How to use pdf files

Last Updated: November 1, To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 28, times. Learn more PDF stands for portable document format. It is a format used to present documents in a way that is independent of application software, hardware, or operating systems. This means that it is a format that can be used in any operating system.

Luckily, the way you use a PDF is very similar throughout the popular operating systems like Mac and Windows. To learn how to use a PDF file, read it or print, see step 1.

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Buy PDFelement right now! Margarete Cotty. Try It Free. Margarete Cotty chief Editor. Other Popular Articles From Wondershare. Let's say you create a newsletter in Microsoft Word and share it as a. Unless everyone has Microsoft Word installed on their computers, there's no guarantee that they would be able to open and view the newsletter. And because Word documents are meant to be edited, there's a chance that some of the formatting and text in your document may be shifted around.

By contrast, PDF files are primarily meant for viewing, not editing. One reason they're so popular is that PDFs can preserve document formatting , which makes them more shareable and helps them to look the same on any device.

Sharing the newsletter as a PDF file would help ensure everyone is able to view it as you intended. Opening and viewing a PDF file is pretty simple.

Most modern web browsers will open PDF files directly in your browser window instead of downloading them to your computer. If your browser can't do this, it should prompt you to download the file instead.