Pretty PDF's

What do uniforms, letterhead and PDF's have in common?

They are all indicators of credibility.

What???

On a busy street, how do you tell who are police and who are not? The uniform. When you wander through a book store, you most definitely judge the books by their covers.

Until recently, businesses used letterhead for all commercial correspondence. In 1975, no one would trust an accountant who sent letters on plain white paper. Any credible business needed to have letterhead.

Does a uniform make a difference to how well a police officer arrests criminals? Is a lawyer's decision better if written on letterhead? The answer is clearly no. These are only indicators but indicators that customers use to make decisions.

Your electronic documents do the same. A Microsoft Word document by email is no different than submitting your RFP written in pencil on lined paper.

Think of the documents you receive. When someone sends you .doc or .xls file it feels unfinished -- and really, it is. With the growing popularity of free software like Open Office and Google Docs you can no longer be sure the recipient uses Microsoft software.

When you create a PDF you create a stable document. It will maintain its appearance no matter who opens it and no matter what computer they use. It will also print with considerably more consistency. And possibly most important, your document as a PDF will give your reader an initial impression you cannot get with a native file. Only professional companies take the time to create professional looking PDF's.

Most new software will allow you to export or save as a PDF. But if you are like many people, you still have some older software that does not have a native PDF creator.

Not ready to cough up US$450 for Adobe Acrobat to create PDF's? No problem. You can get a free program called PrimoPDF. I have been using it for a few months and it works great.

When you install it, it will show up as a printer on your computer. To create a PDF, you do the same as if you were printing: select PrimoPDF and click print. A dialogue box will open, select your options and presto!, you have a PDF.

Once you start using PDF's, you will notice those business partners who don't and be glad you are now giving the right impression.