Portable Document File (PDF) creators are generally very easy to use. The way it works is that you "print" to a PDF instead of to paper by selecting your PDF creation program as the printer in the print dialogue:

GVSU provides CutePDF in the computer labs, but you may want other options, including some for home use. Consider one of the following:

• You can use the Mac lab. There is one on the first floor of LOH. Mac OS X computers have PDF creation functionality built in.
• Adobe provides a free trial service where you upload your files online, and they will produce a PDF for you. The first five are free.
• Students in previous classes I have taught have installed the free version of CutePDF on their personal computer. Make sure you download and install both CutePDF and Ghostcript (read the instructions).
• Another free PDF generator is PDFCreator. It may be even easier to install than CutePDF since you can download a version with Ghostcript already built in. I use it regularly, and it seems to work fine.
• OpenOffice, the open source office productivity suite, has PDF functionality built in and is free for download. This is a good option if you have a lousy word processor and would appreciate having PDF functionality on your computer. NOTE: OpenOffice is available in the campus computer labs in the Writing Department application folder. While you could open your .doc files in OpenOffice and make PDF's, you will need to check that your document has not lost any formatting in the conversion. Because Microsoft does not publish their file formats, OpenOffice cannot always convert over the formatting for a .doc file accurately (e.g., particularly complicated layouts such as resumes).