The MAC operating system (OS) already has the ability to save documents as PDF files, built in.
All that you need to do is to select the PDF option when printing your document. On the bottom left of the Print window, you will find the PDF option.
So, open the document and select to print it. That will bring up the Print window. Then, select the PDF option at the bottom (on the left hand side). Chose to Print the document and save it where needed.
Here is a screenshot of what this looks like:
However, there is one drawback to the built-in Mac function - some applications do not support this feature! So, you would then chose to print the document but the PDF option is not available.
For this reason, Mac users may need to install a program like Cups PDF. This is the equivalent to CutePDF for Windows, but for Mac.
Cups PDF is available for free download on BitBucket. Click HERE to download the file or go to the following link: https://bitbucket.org/codepoet/cups-pdf-for-mac-os-x/downloads/
Again, the installation process is straight forward - simply follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. You can simply accept all the defaults as you go through the installer.
Once you have installed Cups PDF however, you would need to manually add this printer to your Mac OS. To do this:
1 - Go to your System Preferences from the Dock or the Apple menu.
2 - Then go to Print and Scan
3 - Click on the + button under the printer list
4 - Choose CUPS-PDF and click Add. If you don't see CUPS-PDF as an option, choose Other first.
So now you have the CUPS PDF application installed and the printer setup. As with the Windows process, you need to ensure that the CUPS PDF printer is selected. This is what it should look like:
When printing from a web browser, such as Safari, ensure that you print the backgrounds and headers and footers, as shown above. This will make sure that the PDF file created looks exactly like the webpage you are on. (If the print dialog window does not look like the one above, select 'Show details')
You can now select Print to 'print' the PDF file.
The PDF file is automatically created in the following folder:
/Users/Shared/CPS-PDF/{your account name}
This isn't a very convenient place to look for your PDF files but you can create an alias (shortcut) to this folder and then place that on your Desktop, for instance. To create the alias, right-click on the above mentioned folder and select 'Make Alias'. Then, drag the new alias folder to the desktop and rename it to anything you like, such as 'PDF Files', or whatever.
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