Library & Technology
Frequently Asked Questions - Adobe Printer
Installing and using the Acrobat PDF printer driver with the Windows 2000 operating system.
Installing the program
a) Go to the Start menu, then up to Install. Select Acrobat printer from the menu to install the program.
b) When the installer finishes, the computer will ask you to reboot. Please select Yes to reboot.
What the installer does
a) It installs a new printer called PDF Creator.
b) It adds an item called "PDF Creator" to the Send To menu item that pops up when you right click on a file.
How do you use the program to create a PDF file?
a) Open or create a document using the standard method (e.g., Wordperfect).
b) On the menu, go to File and choose Print (as you would normally do to print the document).
c) Choose the Acrobat PDF printer as the current printer, then click the Print button.
d) A dialog box will appear asking where to save the file to. Specify the drive letter and folder that you want the file to be stored in as well as the filename that you want the PDF file to eventually end up with. Then click OK. This dialog box may look different in some programs (e.g. Word) but the procedure is the same.
e) After the dialog box disappears, close or minimize the program to get it out of the way. Use Windows Explorer or My Computer to find the file at the location in which you saved it in the above step.
f) Right click on this file, go down to "Send To", and click on "PDF Creator."
g) Wait about a minute, then open the shortcut folder on your desktop called PDF Output. You should see your file listed there, along with a .log file having the same name.
Note: Rendering times can range from 20 seconds for a simple one page document, to several minutes for a complex or multipage document. When you see the .log file appear in the PDF Output folder, you will know that the rendering process is complete.
If you don't see the .log file in PDF Output folder, press F5 occasionally (to refresh the list of files in the folder) until you see the .log file appear.
Important:
Move your .pdf file from the PDF Output folder to another location. The folder will automatically purge .pdf files after 24 hours.
The .log file is worthless and can be deleted.
The Postscript file (that resulted from the print job), found in the location you chose to save it to, can also be deleted.
You will be able to see other .pdf files in the PDF Output folder that belong to other people. Please be sure to delete only your files from that folder.