Usually, to print some file F in Windows, you click, in your graphical user interface (GUI) 1) "File -> Print...", 2) pick the (physical) printer on which to print the file, 3) click "ok" or "print". The file will then be printed by the indicated physical printer. A "virtual printer" program, on the other hand, sets up a "virtual" printer in Windows. If you print a file on it, then, instead of the file being printed by a printer, a dialog to save a .pdf file on your machine will appear. So, if you have a "virtual printer" installed, you can translate any file, for intance .doc, to .pdf, in the following way: 1) "File -> Print...", 2) pick the PDF printer (virtual), 3) click "ok", or "print". A dialog asking you to save a .pdf file will appear. This file is the translated .doc file which, when printed, would look exactly the same as the printout you get when printing the .doc file directly. A "virtual printer" such as this can be found here. http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp If you download these files http://www.cutepdf.com/download/converter.exe http://www.cutepdf.com/download/CuteWriter.exe and install these programs, then you can translate files to .pdf files in the way explained above.