You probably already use PDF files on a daily basis, but there will always be room for improvement in terms of how effectively you exploit this popular format.

Ways to Use PDF Files to Their Full Potential

To that end, here are a handful of tips that will turn you from a PDF novice to a clued-in specialist, delivering benefits whether you are using this type of file for business or personal purposes.

Convert PDFs for complete compatibility & convenience

Not everyone is a PDF fan, and in terms of making them more shareable and editable without splashing out on additional software for this purpose, converting them to a different format altogether can be your best option.

For example, according to PDF Simpli you can handle this conversion online and turn a PDF into a Word document, a JPEG or any number of other formats. This is a boon in terms of unlocking the ultimate compatibility, as well as making them convenient to harness if you are sharing them with a lot of other people and you want to preserve the information of the original file without tying everyone into the Adobe ecosystem.

Protect private data

PDFs can be password protected, as well as giving you the option to manage the type of access privileges that specific users have depending on what you want them to be able to do with the file after receipt.

Password protection is straightforward to apply when you save a PDF file and means that you can share sensitive information online without worrying about whether or not it will fall into the wrong hands.

Managing access privileges so that, for example, other users can view a PDF but not actually make any edits or additions to the contents, is another excellent option for businesses concerned with security issues.

Use compression to improve shareability

Like all digital file formats, PDFs are well suited to helping you share data with others efficiently via the internet, although of course unless you make sure to actually create and save the document in an efficient way then it might become unwieldy.

Optimal use of the settings when saving a file will come into play once more in this respect. You can compress the file at this point, lowering the quality of any included multimedia elements so that it takes up less space and will be swifter to share.

You can also take action to manually select the elements which are compressed, picking, and choosing from the available options to adopt a more bespoke approach.

Include bookmarks to catalyze navigation

Larger PDF documents with significant numbers of pages can be hard to use unless they are properly bookmarked, meaning that viewers can jump to the desired section in a jiffy, rather than having to scroll tirelessly to get there.

Some tools provide you with the option to generate bookmarks automatically, which is convenient, but not always as accurate as doing so manually. Ultimately you can save time and effort in the long run if you put in the hard work while creating and saving the PDF initially.

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