In today’s society, almost everything is electronic, and that includes documents and spreadsheets. Whether it is for business purposes or school purposes, you can use it digitally.
The most used format for spreadsheets is Microsoft Excel and PDF. But what exactly are Microsoft Excel and PDF? Microsoft Excel is a program that is used to create, store, manage, and organize data.
Meanwhile, PDF is a format that businesses use around the world. Its goal is to allow everyone to get documents from any application. It allows users to send documents anywhere and have them printed. For example Soda PDF was built with that in mind.
PDF is set up to look like the same layouts, no matter which device the user is on. It changes nothing from the original file and shows it as it is in most cases.
Most people believe having their documents in PDF format is the most convenient. Using Excel may have its disadvantages, such as incompatibility.
The best way to solve this minor problem is by converting your Excel document to PDF. Let’s discuss how to convert XLS to PDF and also know the benefits.
How to Convert to PDF
Converting XLS to PDF is very easy as there are many programs available online. You can choose between using an online program to convert your file or an offline one. For the online program, you go to their website, send the file, and they will convert it.
PDFBear Online Converter
Many people prefer to use an online converter like PDFBear. This tool works great in converting an Excel file to PDF smoothly. Here’s how to do it.
- Open the PDFBear website and upload the Excel file you want to convert or through drag and drop.
- Select the appropriate option to use.
- Hit the “convert” button, and the tool will start analyzing the file and convert it.
- After the conversion process, you can save the file to your computer or download it.
If it’s sensitive information, then an offline program is better for you. You can Google some free programs you want to use. With the offline program, you only need to drag and drop the file, then click convert. Another benefit of the offline program is you can keep using it on your computer.
Benefits of Converting XLS to PDF
Transferring Excel documents from one computer to another can cause problems. Excel is a great tool to gather and organize data that can help determine the best course to go with for a company. The data collected are from sales, cost of supplies, and insurance costs from the information available.
If the data is incorrect or because it’s translated wrong, then your plan crumbles. The copy of that document might not be accurate to how it looks when you worked on it on your computer.
1. Correct Format
Converting the files from Excel to PDF will help fix that problem. When converting to PDF, the format of the file’s layout is correct. How you designed it will look how you want it when presenting the file.
2. Easy to Use
For project presentations, PDF format is favorable in both the business world and schools. It’s easy to use because it sets up your work in “slides” making your project clean and organized. Your presentation will be understandable for the people listening.
Converting to PDF can give clear explanations of the layout you made in Excel. You can add graphs that can provide a better image for others to understand when you present it. In PDF, you can also design it to get their attention and get your point across.
3. Password Protected
The data collected from a business’s finances is easy to steal. In today’s world, corporate espionage is one of the biggest threats to a business. The sensitive information saved in your Excel project can damage your company’s assets.
Even if you only keep that file on your computer, it’s still easy to hack. That’s why every office computer in your company must be password protected. Converting to a PDF file gives it an extra layer of protection because it can have a password.
Now, if someone wants to steal that file, you have both a password for your computer and that file. Even if they get it, they still need to crack the password. With a long password, it takes a long time for them to get the information. By then, with new data for your company’s finances, it will be unusable.
4. Good for Any Operating System
One problem for Excel is the formatting and how it can change from one computer to another. This happens often when another computer has a different operating system. The two popular operating systems are Microsoft OS and Mac OS, owned by Apple.
Now you do this project on Microsoft Excel. If you send the data, it would look different. Some features are available for Microsoft Excel that may not exist for Mac OS. Those features won’t translate well into Mac OS because it doesn’t support it.
PDF supports any operating system, even OS used by phones like iPhones and Android phones. PDF is accessible for everyone; if your boss wants those documents by that day, he can see them on his phone. If your company uses Mac computers, whoever you need to send that document can also view it.
5. Easy to Print
Excel is very organized but when printed, it can look very messy. For a business, it comes with many variables. It is best to use Excel when computing sales and costs of production. There’s a lot to consider, and it can be pages worth of data fitted in Excel.
When you get it printed, it is hard to organize, and it may not look clear to others. Converting to PDF organizes those pages in slides, giving it a clean look when printed. You can include graphs in those slides for added clarity to your statistics.
Conclusion
Technology has certainly had a way of making things a lot more convenient for us humans. Even storing and organizing your documents using your computer is easy.
PDF allows people to collaborate. It also has strong security over confidential files. It is alright to make PDF your regular file format since we knew it to be very reliable and convenient.
