CutePDF

The program itself does the job correctly, but I am far from satisfied with all the bloatware it contains. When installing the pdf printer, I was asked if I wanted to install extra bloatware, which I naturally unchecked. To my surprise, the bloatware was installed despite that I unchecked the boxes during the installation. Luckily, they can be removed afterwards, but it is extremely bad practice to force along bloatware with the installation. Only get this program if you have no other option.

Not only do I love the name of this "CutePDF" application but I love the function of it. The CutePDF writer turns any of my documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints, pictures into PDF files with just the click of my "print" button. There are a couple of CutePDF products on the website but I use only http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp (which is the only free one; there are trial versions of the other products). After you download the Writer application and converter and install/run it, a CutePDF printer is created on your computer (excuse my technical language inability). So whenever you're done with a document on Word, Excel, Powerpoint, whereever, you go to print it using CutePDF printer. Instead of actually printing the document, it's converted into a PDF file, just like that! The whole process, from downloading to creating PDFs is amazingly simple. I find CutePDF very useful when I have to send letters to parents and professionals via email.

[ Edit: Please note that the freeware Writer app now requires that you install the Ask Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Personally I think this is an unacceptable intrusion, but you can delete or turn off the toolbar later. Deletion is always better. And as for Ask.com, how many applications *force* you to install the Google toolbar?]

Cute PDF writer is an excellent piece of free software and does exactly as advertised with no fuss.

Worth mentioning here is the way that this and other PDF conversion apps of the same type get around the problems caused by "fillable forms" that you often find online. These are PDFs with data fields into which you type your content, before printing the whole thing to your printer.

The problem is, fillable forms, once printed, often can't be saved with all your data in there. They will only save as blanks. So if you need to print multiple copies, you have to do the whole lot straight away, and if you don't have a printer but need to use someone else's, you're stuck unless you go to their home or office and fill your forms in there.

CutePDF makes this all go away, because as far as your computer is concerned, it's just another printer. Send a document to it for printing, and it will create a PDF file instead, which you treat as any other PDF file. You aren't obliged to print it now, or at all.

So now, all you need to do to save copies of a filled form, is send it to CutePDF Writer from your Printers menu. You get a form, with all the fields filled out. You can't modify it any more, not with the freeware version, but you can now save it to a flash drive, take it to the library or a friend's house or the office and print the copies out at your leisure.

Apps that use the printer trick are amongst the most useful to have available if you do any document work at all. This one is nowhere nearly the most complex but for most people, it doesn't need to be. It just gets the job done. Recommended.