How to Save Any File as a PDF (on a Mac)

Printing to a PDF is a very useful computer skill to know. Printing to a PDF allows you to create essentially a virtual piece of paper of whatever it is you’re trying to print. Making this apart of your daily work-flow will save you money (on paper and ink) and time (keeping physical papers neat and organized.)

Step One:

File > Print

Bring up the Printing Menu on your computer. Do this by selecting the ‘File’ option from the Menu Bar and then selecting ‘Print’ from the drop down menu. Like the illustration below.

Step Two:

Once you select ‘Print’ you should see a menu that looks something like this.

Or this.

Now click the button at the bottom left of the menu that reads ‘PDF.’

Step Three:

There will be a drop-down menu that looks like this.

Select the option ‘Save as PDF.’

Step Four:

Finally all you have to do is Save your file. You should see a menu like this:

Name your PDF file at the top of the menu. You can ignore the portion of the menu that says “Title,” “Author,” “Security Options,” etc. Find where on your computer you would like to save the PDF and click the ‘Save’ button on the bottom right.

And you’ve just saved your first PDF file!

This technique can be used literally with anything on your computer you could print to a paper. You can save text files, your homework assignment, website pages, or even this blog post!

Why would you ever want to use this technique?

• You can save a web page to your laptop for later viewing when you might not have internet access.

• This is a great way to collect various receipts for purchases while on the web.

• PDFs can be read on any computer be it Mac, Windows, or something else.

• You can highlight, copy/paste, and use the search function on the text in a PDF, unlike a piece of paper.

• You save money on ink and paper.

• It’s also great for the environment!

“Nerdy Trivia”

• PDF Stands for ‘Portable Document Format.’

• This file format was created by Adobe Systems in 1993.

• You can view PDFs on your iPhone or iPad as well!

Any questions or want to request a bite-size tutorial? Leave a comment below.

I hope you found this tutorial useful and thanks for reading.