It’s 10 PM at night and you need to get a document that’s on your computer to your client. Unfortunately, the client does not have the software on her computer that she needs in order to open the document. And you don’t have the software that you need to convert the document to PDF (Portable Document Format) so that she can use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. The stores are closed, and besides, who wants to spend money on software anyway?

Here are a couple of FREE options for you:

1. Use an online service such as KoolWire. Just send the document as an attachment to pdf@koolwire.com and they will return it to you as a PDF file! No software to install and it just takes moments.

   (You can also use the service in reverse…it will accept a PDF from you and convert it to an editable Rich Text Document that can be opened with your word processor. Just send the PDF as an attachment to doc@koolwire.com)

1. Download any of the free document creation programs. (Do a Google search to locate) One that I have used for a very long time is CutePDF. This is free and can be found at http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp This program is FREEWARE and is free for both personal AND commercial use. It has no pop up ads, no watermarks and it is drop dead easy to use.

   After you have downloaded the software, install it. Once installed, it looks like a printer installed on your system. Just open the document that you want to convert and go to “File”, then “Print”, then select the “CutePDF Writer” from the list of printers and click on OK. You then tell the dialog box what you want to name the file and where you want to save it and you are done.

1. Another great free document conversion tool is PDF Creator which can be found at http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator It works the same as CutePDF.

Use one of these free tools and the document will be on its way to your client and you can get back to your life in no time flat, without even breaking a sweat.