Even if you encounter PDFs on a daily basis, you might not realize just how flexible and versatile this file format can be. To address this and to help you to unlock the true potential of PDFs, here are a few tips and tricks to optimize their use.
Convert PDFs to Different Formats for Added Convenience
If you feel like the data stored in PDFs is locked up tight and is effectively inaccessible, the good news is that there are ways to extract information from them without having to pay for the privilege.
PDF to excel converters like the one available on Clever PDF allow you to quickly change documents from their original format into one which is easier to work with. For example, you might want to create an Excel spreadsheet based on the tables contained within a PDF, which is entirely possible to achieve in no time. You can even adjust settings to ensure that the output file is set up to your specifications before conversion takes place, saving you even more time and hassle.
Turn Web Pages into PDFs for Easy Exporting
Rather than messing around with screenshots and image files when you are aiming to save a specific webpage for professional or personal use, it is simpler to translate online content into a PDF so long as you are using Google’s Chrome browser.
All you need to do is hit the CTRL key and P at the same time if you are on a Windows-powered PC, or the command button and P for Mac users, while you have Chrome open on the webpage you want to save. This will bring up the printing menu. Selecting “Save as PDF” from the drop-down menu will let you create a comprehensive file from any page you please, which could be desirable in a whole range of scenarios.
Compress PDFs to Save Space
Larger PDFs which contain a lot of pages or are filled with more complex content can become unwieldy, either limiting the amount of room you have to work with on your computer or potentially creating problems when you come to share them with others.
This is where a compression program like 7-Zip can be helpful, as this will work not only with PDF files but with a range of other formats, making them more compact and thus far more portable.
Translate PDFs in Seconds
PDFs can be written in almost any language, which may mean that you are unable to interpret the contents of a particular document if it was originally penned in a different tongue than your own.
In this case, heading to Google Translate will be the quickest solution, as this not only allows you to translate everything from single sentences to entire websites, but also lets you upload documents in a range of formats for translation, including PDFs.
As you can see, you can do a lot more with PDFs than it first appears, so you should never feel restricted if you need to use this document type.
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