You’ve got to love the Portable Document Format, fondly known as “PDF.”

If you use your computer often, a PDF has almost certainly been useful to you at least once. You may not have known what PDF stood for, nor recognized it as the kind of file that Adobe Reader is usually employed to view, but it was useful all the same. PDF is the format the Internal Revenue Service uses to distribute electronic copies of tax forms on its Web site. It’s the format most often used by manufacturers to distribute electronic literature.

The “Portable Document Format” is what it claims to be — a way to ensure that documents created on one computer can be saved in such a way that the finished product will look exactly as the creator intended when viewed by other people, even on different types of computer systems. The documents are “portable,” meaning they don’t rely on the recipient having the same software installed on his computer as the person who created the document.

These files are generally used to distribute information that is not intended to be edited or changed. This isn’t necessarily the format you would use for document collaboration with other people, unless the PDF is meant to serve as a “proof.”

Some PDF files let you fill in forms, such as tax forms, then print (and sometimes save) the result.

To illustrate the benefit of the PDF file, think back on your own experience. Perhaps you’ve run into a snag when you e-mailed a document to a friend, or tried to open one of your own documents from a friend’s computer. If, for instance, you used WordPerfect to create your document, but your friend uses Microsoft Word, odds are good that the document will look a little different on your friend’s computer. It might look significantly different — or barely readable — if you used images, special formatting, bulleted lists or nonstandard fonts.

This might have been a perfect scenario to deploy a PDF instead.

You can purchase specialized software from Adobe and other vendors that lets you create PDF files with embedded tables of contents, bookmarks, links, forms and many other bells and whistles. However, if you simply want to create a document, sign or flyer to share with others or take to a print shop, you should look into the free version of CutePDF Writer.

CutePDF Writer lets you create basic PDF files for free from almost any Windows-based computer. It doesn’t cost a dime and you won’t have to learn to use any new software. If you know how to print, you know how to create a PDF.

From their Web site: “CutePDF … enables virtually any Windows application (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents — with just a push of a button!”

CutePDF boasts that its software is free for personal and commercial use, that it doesn’t embed advertising “watermarks” into your PDFs, and that you aren’t forced to endure pop-up ads each time you use the software. I’m happy to report that all of those things are absolutely true. The software works smoothly, as advertised, without any advertisements or annoyances. It just works, and I’ve used it for several years.

Links: To learn more about CutePDF, then download it and install it yourself, point your Windows-based computer to www.cutepdf.com. Click the “Learn More” link near the “Free Download” for CutePDF Writer.

Kevin McDonald: Writer and professional computer/network administrator. He lives in Amarillo with his wife and children, and owns and operates Definition Computers. E-mail Kevin at askthegeek@definitioncomputers.com with questions you’d like to see answered in this column.

(This article was originally published in the Amarillo Independent newspaper.)