Save Office 2007 Documents as PDFs

As most biz-hackers know, PDF is the preferred format for sharing, posting, and archiving documents. In the past we've looked at third-party tools that allow you to create PDFs from just about any application. Of course, in most cases the documents originate in Microsoft Office -- wouldn't it be great if Office (like rival OpenOffice.org) allowed you to create PDFs directly, without the need for extra software? It does: All you need is a Microsoft plug-in.

Once installed, the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS plug-in (catchy name, no?) allows you to create PDFs from within any Office 2007 application: Access, Excel, One Note, PowerPoint, Word, and even Visio. (True to its name, the plug-in also supports the less-common XML Paper Specification, or XPS, format, Microsoft's PDF competitor.) It also enables you to send documents as PDF- or XPS-formatted e-mail attachments. The plug-in is free, though it works only with Office 2007. If you want to produce PDFs from an earlier version of Office, there are countless free and easy tools that make it possible (including the ones mentioned at the top of this post). [via Office Tweaks]