One of the problems in the past with multiple Operating Systems and versions, was that you could not easily share a document from a UNIX machine with a Windows machine, or a Mac. These days this is no longer an issue and great solutions that look beautiful can now be used. Hopefully this blog entry helps you remember this and start doing it this way too.
Using PDF you can store a written document from Microsoft Word on Mac or Windows, or iWork Pages on the Mac, or OpenOffice.Org on Linux or another OS. You can export, save as.., or print as, PDF and then email this document to anybody via email. Attach it to a blog entry, share it over Pownce or another online service, or whatever. Another user (based on permissions) could download and open it to read.
On the Mac you can easily use the GUI to open multiple PDF documents, drag pages from one PDF file to another, change the sort order, store as a new file and easily share it.
And because it is a PDF, everything is included. All the pretty mark up, fonts, and what not. Pretty!
Disclaimer: The below images are taken from the Apple Quick Tips Podcast.
Safari : Easy loading of PDF in the browser, with easy tools to zoom in, out, load in preview instead, or store as a pdf document on the computer.
Selecting a page from the thumbnail preview column allows you to easily change the order.
Or drag a page out of the preview panel and drop it in another document for inclusion.
Or if you have multiple PDF files open you can drag one or more pages to another pdf file to expand it.
All in all, it’s very easy to work with documents these days that especially makes it easy to share it with others without having to worry about ‘Will it load in the browser?’ or ‘Will my font change or the markup, are images included?’, etc.