a normal document similar to the method used in Microsoft word and converts the file into a PDF

• Multiple files

Allows you to combine several files into one PDF, or allows you to convert multiple files into PDFs at the same time

• Scanner

Allows you to scan a document and to convert it automatically into a PDF useful for older files that may not have an electronic version available to use.

• Web page

Takes a website and convert the sites content into a PDF

• Clipboard

Will place images into a PDF file format

• Blank page

Will create a blank PDF

You can also export a PDF from Adobe Acrobat DC into another file format using the export function. To do this open Adobe Acrobat and select tools from the menu and then select Export

From the export menu you can export the PDF in a variety of different formats depending on the formatting in the PDF

The file format you can export a PDF as:

• Microsoft word in either Word Document or Word 97-2003 Document
• Spreadsheet in either Microsoft Excel Workbook or XML Spreadsheet 2003
• Microsoft PowerPoint as a PowerPoint Presentation
• Image in these formats JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF and PNG

• HTML web page in either single or multiple HTML pages

• More Formats as either Rich Text Format, Encapsulated Postscript, Postscript, Text (Accessible), Text (Plain) and XML 1.0

After you select Export you will be given the option to save the new file in the same folder the PDF has come from or you can select a new folder to save the document to