Your using open office, word or any number of other applications and you want to create a pdf file. Well here are a couple of methods I’ve tried on Windows XP, Windows 7 RC and Ubuntu Linux.
For Windows users you can use the gpl licensed PDFCreator, but I recommend you use the 0.9.6 version and not the later versions. There apparently has been some issues with a malware toolbar on later versions.
I’ve used this on Windows XP and Windows 7 RC. It just a case of printing to the pdfcreator (virtual) printer from your application. i.e. OpenOffice, Word etc and then filling in the pdf details and choosing options. It then creates the PDF.
Below is a link to the 0.9.6 version and also their wikipedia page for further background details.
http://download.cnet.com/PDFCreator/3000-2064_4-10558866.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDFCreator
I’ve also used OpenOffice to export to PDF many times both on Windows and using Ubuntu (linux). OpenOffice is a huge download just for this feature, but I use OpenOffice daily and enjoy using this suite of applications, well worth checking out.