The PDF Blog

Nitro PDF Professional offers a range of ways with which to capture information – from nearly any source – and convert it to PDF for annotation and distribution. Recently, we covered how to share charts from Microsoft® Excel. Now, we’re going to show you how to get your web-based content into a PDF file.

Nitro Pro’s ‘Create from Clipboard’ feature allows you to remove one step from the process, and create a PDF directly from your screen, removing the need to first save a separate HTML- or image-based file.

This feature can be particularly useful when, for example, reviewing your company’s website – updating a form or revising layouts – but it can also be used for capturing the information in a pop-up window from any program, or absolutely anything on your screen at any given time. I use it all the time – often, when writing for this blog! Today, we’re going to focus on using Nitro Pro to capture web-based content.

There are two ways to use Microsoft® Windows’® inbuilt screenshot capture function, which will copy your screenshot to the clipboard:

1. Alt-Printscreen. Holding the ‘Alt’ key and pressing the ‘Printscreen’ key (PrtScn, PrtScr, etc.) will capture the active window – that is, just the window you currently have open.
2. Printscreen. Using ‘Printscreen’ will capture everything on your screen.

In this example, we’ll be looking at a form on the Nitro website.

In the above image, we can see a screenshot captured and the resultant PDF created from it. As you can see, we’ve captured an image of this particular webpage in Nitro Pro, but we may want to exclude some superfluous information, such as the address bar, or perhaps include only the form itself.

We can do this using our original image, in Nitro Pro, using the ‘Snapshot’ feature.

Simply select ‘Snapshot’ and use it to highlight the area you want to capture – in this case, we’re just looking at the form itself.

Once you’ve selected the area you want to include, you can comment, highlight, and mark-up the document for collaboration and distribution. Use a broad range of tools under the ‘Review’ tab.

You may want to rearrange the form’s layout, suggest inserting something new, or draw attention to a particular item. In the example below, we can see the form, with comments, and the Drawing Tool has been used to draw attention to a couple of areas.

Once you’ve finished your review of the document, simply save it, and you’ve instantly got a visual reference, with your mark-up and comments, for the recipient of your PDF file. Using Nitro Pro for this task ensures that the web-based content remains static – unlike, for example, using word processing software – and, your document is clearly marked up for the end recipient.

PrimoPDF is a great free way to convert nearly any file to PDF for safe, secure, and easy distribution. Many people don’t realize that you can do much more than simply create the PDF file, including adding passwords and restricting permissions to edit, view, print and more…

When you open PrimoPDF, there are two options you can select regardless of the type of output (Screen, eBook, Print, Prepress, or Custom)– Document Properties and PDF Security – for this tip, we’ll be focusing on PDF Security.

Once you’ve selected a desired output type, click the Change button in the PDF Security tab.In this window (pictured below), you have a number of options that provide varying levels of security, depending on the intended use and distribution of your PDF file.

1. Password. One of the most basic forms of security, you can set your document to require a password of your selection,upon opening. This comes in handy for an internal document — issue a password to members of your department, or entire company; they can then open it and access the contents in full.
2. Permissions. The permissions settings allow you to select varying levels of access, depending on the type of document.
   1. Password. You can set a separate password (in addition to one required for opening the document) for editing or extracting information from the document.  You may wish to circulate your PDF file amongst a wider audience, allowing them to simply open and view the file, but also allow people within your organization greater access to edit, copy, or print.
   2. Printing.You can control whether or not the document can be printed; and even restrict printing to low-resolution – handy when circulating, for example, architectural plans or design documents.
   3. Changes. Control the level of editing access – ensure documents retain their original order and integrity by preventing the reader from extracting or deleting pages; allow form-filling and signatures; and allow commenting.

   

3. Copying/text access. Check the box next to ‘Enable copying…’ to allow the reader to extract text from the document, or enable text access for screen-reader software so your PDF files are fully-accessible for the visually-impaired.

As you can see, PrimoPDF can do much, much more than just create PDF files. Be sure to check out our next tip on how to add document information to your completed PDF file.

If you’d like complete PDF security capabilities, you might like to check out Nitro PDF Professional’s capabilities.

PDF is often touted as what’s increasingly known as ‘green technology’ – one that helps us reduce our carbon footprint, and – in the case of the ‘paperless office’ – reduce a financial burden. For most businesses, going completely paperless is definitely a challenge, but with desktop PDF software, we can certainly work towards it.

It’s estimated that the ‘average person’ consumes 123 pounds of paper per annum, or; nearly 25 reams of paper.

Of these 25 reams, nearly thirty per cent comes out of our office or home printers – with 500 pages to a ream, the average person is printing somewhere around 3,500-4,000 pages, every year.  That’s 90 pounds of carbon dioxide, for the more scientifically inclined.

Aside from the obvious environmental impact of paper consumption, there’s a fairly substantial business case for trying to reduce it. A ream of standard copy or print paper costs around $5, depending on the quality and quantity purchased. If you have 200 employees, a 35% reduction in printing represents a saving of over $2,500. That’s not even taking into account the reduction in printer cartridge/toner use, reduced storage/archiving requirements, electricity, reduced postal costs, and all that time spent walking back-and-forth to the printer.

It’s estimated that a 10% reduction in global paper consumption would save companies $3.5 billion.

So, next time you decide to print a report for someone, why not use Nitro Pro to create a PDF file and email it? There’s a button for that.

Using too many paper-based forms? Make them faster and easier, to fill and process, by using Nitro Pro’s form-filling capabilities.

Using PDF as a paper-substitute isn’t just good for the environment – it’s good for your bank account. Think about that every time you click ‘print’, or run another stack of paper through the shredder.

Thanks to GreenPDF.com for help with the statistics.

As you’ve likely noticed, we gave the world’s #1 free PDF creator an all-new home last week. We like it, and we hope you do too! The interface has changed dramatically, but the simple, powerful usability of PrimoPDF remains.

Connect, contribute, and get the help you need with PrimoPDF

When we built the new site, we wanted to give you even more ways to shape the development of PrimoPDF, get the help you need to make the most of it, and keep completely up-to-date with the latest news, tips, and tricks.

• Connect with Nitro. We’ve made it even easier to stay in touch. Just look to the bottom of the page at any time, and you can check out the PDF Blog, for the latest in everything PDF; subscribe through Feedburner, so you don’t miss a thing; and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!
• Contribute to PrimoPDF. Just look for the ‘Tell us what you think’ button, to… you guessed it — tell us what you think! Head to the CustomerConnect Feedback Forum to see what others want in Primo, make your own suggestions, and vote on popular requests to help us make Primo even better!
• Sign up to the Newsletter. If you’re reading this in your inbox right now, you can skip this part, but if you’re on the PDF Blog, or reading this somewhere else, you can subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you’re always ahead.
• Get the help you need. The all-new home for Primo help presents the user manual, online, in a functional, easy-to-use fashion – you can also download the printable PDF user guide.

If you’re a business user or developer, you might also like to check out the new PDF enterprise and PDF API sections of the Primo site for a more complete enterprise-level solution.