[Skip to Content]

Editing PDFs for Web

If you upload a document to share on your website, a PDF is preferred. Two key reasons:

  • The document will look the same viewed on any computer and when printed.
  • Prohibits viewers from editing your document or allows them to only edit certain sections (eg. forms).

Turn a Word Document into a PDF

There might be a few ways to make your Microsoft Word document into a PDF. Frustratingly, options change based on what versions of Word you have, Acrobat you have, and what operating system you have. If you don't have the option of turning a Word Document you have into a PDF, send us a ticket and we can do it for you.

How to Save a Word (or other Office Document) as PDF via Microsoft.

Most common way:

  • Open Word Document
  • Select "File" -> "Save As..."
  • Under "Format" select "PDF"
  • Click "Save"

Add Title and Author

Adding a title and author to a PDF is recommended for accessibility reasons. Here's how to adjust your PDF:

Description screenshot

  • Open PDF with Acrobat Pro
  • Go to the dropdown File -> Properties (or Option-D / Crtl-D)
  • Go to the Description panel.
  • Title: if possible, mimic the top title/header in the pdf.
  • Author: Grab from the byline. If no byline, in many cases it should be "SUNY Upstate Medical University," unless created by an outside group/university.
  • Click "OK."

If you don't have Acrobat Pro, but have Microsoft Word, you can change the title under File -> Properties. And export it as PDF.

Add "English" as Language

Adding the correct language to a PDF is also recommended for accessibility reasons. Here's how to add this to your PDF:

Advanced screenshot

  • Open PDF with Acrobat Pro
  • Go to the dropdown File -> Properties (or Option-D / Crtl-D)
  • Go to the Advanced panel.
  • Language: select "English".
  • click "OK."

If PDF is greater than 10MB

If your PDF is greater than 10 MB, it is probably because the images inside the PDF are unnecessarily large. Try saving the PDF optimized and reduce the "ppi" for images. If this doesn't reduce the PDF below 10 MB, contact us. We might be able to make an exception, or put it into a document management system if you have many PDFs with size issues.

Optimized Screenshot

  • Open PDF with Acrobat Pro
  • Go to the dropdown File -> Save As... (Shift-Ctrl-S or Shift-Option/Apple-S)
  • Change Format to "Adobe PDF Files, Optimized"
  • Click "Settings..."
  • Reduce image ppi to:
    • 300 - images will still be high-quality when the pdf is printed
    • 150 - images will be of medium-quality when the pdf is printed
    • 75 - images will look good when viewed on the computer but poorly when printed.
  • Click "OK"
  • Save your new pdf and then upload it to Cascade.
Top