Word to PDF and vice versa

I was having breakfast with my son recently at a local restaurant. There was a man, sitting in the next booth, asking questions of his young breakfast companion about Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF files. This was obviously his grandson, and despite the older gentleman's best effort, he could not get the answer he wanted.

Maybe if he understood that Word and Adobe were created for different purposes. Their interaction was originally in one direction. From Word to PDF. No one expected that we would want to convert both ways and back and forth.

Microsoft Word was originally created to replace the functions of a typewriter, with the added capability to edit and change the resulting document, on the screen before it was printed.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It created a two-dimensional document in a device-independent, fixed-layout. Its purpose was to allow you to send the large documents electronically to someone. They received a copy of what you had on your screen when you typed it, but without the ability to alter it.

PDF is a very commonly used format across the Internet. The Adobe Acrobat reader is freely available on a variety of platforms, meaning that PDF documents can be viewed in exactly the same way across all these platforms.

By contrast, Microsoft Word documents can only be viewed on platforms that support Microsoft Word.

So to help this poor guy at breakfast; here's an answer, without knowing his question, since he could not verbalize it. "It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish."

1. If you want to send someone a flyer or brochure, then you would send a PDF. The person receiving it will not alter it, only print it or display it.

2. If you want to send someone a contract, and you want them to make changes, then you will send a MS Word document.

3. If you have a MS Word Document, and want to convert it to a PDF, then you need a "Free downloadable PDF conversion program." Type that phrase in your browser and it will lead you to some of them.

4. If you have a PDF document and want to convert it to a Word document, there are not as many free downloads because it is a lot more complicated, but you can find one the same way.

Now you understand why this poor fellow was struggling. He could not explain what he wanted, and the young person really had no reason to understand. Most young people are computer literate but don't spend their days sending and converting word documents back and forth to PDF.

If the man had asked about an MP3 file, the kid would have been a hero.