OVERVIEW
Target audience: primarily for graduate students submitting a thesis
PDF/A is a standard for archiving documents, and is the format required for final myThesis submission at McGill.
If your thesis document was created in Microsoft Word, you can use the Save As function to save it in PDF/A format. If your document was created using LaTex or Word for Mac, you will need to first save it in .PS file (postscript) or .PDF format and then use Adobe Acrobat Pro to convert to PDF/A format.
In this article:
Steps to save your Word document as a PDF/A-compliant file
- Open your document in Microsoft Word (for Windows)
- Click File > Save As / Save a copy and choose PDF (*.pdf) from the list of file types.
- By default the File name is the same as that of the original Word document, but with the .pdf extension. You may enter a different file name if you wish.
- Click Options...
- In the Options dialog, under PDF options, check the boxes labeled PDF/A compliant, and Optimize for image quality.
- Click OK on the Options dialog; then click Save to create the PDF/A-compliant file.
If you open the newly created .PDF file in Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader you should see a message indicating that the file complies with the PDF/A standard.
Steps to convert a document from .PS or .PDF to PDF/A using Adobe Acrobat Pro
NOTE: Before you start
To follow this procedure you will need to have access to a computer that has Adobe Acrobat Pro (or Acrobat Pro DC) installed. Some public computers available at McGill have this application; check with the Libraries or your department.
Within the word processing application you used to create your initial document, save the document as a .PS (postscript), or as a .PDF. Acrobat Pro can convert .PS or ,PDF files to PDF/A.
- Open your .PDF or .PS file in Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Click File > Save As... and select the location for your file. (If PDF/A is not an option, please read the next section)
- From the Save as PDF window, click the Save as type: menu and select PDF/A (*.pdf).
- During the conversion process you may see error messages if there are problems converting it to PDF/A format.
If you now open the newly created PDF file in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, you will see a message at the top of the screen that says the file is PDF/A-compliant. By default the file opens in read-only mode and no modifications can be made, which would cause the file to become non-compliant to this archival standard.
Install the "save as PDF/A" file type option in Adobe Acrobat PRO.
- Open your .PDF or .PS file in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- Click File > Save As Other... and select the location for your file.
- You will receive a message that additional software must be installed. Click OK and wait about 5 minutes for the software to install.
- The Option to Save as PDF/A (*.pdf) will now be available from the Save As submenu. You can also save directly from the Save as Other menu.
