Some faculty have expressed a desire to have documents such as syllabi and assignments to be in a read-only format instead of a word processing format, so when downloaded from Blackboard, Moodle, or web sites, they cannot be edited or accidentally changed. This could also be true of student submissions.

One solution is to convert such documents to PDF format. (See here for info on size and scanning from paper.)

Mac OS

Mac OSX has built-in support for creating PDF files from any application.

• In any application, from the menu bar choose File > Print
• When the Print box comes up, click the PDF button at the bottom left
• Choose Save as PDF then enter filename and location you want and click Save

Windows XP

Windows has no built in support for creating PDF files. You will have to install an application to do this.

We recommend a free utility called CutePDF Writer. It is good at turning files such as Word and PowerPoint documents into PDFs.

How To Get It

Download Cute PDF Writer here. Follow the instructions on the page how to install it Note: You must be an administrator of the computer in order to do this. If it’s your personal machine, you shouldn’t need to worry.

How To Use It

To turn a document into a PDF, open the file you want to turn into a PDF in the application you are using, such as Word.

1. On the menu bar, choose File > Print.
2. When the print box comes up, select the printer called “CutePDF Writer”.



3. Then click the Print button and a box will come up prompting you to choose a place to save your PDF and to give it a name. Once you’ve done that, hit Save to create the PDF version of your document.