Create PDF from Files
Create a PDF from a file
You can create a PDF from Office, email, a web site, or from any file that prints.
1. Launch Foxit PDF Editor, choose File > Create > From File, or choose Convert > From Files > From File.
2. In the Open dialog box, navigate through your local disk to select a local file, or click Open from ECM to select a file from ECM systems or cloud services. Then click Open to start the conversion.
3. The converted PDF file will be opened in Foxit PDF Editor automatically. Click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar or choose File > Save to save the PDF file.
4. Type a filename and specify a location in the pop-up Save dialog box.
Note: Depending on the type of file being converted, a progress dialog box appears and Foxit PDF Editor opens automatically.
Create PDFs from multiple files
You can easily merge files of different types into a single PDF, or you can also convert them into separate PDFs.
Convert and combine multiple files into a single PDF
1. Choose File > Create > Combine Files, or choose Convert > Combine Files, or right-click a file you want to convert to PDF and choose Combine files in Foxit PDF Editor….
2. The Combine Files preview pane is displayed automatically as a new “file tab” in the application window, and the Combine Files context tab appears on the ribbon. The Combine Files preview pane allows you to preview and rearrange files and pages before combining them into a PDF. Use the commands in the Combine Files context tab to add files you want to combine, delete unwanted pages, and adjust the order of files/pages to be combined.
· Add Files: You can choose files from local drives or click Open from ECM to select a file from ECM systems or cloud services. (Tip: To add files, you can also directly drag and drop the files into the preview pane.)
· Add Folder: Choose a folder that contains the files you want to combine.
· Add WebPage: Input a URL, or browse and select an HTML file you want to combine. Then click Create.
· Add PDF from Scanner: Scan documents to PDFs and add the scanned PDFs to the file list you want to combine.
· Add From Clipboard: Create a PDF from the clipboard and add it to the file list you want to combine.
· Add Open Files to: Choose currently opened PDF files to add to the file list you want to combine. The edits you made to the opened files will be included, whether or not they have been saved.
Tips: If you add a PDF portfolio, each file in the PDF portfolio will be extracted and added in the file list. By default, the files will be listed in an ascending order by the file name.
3. (Optional) Files you added will be listed in the Combine Files preview pane. You can adjust the order of the files to be displayed in the combined PDF by the files’ name, modified time, size, or bates numbering by clicking the corresponding column name in the files list. Click the column name again to reverse the order. (Note: To order by bates numbering, all files in the dialog box should be PDFs and use the same bates numbering formatting.) For a multipage file you add, click the 
icon in front of the file name to expand all pages in it, or click the 
icon to collapse the pages.
Alternatively, you can adjust the order of files and pages manually as desired by clicking Move Up or Move Down command in the Combine Files context tab, or dragging and dropping a file/page to the desired location. In some situations, it is not allowed to move files/pages. For example, you cannot move multiple non-contiguous pages/files together or move a page/file into a multipage file.
4. (Optional) You can specify a page range (for a Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or PDF file) or choose sheets (for an Excel file) to convert to PDF. Depending on the file format, click Choose Pages or Choose Sheets in the Operation column to do the setting. And the pages or sheets that were not chosen are removed from the list in the preview pane.
5. (Optional) If needed, click Remove to delete the selected files/pages. You can also remove the selected files/pages by pressing the Delete key.
6. (Optional) You can double-click any file in the dialog box and choose Edit Bookmark for File and modify the bookmark title that will be one of Top Level bookmarks in the combined PDF after conversion. By default, Foxit PDF Editor combines the bookmarks of the selected files as the bookmarks of the combined PDF, with the first level of the combined bookmarks named with the original filename of each file.
7. Click Settings and check the following options as desired and click Combine Files to start the combination. (If you want to cancel the combining, click the Close command.)
² Add a new table of contents page converted from bookmarks: creates a table of contents (TOC) from the bookmarks of the selected files in the beginning of the merged PDF file. The original filename of each file will be the first TOC level, each of which is followed by the bookmarks of the file. By default, the TOC includes up to 5 levels with the corresponding page numbers in the PDF. For a file without any bookmarks, only the filename will be inserted to the table of contents.
² Retain the logic page numbers during combination: selects it, and the combined PDF file will keep the logic page numbers in the original files.
8. After the combination completes, a PDF file named with “Binder 1” (or “Binder 2” if you combined files once and have not closed the application since then) is created and opened automatically in Foxit PDF Editor, while the Combine Files preview pane and the Combine Files context tab disappear. Rename and save the PDF as needed.
Convert multiple files into separate PDF files
1. Choose File > Create > From Multiple Files, or choose Convert > From Files > From Multiple Files.
2. In the Convert Multiple Files dialog box, click Add files, and choose Add Files or Add Folder to select the files or folder you want to convert.
3. Files will be converted in a sequence as they are ordered in the Convert Multiple Files dialog box. You can reorder the files by name, modified time, or size by clicking the corresponding column name. Alternatively, reorder the files manually as desired by clicking the Move Up/Down button, or by dragging and dropping the file in the list. Select a file and click the Remove button to delete it, if necessary.
4. (Optional) If you need to save the converted PDF files in the same location as the original file, check the Keep original file names and locations option.
5. Click Convert.
6. (Optional) If you did not check the Keep original file names and locations option, the Browse For Folder dialog box will pop up. Choose the folder in which you want to save the converted PDF files, and click OK.
When you create PDFs from Microsoft Office files or 3D files in the Foxit PDF Editor application window, by dragging and dropping, or from the context menu of the files, you can specify the default conversion settings in advance. Go to Convert > From Files > Convert to PDF Settings and specify the conversion settings in the pop-up Converting to PDF dialog box.
· Convert Model to 3D PDF – Select this option to enable the conversion from DWG to 3D PDF. This option is not selected by default. With the option not selected, .dwg files are converted to 2D PDFs. Before converting DWG to 3D or 2D PDFs, you must have AutoCAD installed. (Pro Only)
· Choose a set of default conversion settings from the drop-down menu, or click Edit to modify settings. See also the instructions on "Setting Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties".
· Add bookmarks to Foxit PDF Editor file – Keeps the bookmarks of Word files or converts the headings of Word files to bookmarks in the converted PDFs; In Excel/PPT, the sheet name and the slide title (or the slide page number) will be converted to bookmarks in the generated PDFs.
· Tagged PDF – Creates a tagged PDF for accessibility. (Microsoft Office 2010 or a later version is required.)
· Convert entire Excel workbook – Select this option to convert all sheets of the Excel file to a single PDF. If this option is deselected, only the most recent sheet that you opened will be converted.
Set Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties
Before creating a PDF file with Foxit PDF Editor Printer, you may wish to access PDF printing preferences to set up options for your PDF files. To access PDF printing preferences of Foxit PDF Editor Printer, you need to open the Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties dialog box by doing either of the following:
Accessing the PDF printing Preferences from Control Panel:
1) For Windows 8 and 10, go to Start > Windows System > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > Printers.
2) Right-click on the Foxit PDF Editor Printer and then select Printing preferences to open the Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties dialog box.
Accessing the PDF Printing Preferences from the Print dialog box. When you print a file from any windows applications (such as Notepad) and open the Print dialog box, select Foxit PDF Editor Printer and click on the Properties button or the Preferences button (the button name varies depending on the application you use), so that you can bring up the Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties dialog box.
In the Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties dialog box, specify settings as needed in the Setting tab and the Layout tab.
The Setting tab
Foxit Conversion Settings – Shows the description of the default setting you select in the Default Settings menu.
Default Settings - chooses a type of conversion quality as the default setting. There are five predefined sets of default settings shown as below. You can click Edit to create and modify your own default settings as needed. See also the instructions on "Create and modify your own default settings" below.
² High Quality Print: creates PDF files for high quality print but with relatively large file sizes.
² PDF/A-1b: creates PDF files in compliance with PDF/A-1b standard.
² Smallest File Size: creates PDF files used for web distribution.
² Standard: creates PDF files with a balance between print quality and file size.
² USPTO: creates PDF files that are compliant with USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office) standards.
Target Folder – You can click Browse to specify a default destination folder to store all of the PDF files generated, and the names of the generated PDF files will be the same as the originals by default. With no target folder specified:
² If you choose Prompt for file name, a dialog box will prompt for you to specify a name and location for the PDF.
² If you choose Documents/*.pdf, the generated PDF files will be automatically saved to the My Documents or Documents folder based on the version of Windows. (Note: With Documents/*.pdf selected, if you print PDFs in RTV tools such as RTV Xporter, the generated PDFs will be saved to the folder specified in RTV tools.)
If File Exists – If a PDF file that has the same name and path as the generated PDF file already exists, you can choose any of the following:
² Overwrite existing file: replaces the existing file with the generated file.
² Add a numeric suffix: adds a numeric suffix to the name of the generated document automatically to avoid overwriting the existing files.
² Prompt User: prompts you to specify the location and the name for the generated document during PDF creation.
² Insert before existing file: inserts the generated PDF at the beginning of the existing file. If the existing file is a PDF portfolio, the generated PDF will be added as a component file in the portfolio. (Note: If the existing file is encrypted, inaccessible, or an XFA file, or due to unknown errors, the operation will fail and a .log file automatically opens to show the detailed information.)
² Insert after existing file: inserts the generated PDF at the end of the existing file. If the existing file is a PDF portfolio, the generated PDF will be added as a component file in the portfolio. (Note: If the existing file is encrypted, inaccessible, or an XFA file, or due to unknown errors, the operation will fail and a .log file automatically opens to show the detailed information.)
Target File – If you have chosen Insert before existing file or Insert after existing file in the If File Exists item, you can browse and select the target file, or choose Prompt User and you will be prompted to choose the target file when creating PDFs.
Color – Prints content in a color PDF file to shades of gray, in colors or only in black and white colors.
Resolution - allows you to input a DPI (dot per inch) level for image resolution. The valid level value is between 72 -2400.
View PDF Results – Once the conversion is finished, the converted PDF will be opened with Foxit PDF Editor automatically. This option is checked by default.
Create and modify your own default settings
1. In the Setting tab of the Foxit PDF Editor Printer Properties dialog box, select a set of default settings.
2. Click the Edit button to specify the conversion settings in the seven tabs in the pop-up dialog box. See also the instructions on "Options of default settings for PDF conversion" below.
3. After you complete the settings, click OK to save the modification to the current set of default settings or click the Save As… button to save the modified settings as a new set of default settings which will be added to the Default settings list. The predefined sets of default settings cannot be modified.
4. (Optional) To toggle between different sets of default settings, click the Edit Settings button and select one.
Options of default settings for PDF conversion
² The General tab
Description – Enter a summary for the current conversion setting.
Optimize for fast web view – Creates a linearized PDF that can be opened and viewed even before the whole file is downloaded.
Compatible With - With Foxit PDF Editor, you can choose the version number from 1.3 to 1.7 when creating PDFs. Choosing the right PDF reference version can help the PDFs to be better compatible with different PDF viewers.
Add PDF information to the document –This option allows you to set PDF document properties, such as Title, Subject, Author, etc. You can add information when it is checked.
² The Font tab
Embedding all fonts allows anyone who opens your file to see the document as you intended it to be seen. Select an option as needed to specify whether to embed fonts.
o Embed all fonts – Embed all fonts to generated PDFs. This option is selected by default.
o Embed nonstandard fonts – Embed fonts except the standard fonts (including typically Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, and Symbol).
o Use the font embedding list below – Embed the fonts listed in the box below, where you can select the fonts you want to embed.
o Don’t embed any fonts – No fonts will be embedded into the generated PDFs. Without embedding fonts, the PDF viewer will substitute a font with a close match or a default font which is available on the computer, and the display results may be not exactly what you intended.
Show warning message when the document contains fonts that are not allowed to be embedded: Some font manufacturers place embedding restrictions on their fonts. Foxit PDF Editor honors these restrictions and will show a warning message when your document contains the fonts that are not allowed to be embedded.
² The Images tab
Specify the image conversion settings.
² The PDF Standards tab
Select a PDF standard as needed from the menu under which there is the corresponding description for your reference.
² The Watermarks tab
Add watermarks to the document – If you want to add watermarks to your document, you can select this option and choose to add Image Watermarks or Text Watermarks.
Image watermarks–You can browse your computer for an image and change the Opacity, Rotation and Offsets of the image which will be added into your document as a watermark.
Text Watermarks
o Font
This option is activated only when Text Watermarks is selected and you can choose the font name, font size and font color from the drop-down menus.
o Text
You can enter text in the Content box and change the Opacity and Rotation of the text which will be added into your document as a watermark.
o Offsets
This option allows you to change the unit of measurement and specify the width, height of the image/text, etc.
o Scale
A. To resize the watermark in relation to the original image size, check Absolute Scale and enter a number in the percentage box.
B. To resize the watermark in relation to the PDF page dimensions, check Relative Scale and enter a number in the percentage box.
o Preview
You can see how the watermark will look like with the selected options.
² The Headers/Footers tab
Add Headers/Footers to the Document
This option allows you to add headers/footers to your PDF document. By checking this option, the following options will be activated.
Font
You can choose the font name, font size and font color from the boxes.
Edit
This option allows you to edit headers/footers and you can specify their styles. You can enter text in the columns (Left Column, Center Column and Right Column) if needed. Click Insert Date to insert date to the PDF document. Click Insert Page Number to insert page number to the PDF document.
Offsets
This option allows you to change the unit of measurement and specify the margins for all 4 sides.
Preview
You can see how the headers/footers will look with the selected options.
² The Security tab
The security feature of PDF gives you exceptional control over PDF files. Choose a protection type.
1. Password Protection
See also the instructions on Password Protection.
2. Certificate Protection
See also the instructions on Certificate Protection.
3. AIP Protection (Available in Pro Only)
See also the instructions on AIP Protect.
Layout tab
Orientation - Allows you to change the page orientation.
Page Size- This option is for you to choose one of paper types from the list, or click Custom Page Size and then add a new page size where you can specify the paper size dimensions in the Add/Edit Custom Page Sizes box.
Unit of Metrics- Allows you to change the unit of measurement, including inches, centimeter and millimeters.
Image Scaling– Scale the page content equally based on the specified page size.
You can see how your document layout will look with the selected options.