Current Events > PC Help: What program can I use to make and configure layouts easily for PDFs

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm looking to make a PDF document or something. It's going to be an instruction manual for a piece of technology.

I have a quick MS Paint diagram below but imagine black boxes are text and red boxes are pictures. This is just a quick drawing to give an idea of what I'm looking for.

I'll need to be able to put in pictures (jpeg, png) and make my own text areas where I write out instructions. There will probably be tables of data too I need to put in.

What program works best for something like this? Preferably something free.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/5/AAdVIJAADv2P.png

Microsoft word or something like that

You can save stuff as pdf

Word, Publisher, and PowerPoint should all be able to do that. Publisher is probably the best for it. You may be able to get a free or student version but idk

If it's only a single page or a couple of pages, you want Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape is free and will do in a pinch, but text formatting sucks balls. If it is several pages, you want Affinity Publisher or Adobe InDesign. There has never been, to my knowledge, any quality free desktop publishing software. InDesign and Publisher both have free trials so you can see which meets your needs before buying.

Microsoft Office is really only a viable choice if you don't need any serious control over the layout.

Yeah, those look like power point slides to me ever used that?

Thanks all. I figured something like Word would do the trick. I've had problems fine tuning layouts of stuff in Word but that was years ago so I didn't really consider it now. It sounds like it's what I want though and will mess around with it more.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

Thanks all. I figured something like Word would do the trick. I've had problems fine tuning layouts of stuff in Word but that was years ago so I didn't really consider it now. It sounds like it's what I want though and will mess around with it more.

If you lay it out in tables I usually find that to be pretty effective