Speaking of PDF files, have you ever gone impatient with the time it takes for Adobe Reader to open a PDF file? You wait, and wait, and then it loads the file…

Sumatra PDF at the moment is my PDF viewer of choice (for Windows). Files load in just a matter of seconds and the program itself is tiny, just one file actually, nothing to install and take up hundreds of MB from your HD.

It is made to be simple and fast. Sumatra PDF doesn’t have that many features as Adobe’s software but really I don’t miss them. Do you really use all the features that Adobe packs into their reader software?
You can even download a portable apps version and have on your pen drive an excellent PDF reader wherever you go.

Being able to print documents, web pages, anything to PDF format is quite handy to have in any computer. A PDF file is highly portable because it is generally smaller then the original file and works well within any operating system.

PDFCreator is an incredibly good open source tool to install on your Windows machine. It’ll create a new printer that you can use within any program, the output always being PDF files. So you’ll be able to convert any document to PDF easily. You can set your settings to compress images and text the way you want it, encrypt, and protect your PDF documents.

Its standalone unit will give you a nice overview of documents that are being printed and give you access to change main settings.

My printer now barely has any work to do. I print pretty much everything I need to a PDF format and send it through email or store important documents on my computer. As a tip, whenever you purchase anything online and you want a copy of the transaction confirmation, just print the page to a PDF format and store it on your HD. It’ll be there whenever you need it.