How to Create PDF Ebooks -- Quickly and Cheaply

If you're rolling in money -- and you're certain that your ebook is worth the investment -- then you can always consider Adobe's original Acrobat PDF software. It does have all the bells and all the whistles -- but it also has a hefty $450 price tag.

Fortunately for the rest of us, there are some cheaper (and, indeed, easier-to-use) options available.

Here are a few to consider...


Open Office
The Open Office suite is a free alternative to Microsoft's Office suite and can be downloaded at OpenOffice.org. The text editor includes a built-in PDF converter -- and is VERY easy to use.

While it doesn't have EVERY option in the book (if you'll pardon the pun), it still does the job -- and will be good enough for the vast majority of users. And, if you're a bit of a perfectionist, then grab a copy of Frank Haywood's Perfect Ebook Tutorial. It shows you exactly how you can turn your average (boring looking?) PDF into a mean, clean and professional-looking thing of beauty using the Open Office converter.


PDF995
This one has quite a few more features than the Open Office option -- although it can seem a little 'clunky' to use until you get the hang of it.

It works by installing itself as a virtual printer on your PC -- except it 'prints' PDF documents to your hard drive rather than printing paper documents in your printer.

You can download the software for free at PDF995.com. The free version features some popup ads during the PDF conversion process -- but you can disable these by paying $9.95 for the full version. (Hence the name.)

Note: Those ads only happen while compiling the PDF -- they won't show up when you're actually reading it.

eWriter PRO
This is my personal favorite but, seeing as I sell it myself, you might consider my opinion to be biaised.

Having said that, I really DO like it...

eWriter Pro (which is available for $10 at Create-PDF-Files.com) is a stand-alone desktop software that's specifically designed for making PDFs. It has its own built-in text editor that you can use to write your text. (You can also paste in your existing text from your favorite text editor.)

It's got a nice, user-friendly interface that has lots of pretty buttons to do things like insert hyperlinks, images, page numbers as well as format text, add headers/footers and so on. (See pic above.)

It also stores all your ebook projects in one central location so you can come back and work on them at your convenience.

There are plenty other options available...

These is just a small sample of the options available.

If you run a search on Google for something like PDF compiler or PDF converter, you'll find a dizzying array of options -- with varying features and varying degrees of user-friendliness.

And finally...

If you own a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 (or newer), there's a PDF add-on available for that.

Take a look at the short video below to see how it works.

Okay, so there you have it -- just a few of the options available when it comes to turning your text into a ready-to-go PDF ebook.

Take a look at my other Lenses for more about creating and distributing ebooks. I'm only getting warmed up, so there's plenty more to come.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment below.

All the best,

Michael



Michael Hopkins
EbookTimes.com
Public-Domain.us
TotalResale.com