Tip: Cropping PDFs

Did you just create a PDF of a website complete with browser chrome, and then they ask you for the same PDF but without the browser chrome? Instead of cropping the images in photoshop, just do it right in Acrobat. With your PDF open in Acrobat, go to "Tools/Advanced Editing/Crop Tool." Now click and drag where you want to crop the image and then double click inside the crop marks. Your image should now be just what you cropped. Make sure to save the PDF.

Tip: Creating PDFs from the clipboard

I learned something new today. If you need to create a PDF of a website for client review (I know I could just send them a link, but this time they wanted a PDF to review), you can do so easily if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat.

Take a screenshot of your browser by holding down the "alt" key and pressing the "Print Screen" button on your PC keyboard. Then open up Acrobat, and from the File menu choose "Create PDF" and then "From Clipboard Image". After a couple seconds, Acrobat opens a new window with your screeshot in it. Then just save it and your done.

I used to have to take the screenshot, paste it into a new photoshop doc, save a Jpeg, and then create the PDF. It's really nice to find time-saving ways of doing things differently.

Create links in a PDF document to external files or websites

1. Have your PDF opened in Adobe Acrobat Professional. 2. Choose from the top menu – Tools/Advanced Editing/Link Tool 3. You will see crosshairs for a cursor when mousing over your PDF. Click and drag a rectangle over the area you want to link from/be clickable. 4. A “Create Link” dialog window will pop up. In this dialog window, make sure the options are selected like the below image. 5. Next a URL window will pop up. Enter the name of the file you want to link to. Doing it this way ensures that the HTML file we linked to will open in a web browser. If you are linking to a website on the internet, this is where you would enter the full website address. 6. You will see the link highlighted in red while it’s still active and then highlighted in black while the link tool is still active. When you select the default selection tool, these box highlights go away and the link is active. 7. Save your PDF to make the link changes active. Make sure that your presentation PDF and your HTML file and other linked files are all in the same folder so that the links will work properly.