PDF - What's so great about it?

PDF is Portable Document Format.  Documents rendered in this format look the same as they do in the software they were created in.  PDF documents are viewable in PDF readers like Adobe - so if you print your Word  document to PDF and send it to someone else, they will be able to read it as long as they have a PDF reader.

I'm a big fan of PDF.  It saves me time, effort and real estate.  Plus the tools are free.    For example, I get all my household bills and bank statements online.  I print or save them to PDF and store them on my hard drive.  I pay all my bills online and save the transaction records to PDF.  PDF editing software lets me make the notations on them that I used to make with a pen.  The benefits I see are that everything is put away at the same time I finished dealing with it, it's in one place, I don't have to open and sort a bunch of envelopes or futz with the paper and paper filing.  I use a simple filing system to stow all this stuff on my hard drive - it's the same as the one I had in my filing cabinet, only I like it better because it's easier to use and takes up less space.   And if I misfile it, the Windows search function will find it for me.

I should mention that my office systems are not paperless, but they do use less paper.

I'm always surprised that PDF isn't used more by businesses and folk in general.  As I mentioned, the tools are free and there are big gains to be had in terms of efficiency and cost savings.  A complete overhaul of existing processes is not required to realize benefits - there are always one or two key places PDF can be incorporated into a business systems, or into your household  where it will make immediate improvements.   After that, other applications for it seem to suggest themselves.  In my next post, I'll discuss some ideas on how PDF can be used in businesses for the same benefits and considerable cost savings as well.