How to Install the PDF Creator Software:
In order to use the PDF Creator printer, you will need to have that printer available from the list of printers that you can select. If you don’t have that printer name, you can install software to then add that printer. I have provided that software for you (it’s a free piece of software, available from the software maker) two places:
(1) You can usually find the software file, PDFCreator-1_7_3_setup.exe, in our Canvas File Cabinet, then download it to your computer or USB
or
(2) if you can’t find it in Canvas, you can find it on our campus “facweb” under my name “mlockhart” by going to an Internet browser and typing: facweb.northseattle.edu (not FACEweb), press Enter, then find my name (listed under “M”), and click on the link.
In either case (you’ve downloaded the PDFCreator software from the Canvas or you’ve found it in Facweb), once you see the file PDFCreator-1_7_3_setup.exe, click on the file (you may need to double-click), which will then run the pdfcreator installation program.
Choose Run.
Click OK for English.
Then click Next.
Then click on the button to Accept the license agreement.
ClickNext again.
UNCHECK the PDF Architect box by clicking twice on the blue box until the box is empty. (The “Images 2PDF” box immediately above must still stay checked.)
Then click Next.
Now click Install.
The program will ask you if you want to install software that will make Amazon your default search, etc. We do NOT want this, so do the following:
UNCHECK THE TWO BOXES that start with “Make Amazon Smart Search…”
Then click Next.
Then the installation will finish. We don’t need to see the “Help” screen, so Uncheck the “Show Help After Setup” box, then click Finish. You’re done!
Then, when you print, select the PDFCreator printer.
You’ll be prompted to give the document some kind of a name. This isn’t actually saving it – you’ll be prompted for a “real” name in a minute. This just names the “print job” for internal purposes.
Now you will be prompted for the filename that will be saved onto your computer (or USB). Browse to the folder in which you’d like this file saved, then type the desired name. It will automatically assign a .pdf extension, so you don’t have to type “.pdf” in the file name.
PDFCreator will then show you your file in pdf format (though you may be able to set it up so it doesn’t bother with showing it to you. (It will usually show it as a full page – I happen to be displaying mine much smaller.) You have now successfully created a PDF file from whatever you “printed.”