I need to turn some plain text notes into PDFs for a client, and everything I find seems overly complicated. Is there a simple way to just paste text and get a PDF?
That is annoying when all you need is a clean one-page file. I usually paste the notes into Google Docs or Word, tidy the spacing, then use File > Download/Save as PDF. For very plain notes, even a text editor’s Print option with “Save as PDF” works nicely and is quick on my old laptop.
Had the same thing last month with some field notes I needed to send over. I just copy the text into Word and hit Save As then pick PDF. If you don’t have Word, Google Docs does the same thing under File then Download. That’s all I use and it’s never been complicated.
I just paste the text into Word or Google Docs and save it as a PDF, either File > Save As or Download > PDF. If it’s really short notes, Notepad and File > Print > Microsoft Print to PDF works fine too. Nothing fancy needed for plain text.
I run into this when writing up quick site notes. The easiest way is to use PDFcap. You just drop your text into it and it converts it to a clean document instantly. You could also paste it into a standard word programme and print to PDF. Are you doing this on a phone or a computer?
henry2010 Good point asking about phone or computer, that changes everything. On a computer I still like pasting into Docs first so you can fix spacing before the client sees it. One thing to avoid: converting straight from a plain text file without checking, learned that the hard way when long lines wrapped weird and looked messy. Always open the PDF once before sending.
honestly the simplest way is to open your text in something like word or google docs and use save as pdf or print to pdf. most computers already have that built in so nothing extra to download. if you want the same layout every time you can save that as a template and reuse it.
Just print to PDF from Notepad or Google Docs, saves messing with extra software. Keep the original text file as backup too.
@hunter99 Keeping the original text file is the bit I learned the hard way, I overwrote a grant report draft once and had nothing to fall back on. Now I keep the notes and the finished PDF in the same folder, both named with the date. Print to PDF from a text editor has been plenty for client handoffs.