iTunes PDF Handling For Paperless Office
PDF files, the Portable Document Format is a standard way to communicate electronically across platforms. The advantage is that documents render visibly the same on Windows, Apple, Linux and unix operating systems, with no additional software required. That makes the PDF format ideal for email communications, and document storage.
Creating PDF Files
In Mac OS X, creating a PDF is easy. From any application with print functionality, print to PDF is a button click that selects PDF format rather than sending the job to the printer.
PDF Print in OS X
Then the pdf file can be emailed as an attachment or stored for future reference.
iTunes
PDF capability is a well hidden feature in the latest releases of iTunes.
When e-Books became available for sale in the iTunes store, pdf storage came along for the ride. iTunes is a dead simple way to store and distribute pdf documents, especially onto mobile devices.
1. Print your content to PDF. I just re-discovered some excellent content by Martin Bauer. I might have even printed some of this stuff back in the day. If so, I would not begin to know which rathole of papers it is in. This time I simply Print to PDF, save it on my desktop with descriptive name of "Martin Bauer Content MMT Missing Link"
2. Drag and drop this PDF creation from desktop onto the iTunes icon. If Books was not already a listing in the left pane of the window along with Music, Movies, etc, it now appears.
PDF listing in iTunes Books
3. The file remains on the desktop, delete it, email it, whatever else needs done with it immediately.
4. The PDF file now syncs with iPhones, iPads, mobile devices in accordance with iTunes settings for the device.
PDF book shelf on iPad
5. Also, the PDF file may be restored to anywhere in the file system on demand. Drag and drop it from iTunes to the desired location.
I know how much everybody likes to buy printer ink and finely hammered out dead trees, but when you don't have the time or money, this can make a handy interim solution.
Bonus Feature
An added bonus, is that once in iTunes, the PDF document can be categorized using the same folder structures used to organize music collections. That way a single file can automagically appear in numerous folder locations as needed, without creating multiple copies or shuffling to and fro.