There are a multitude of ways to create a PDF using Adobe Acrobat. We will cover a few of them.

From a file

To create a PDF from a single file, go to File, Create PDF, and then choose "from file".

After this you will be prompted to choose a document by browsing through folders and selecting the wanted document. The document can be anything you have made with a program on your computer. After selecting the document, choose "open." A new PDF document will open, bearing the name of the document it is based off, showing your document in a PDF format. From here you can use the various tools of Acrobat to manipulate the document before saving and distributing. The tools are covered later in this tutorial.

From multiple files

Creating a multiple file PDF is similar to creating a single file PDF. go to file-->create PDF-->from multiple files.

A box will open, allowing you to choose which documents you want in your PDF. You can also choose what order the documents will go in. There is also an option to combine any PDF documents you are currently working on. By manipulating the order of the documents in your PDF you can choose which page each appears on. The option to combine current documents allows you to work on individual PDFs before merging them into a single PDF. You can also include recently combined files in the list of files to be included.

Once you have selected the documents to include, and continued, you will be prompted to name the newly created PDF.

From a web page

Acrobat also has the ability to create a PDF of any web page you can normally access. To do this go to file-->create PDF-->from web page.

Just like when creating a PDF from a file a box will open prompting you for the location of the web page, here you enter the URL of the web page you want a PDF of. There are two ways to create a PDF of a web page, one is by choosing how many levels you want, and the other is to simply choose the entire site.

The level(s) option creates a PDF of the original page indicated with the URL and also creates subsequent pages for sites that are linked to from the original. A good way to think of this is to envision a family tree. The grandfather of the family is like the original page, he is level one. If you choose to go two levels deep, then Acrobat will create a page for the grandfather and any children he may have. At three levels a PDF will also be created for any children of the grandfather's children. There are two options for creating a level based PDF. The first option is : stay on the same path. A good way to think about this is that Acrobat will never trace a link to a location further up the file tree. If the original website is the grandfather and this option is selected then Acrobat will not follow any links to the great-grandfather. The other option is: Stay on same server. This option prevents acrobat from following any links that may take it away from the original page and any of its direct descendant's. Following the family analogy this would prevent Acrobat from creating a PDF of the spouse of one of the grandfather's children.

The second way to create web pages is the get entire site method. This method creates a PDF as if you applied infinite depth to the level's attribute and selected stay on same server.

From Scanner

Acrobat also has the feature to create a PDF from a scanned document. To do this go to file-->create PDF-->from scanner.

A dialog box will appear asking for the Scanner the document is coming from, the type of scan, the folder you want to store the document in, and if you want OCR and tags enabled. The first drop down menu, scanner, is where you choose the scanner you will be using to scan the document, this can include any scanner hooked up to your computer. Choosing the type of scan is just deciding if you are going to scan both sides of the document, this sets up how Acrobat will interpret the information. Destination is just the same as any save feature and is for deciding where you want the scanned document to be stored. OCR is a feature that allows Acrobat to convert printed text into computer editable text.

Once you have filled out all the information, select done. The next portion may vary depending on the model of your scanner. For the most part you will just be asked whether you are scanning a color or black and white image before continuing. The scanner will now scan the document, if your document is multiple pages, you will be prompted to change the pages or to flip the page.