Create a Pdf Ebook - for a Beginner, by a Beginner

If you are going to create a PDF ebook, you are going to need a software program to help you do this.  This article does two things.  First, the article helps the beginner understand the Adobe software package and how it relates to ebooks.  Second, it provides a free alternative for creating your own PDFs.  Since this was my first attempt at creating a PDF, this article was written for a beginner, by a beginner.

This is my general understanding of Adobe and how this company relates to PDF ebooks.

Adobe Systems created the portable document format (PDF) in 1993.

Adobe Acrobat is a family of computer programs created by Adobe Systems.  According to Wikipedia, they were “designed to view, create, manipulate and manage files in Adobe’s portable document format (PDF)”.

Adobe Reader is one of the programs within the Adobe Acrobat family.  You can download Adobe Reader for free.  This software is used to view and print PDF ebooks.

Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard is the software package needed to create PDF files.  At the time of this writing this package cost $299.00.  (You can also use Pro $449.00 or Pro Extended $699.00).

In summary, if you would like to read PDF ebooks you can download for free, Adobe Reader.  If you would like to create PDF ebooks as well, then you  need to purchase one of Adobes software packages, such as Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard.

Since I know that I would like to create PDF files, I have decided that I will need a software package to do this.  I do not however, want to spend $299.00 to create my first PDF ebook.  Adobe looks like a great product and a package that I may buy in the future, but for my first project, I would like to do this as simply and as cheaply as possible.

OpenOffice

I recently found out about a product called OpenOffice, similar to Microsoft Office.  This is free software which can be downloaded at www.openoffice.org.  I found this product via a “You Tube” video.  After watching the video, I visited the website at instantebookpublishing.com.  The website provides information about ebooks and includes a copy of the video mentioned above.  It’s a great nine minute video that walks you through creating your first PDF with OpenOffice.

I have recently put this product to the test.  I downloaded the software from OpenOffice and used it to create my first PDF ebook.  Creating the ebook took less than an hour following the simple instructions from the video.  Again, this was my first PDF and it took less than an hour.

The PDF included internal links and one external link.  The internal links allowed me to jump from a table of contents directly to the chapter I wanted to read.  The external link was simply a link to my website.  Creating these links were very easy and the video shows you how.

So, I was able to create a PDF ebook at no cost by using the following:
1)  Open Office                 - the word processor allows me to create PDF files.
2)  instantebookpublishing.com  -  nine minute video showing how to use OpenOffice to create a PDF.
3)  Adobe Reader                -  allows me to read the ebook (even though not created with Adobe).

From start to finish, it took less than two hours.

At this point, my PDF ebook is very basic, but since it took me only a couple of hours and I learned a great deal, I am very happy with my results.  I hope you  have the same success.