Free and easy way to convert Word docs to PDFs

If you’re like me, you’ve run into situation after situation in which you’d like to convert a Word document to a PDF. While Googling for a tool to do this, though, I inevitably end up drowning in page after page of supposedly “free” converters which cost $30+ to unlock. Come on, $30 to do a simple conversion? This is the era of open source. There has to be a better way.

Actually, there is. One way would be to install OpenOffice. It allows you to save a document directly to a PDF. This makes so much sense, doesn’t it? Which brings to mind another question… when will Microsoft add a similar feature to Word?

If you don’t want to wait around for them to do that (and don’t have the inclination to install OpenOffice), check out these instructions for converting to a PDF by printing to a file and using a couple of free tools. It was quick and easy for me, and now I have my PDF and my $30.