PDF is the best format to send us to print. They require no additional files to be supplied, and if created correctly, will print exactly as you saw it on your screen, unlike other file formats like word .doc's and publisher .pub's.

Word documents gather a whole lot of settings that relate directly to the printer that your computer has chosen as a default . Once you take that Word document off your computer and onto ours, it 'goes looking' for the new default printer and sets things up according to that printer's defaults. This could mean things like your margins change slightly, the space between each letter can change, and these things will cause your entire layout to reflow, causing it to look different to how you saw it on screen.

You can print the file to distiller, if you have it, or you can use pdf writer, or pdf maker.

To print to distiller or pdf writer.

Before you create the pdf, you need to set distiller or pdf writer as your printer default. Ideally, you would make distiller/pdf writer your default printer before you create the document. That way, when you go to create the pdf file nothing will change because you change the printer default.

To change the printer default;

• Go to Start > Settings > Printers.
• Right-click Acrobat PDFWriter or Acrobat Distiller, and then choose Set As Default from the pop-up menu.

If you do this after you create the document, you need to check through and make sure nothing has moved or changed, and if it has, you need to make the changes required to make the document as you want it.

To create a PDF File in Word using distiller or PDFWriter

• Go to File > Print.
• Select Acrobat PDFWriter or Acrobat Distiller from the Printer Name pop-up menu.
• In the Print dialog box, select any printing options you want to use.
• Click OK, specify a filename and location for the PDF file.

It is important that you open your pdf file once it is created and check it against your original document. We can't edit your pdf, so if something is wrong you need to amend and recreate before you send it to us.

To create a PDF file in Word PDFMaker, either;

• Go to File > Create Adobe PDF, or
• Click the PDFMaker icon on the Word toolbar.

If you have trouble creating a pdf file, there is some useful information on the adobe support site that will help you http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/f8be.htm

If your version of Word doesn't have PDFMaker (some older versions don't) and you don't have distiller, another option is to install our printer drivers and create a .prn file for us. Once again, you need to install the drivers (available from our download area or on disk from your sales consultant) and change your default printer to our printer. Check your document, amend if necessary, then you can proceed to creating the prn file.

To create a prn file for Fineline's printers (once you have downloaded and installed the drivers)

• Go to File > Print.
• Select our printer that you have installed from the Printer Name pop-up menu.
• In the Print dialog box, select any printing options you want to use.
• Check the 'print to file' box
• Click OK, and specify a filename and location for the prn file.