Working with a PDF document can be significantly easier and more convenient that working with an original document created in a program such as Microsoft Word.

If you’re working in the legal profession, and you need to exchange documents with clients or other lawyers, a PDF provides several advantages. For example, for a digital document to be admissible in court, that document needs to be in a format that cannot be altered without leaving a digital record of what changes were made.

The human resources department of any company provides prospective and current employees with a variety of documents, forms, and other paperwork. Additionally, a business can create brochures, training manuals or even invoices and forward a PDF file. While the original source document may have been created in Microsoft Word, it’s far more efficient to send copies as a PDF file. This eliminates compatibility issues that may arise due to different versions of Word, missing fonts or different operating systems, such as Mac or Windows, or iOS and Android. There are multiple tools like soda PDF available in the market which can help you anyway.

Here’s five reasons why you should distribute PDF documents rather than an original.

  1. Retain formatting. You may be using special fonts and formatting.
  2. Platform agnostic. PDF can be read on any device and operating system, including mobile and tablets.
  3. Security. You may want people to only read your document, and not change the content of your PDF. Plus, you can easily password-protect a PDF document.
  4. Multiple versions of software. People receiving your document may not have the latest version of Microsoft Word, which means it’s possible the document can’t be accessed. This isn’t an issue when using PDF.
  5. Free PDF readers. There’s a wide-variety of free PDF readers available for every operating system and platform.

How to Create a PDF on Mac

  1. Open the document
  2. Select File > Print
  3. Choose the PDF popup menu and select “Save as PDF”
  4. Choose a name and location for the PDF file. Enter the information you want in the Title, Author, Subject, and Keywords fields.
  5. Select Save

Apple makes it very easy to create a PDF from any type of software program by mimicking the same steps you would take to print a document. The process is baked into the operating system.