You can also export documents to a PDF file.
PDF files can be viewed on virtually any computer, provided that a suitable PDF viewer is installed there (for example, Adobe Reader). All formatting and objects (pictures, drawings, etc.) of the document are retained exactly as in the original file.
To export a document to a PDF file, proceed as follows:
| 1. | Choose the ribbon command File | PDF export  . |
| 2. | A dialog box appears. Make the desired settings there (see below) and confirm with OK. |
| 3. | Now another dialog box appears. Enter a file name under which you want to save the PDF file and confirm with OK. |
The PDF file will then be created. To view it, open the PDF file in a PDF viewer of your choice.
Tip: If no viewer application for PDF documents is installed on your device, simply search for "PDF viewer" using your web browser. You will find numerous suitable programs, many of which are free.
In the dialog box of the above command, you can make the following settings for the PDF export:
General tab
On this tab, you can specify whether to output only parts of the document and make other settings. The options are similar to the command File | Print described in Printing a document.
In addition, the following options are also available:
▪Create a bookmark for each worksheet
| If this option is enabled, PlanMaker automatically creates a bookmark in the PDF file for each worksheet that your document contains. |
| Your PDF viewer will then display these bookmarks in a pane to the left of the document. You can use this pane like an interactive table of contents: Just click on one of the bookmarks to instantly jump to the corresponding worksheet in the PDF file. |
| Tip: If your PDF viewer does not display this pane, search for a command for displaying bookmarks in it and enable it. |
▪Create tagged PDF
| If this option is enabled, information about the logical structure of the document will also be saved in the PDF file. |
| This information ensures that your PDF files are accessible for the disabled and can also be used, for example, with PDF viewers that reproduce or read aloud the document content in Braille. |
▪Reset (see "Reset" button at the end of this section)
Preferences tab
On the this tab, you can make settings for the output quality:
▪AutoShape options
| Here, you can set the resolution (i.e., number of pixels) in which AutoShapes and all other types of drawings are exported. The higher the resolution, the larger the generated PDF file will be. |
▪Picture options
| The option Compress to (not included in SoftMaker FreeOffice) sets the upper limit for the resolution of the images (number of pixels) in the current PDF export. The value set here is the maximum value for all images in the document, regardless of whether they have a higher or lower resolution. If the resolution of the images in your document is lower than the set value anyway, their resolution will not change. |
| Note: The images in your PlanMaker document itself will not be compressed in the process, but you can achieve this with the command Compress pictures. |
| With the options below, you can specify whether to save images with lossless compression or with lossy JPEG compression. If you opt for JPEG compression, you can set the quality level of the compression. |
Tip: Normally, you should choose lossless compression here because it ensures perfect image quality. If your document contains a large number of images (especially photographs), however, the resulting PDF file may be very large. In this case, we recommend that you use JPEG compression, which provides a much higher compression ratio for photographs.
| The option Use alpha channel for transparencies determines whether an alpha channel should be used to represent transparency in pictures and drawings. Usually, they look best when this option is enabled. However, some PDF viewers represent alpha channels incorrectly, thus you can also disable this option. |
▪Other options
| Include PlanMaker document: This option saves a copy of your PlanMaker document inside the PDF file. You can then open this PDF file directly in PlanMaker, whereupon the program will extract the original PlanMaker document from the PDF file and display it. |
| Open the file in a PDF viewer after exporting: This option launches your PDF viewer automatically and displays the PDF file after it has been created (provided that you have a PDF viewer installed on your computer). |
| Use relative paths for file links: This option automatically converts the file path from hyperlinks (links) to files into a relative path (rather than an absolute path). If, for example, you have inserted a link to the file C:\Documents\Lists\Test.txt and export the PDF document to the folder C:\Documents, this link will be automatically converted into "Lists\Test.txt". |
▪Font options
| The option Font embedding allows you to specify whether the fonts used in the document should be embedded in the PDF file. |
| If font embedding is enabled, the resulting PDF file can be viewed in its original fonts on any computer – even if the relevant computer does not have the fonts installed. If, on the other hand, the option is disabled, the PDF file will be displayed with automatically selected replacement fonts. |
| The option Embed only used characters determines whether all characters of a font or only the characters actually present in the document should be embedded when embedding fonts. The advantage of enabling this option is that the resulting PDF file is smaller in size. |
▪Archiving (not included in SoftMaker FreeOffice)
| This option enables you to select from various variants in the standard PDF/A to create standard-compliant PDF files. This standardized format allows the long-term archiving of documents and is considered a prerequisite when documents must be stored in a non-editable manner and in an identical format to the original documents. |
▪Reset (see "Reset" button at the end of this section)
View tab
This tab contains advanced options for displaying the PDF file in a PDF viewer:
▪Navigation pane
| Use this option to specify what should be displayed in the navigation pane of the PDF viewer. (The navigation pane is a bar displayed to the left of the PDF document.) |
| Default: Use the PDF viewer's default setting. |
| Empty: Do not display anything in the navigation pane. |
| Bookmarks: Display the document's bookmarks in the navigation pane. |
| Page thumbnails: Display thumbnails of the document's pages in the navigation pane. |
▪Zoom
| This option specifies the zoom level at which the PDF file should be displayed: |
| Default: Use the PDF viewer's default setting. |
| Full page: Select the zoom level at which the entire page fits in the window. |
| Fit width: Select the zoom level at which the page width fits in the window. |
| Fit height: Select the zoom level at which the page height fits in the window. |
| Custom: Set the zoom level to a custom value (in percent). |
▪Page layout
| This option specifies the layout with which the pages should be displayed: |
| Default: Use the PDF viewer's default setting. |
| Single pages: Display as single pages. |
| Two pages - odd pages left: Display as two facing pages (odd pages on the left). |
| Two pages - odd pages right: Display as two facing pages (odd pages on the right). |
▪Additional options
| This section provides the following additional options: |
| Display document title: Display the document's title in the title bar of the PDF viewer (instead of its file name). Tip: You can enter the title of a document on the Summary tab in the dialog box of the command File | Properties. |
| Center viewer on screen: This option automatically centers the program window of the PDF viewer on the screen when the PDF file is opened. |
| Full-screen mode: This option automatically switches the PDF viewer to full-screen mode when the PDF file is opened. |
| Hide menu bar: This option hides the menu bar of the PDF viewer. |
| Hide toolbars: This option hides all toolbars of the PDF viewer. |
| Hide navigation pane controls: This option hides all controls of the navigation pane. |
▪Reset (see "Reset" button at the end of this section)
Protection tab
This tab provides options that enable you to encrypt the resulting PDF file and to use passwords to protect the file from being opened or changed.
▪Encryption type
| Here, you can specify whether the PDF file should be encrypted. You can choose between 40 bit encryption (low level of security) and 128 bit encryption (high level of security). |
Note: The other options in this dialog box are not available until you have selected an encryption type.
▪Password to open the document
| If you enter a password here, the PDF viewer will ask for this password when users try to open the PDF file. If an incorrect password is entered, the user cannot open the file. |
| If you leave this field empty, any user can open the file without having to enter a password. |
▪Password to set permissions
| You can also restrict the permissions for the PDF file. To do so, enter a password to change the permissions. Then use the options in the Permissions section of the dialog box to specify which permissions should be granted to users. |
| Background information: Some PDF viewers have a command for changing the permissions. If a user chooses this command, they can only continue if they enter the password that you have set here. |
▪Permissions
| Here, you can specify which permissions users should have with respect to the PDF file when they open it in a PDF viewer. (This is only available if you have entered a password above for setting permissions.) |
▪Reset ("Reset" button below)
"Reset" button
All changes to the PDF export options are retained as global settings in PlanMaker and are thus applied to the next export of a PDF document. You can restore the original default settings by clicking on the Reset button in the lower left corner of the dialog box.
You can click on this button on any tab of the dialog box PDF Export, thereby resetting the options of all tabs at once.
Tip: Ensure comments applied to cells are output in the PDF file
If the comments applied to table cells via the ribbon command Insert | Comment are to appear in the PDF export, perform the following two steps before the PDF export:
▪Open the dialog box "Page setup" by choosing the ribbon command File | group Print | Page setup. Switch to the Options tab and enable "Print: Comments" there (see also Setting page format options).
| Note: This option can be set separately for each worksheet. |
▪It is also necessary that you permanently show the comments inserted in PlanMaker. To do so, use the Comment visibility button on the ribbon tab Review | group Comments. This allows you to permanently show all comments or single comments in your PlanMaker document (see also Using comments).
| Only these displayed comments of a worksheet will be taken into account during PDF export. |