It works!!!

[kareina]

Today I downloaded adobe acrobat pro (version 9) free trial version. This is such a cool program. I now have assembled the text portion of my thesis. This involved stitching together lots of different files (one for the title page, another for the abstract, the table of contents, list of figures, the text itself, 14 appendices files, plus chapter title pages, which got inserted in between other pages. And then I told it to reduce file size, and it dropped from 6,000+ to ~2000 KB. I'd keep going, but it is somehow now well after midnight, so tomorrow I'll assemble all of the figures into a single pdf and reduce its file size, too. If necessary I'll use the "split pdf" function to break it into reasonable file sizes. Those two (or however many files the figures wind up being) files will be the version I turn in to the UTAS library for anyone who wants to read my thesis to go look at (since it is easier when reading on a computer to be able to open the text and figures separately, so that you can view them side-by-side when you want to). I will also make the printer's pdf. To do this I'll insert all of the figures into a copy of today text pdf, each located such that when the file is printed double-sided each figure will face the page it is meant to face. I'm very excited--the end is in sight! And the printing to pdf is fun with such a tool. It lets me rotate pages as needed, too, so the Excel spreadsheets from which I created some of the appendices which were in landscape orientation have been put into the thesis in the correct position.

I am terribly afraid that I am going to have to purchase this product. I don't *need* this much power on a daily basis, usually Cute pdf writer is good enough for my pdf printing needs, but it is such a joy to be able to do this merging that I'm afraid that when my month is over I'll want to keep the program. I suspect the manufacturer is counting on that...