Using the Publish to PDF feature in Corel® WordPerfect®


Since 1999, WordPerfect Office has provided the most robust PDF publishing capabilities of any office suite. Requiring no purchase of additional plug-ins or downloads, the Publish To PDF feature ensures that you can share your WordPerfect documents, Quattro Pro spreadsheets and Presentations slide shows with virtually any computer user. Over the years, Corel has continued to improve the Publish to PDF feature. The latest version of Corel WordPerfect Office includes:

  • Settings to customize the publishing process:

    • - Shrink files for emailing and online viewing
      - Optimize files for viewing or printing on a desktop computer/printer
      - Maintain a level of quality suitable for sending to a high quality printer or digital copier
      - Include hyperlinks or not
      - Adjust for varying levels of graphic compression
      - Apply security settings for password viewing or printing / importing
  • WordPerfect includes additional PDF features:

    • - Open/import scanned PDFs and converts to editable text and graphics
      - Creates PDF bookmarks with heading styles (like a ToC)
      - Ability to create PDF / A for archiving
      - Support for Tagged PDF for accurate flow on handhelds and screen readers

    Note: WordPerfect X3 introduced the powerful PDF Import feature. By simply opening a PDF file, you can import the text and graphics directly into WordPerfect and save into any of the 150 file formats WordPerfect offers – WPD, DOC, PDF, XML, or HTML, just to name a few. Therefore, you can capture and reuse content from PDF files without the need to purchase a third-party PDF editing application.

    Using Publish to PDF in WordPerfect
    The Publish to PDF feature works essentially the same way in all three applications: WordPerfect Presentations and Quattro Pro. Rather than repeat the information, the sections on Presentations and Quattro simply cover the differences in the Publish to PDF dialog box for each application.

    To publish an open document in PDF format, choose File > Publish To > PDF to display the Publish to PDF dialog box. This dialog box resembles a Save As dialog box with a file list and the option to name the file (see Figure 1). Naming the PDF file is the first step, the second step is to choose the Settings button so you can customize the publishing process.



    The Publish to PDF dialog box was redesigned in WordPerfect X4. The settings are now accessed through the Settings button.

    With the suggested file name selected in the File Name text box, make the necessary adjustments. There are quite a few options that you can customize when you create a PDF file. To change the settings, click the Settings button to open the Publish to PDF Settings dialog box



    The General tab of the Publish to PDF dialog box has selections for naming the PDF file and choosing a compatibility setting.

    Note: The Publish to PDF dialog box was redesigned in WordPerfect X4. Options to customize the publishing process are now accessed through the Settings button. If you forget and press Enter after you type a file name, you can always publish the PDF again with the settings in place.

    By default, WordPerfect will publish the entire document in PDF format. If you wish to publish only a section of the document, make your selections in the Export Range section. You may need to open the Compatibility drop-down list so you can choose the version of Adobe Reader that the intended recipient has on their system.

    For those projects that require multiple changes to the Publish to PDF options, you can create a custom PDF style. From then on, you simply select the style from the PDF Style drop-down list and all of the settings are made for you.

    There are three built-in styles: smallest file (suitable for online viewing), standard desktop printing and viewing (suitable for viewing or printing on a desktop computer/printer) and highest quality (suitable for sending to a high quality printer or digital copier). To create a style, click the plus (+) button. To delete a style from the style list, select it, then click the minus (-) button.

    At this point, you can choose OK to return to the Publish to PDF dialog box, or you can continue to make selections in the other tabs. If you click the Objects tab, the options shown in Figure 3 appear.



    The Objects tab of the Publish to PDF dialog box has selections for font handling and bitmap compression.

    To ensure that the fonts look the same when the PDF is opened on a different computer, you can embed the fonts. This increases the file size, but it increases the portability since the fonts do not have to reside on the other systems. If you are using unusual text characters in your document, you may want to enable the Export all Text as Curves check box. The characters will appear accurately, but it does increase the file size.

    If your PDF file contains bitmap graphics, you can decrease the file size by compressing the bitmaps. The compression is available for JPEG, LZW or ZIP files. If you choose JPEG compression, you will be able to also adjust the quality factor from a high setting of 2 to a low setting of 255. The line art and text will also be compressed if the Compress Text and Line Art check box is enabled.

    When you click the Document tab, the options shown in Figure 4 will appear. Hyperlinks allow you to jump to a Web page (or other Internet URL) and bookmarks allow you to link to specific sections of the PDF file. If you want them to appear in the PDF file, enable one or both of the checkboxes in the Bookmarks section. Remember that if your document has table of contents headings, these will appear as bookmarks in the finished PDF file. Finally, you can opt to have the bookmarks appear when the PDF file is opened by choose the Bookmarks option.

    Tagged PDFs are an important accessibility enhancement. The embedded tags are used by screen readers, or other assistive technology, to read the document. WordPerfect will analyze the content and automatically apply the tags for headings and paragraphs, tables and images, so they are presented in the correct order, both for accessibility devices, and hand-held devices like PDAs/Blackberries.



    The Document tab of the Publish to PDF dialog box has selections for including hyperlinks and bookmarks.

    If you click the Advanced tab, the options shown in Figure 5 will appear. In this tab, you can set the color model to apply to the file. You can use grayscale, which means the color is replaced by varying shades of gray, and either the RGB or CMYK color models. The CMYK setting maximizes the color processing, so it used most often during a prepress cycle. The RGB setting falls in the middle of the range and is suitable for posting the PDF file on the Web. Of the three models, grayscale produces the smallest PDF files of all.



    The Advanced tab of the Publish to PDF dialog box has selections for choosing a color model and optimizing the PDF file for the Web.

    If you are preparing PDF files to post online, enable the Optimize for Web check box. PDF documents are loaded one page at a time, which speeds up the processing time. Finally, you can embed a file in a PDF file. You might, for example, embed the WordPerfect document that you used to generate the PDF file.

    When you click the Security tab (new in WordPerfect X4), the options shown in Figure 6 will appear. There are two levels of password protection: open and permission. If you set an “open” password, the reader must know the password to view the contents. If you set a “permission” password, you can control what the recipient can do. For example, you may want to allow print someone to print the document, but not copy any of the text.



    The Security tab of the Publish to PDF Settings dialog box has options for assigning open and permission passwords..

    Using Publish to PDF in Presentations
    The only difference in the Publish to PDF dialog box in Presentations is on the General tab, there are additional options to publish the slides, speaker notes, audience notes, and handouts (see Figure 7).



    The General tab of the Publish to PDF dialog box in Presentations has extra options in the Export Range section.

    Using Publish to PDF in Quattro Pro
    Once again, the only differences in the Publish to PDF dialog box in Quattro Pro are confined to the General tab. In the Export Range section, there are options for printing the notebook, the current sheet, a particular range of cells, or a range of pages (see Figure 8).



    The General page of the Publish to PDF dialog box in Quattro Pro
    provides extra options for publishing different parts of a notebook.