So you want to make an ebook, do ya?  That is great!  Ebooks and pdf reports are great to give away to help build your email list or to sell for some online profits.  Info products online are big business and learning how to make a document into a pdf report with clickable links is super important to the success of your online business.  Let’s take a minute today to learn how to create a document and convert it into a pdf report – in simple PotPieGirl steps (yes, with pictures) and then we’ll learn how to sell an ebook with PayPal.

How To Make An eBook – The Free and Easy Way

I have tried quite a few pdf converts in my time, but I have finally settled in on a VERY easy (and free) way to make my pdf reports.  I have to give a big thanks to Chris Kellum for pointing this out to me, too.  Thanks, Chris! (can’t forget my manners, now can I?)

Let’s Make an eBook

Ok…. know how everyone says to start by creating your document in Word?  Well don’t do that.  Trust me on this.  You’ll see why in a moment.

Go to OpenOffice.org and download Open Office for free.  Open Office is kinda like MicroSoft Office.  It has a word processor like Word and it is very similar to use.

I know, I know… you are wondering why you have to download ANOTHER word processor when you already have one….  But trust me on this one, ok?

So, go to OpenOffice.org and click the “I want to download OpenOffice.org” button.  That will open up a green box that says “Download Now” – so click that and start the download.

Go ahead and let it download and then install it. It’s all pretty straight-forward. If you have any issues, just check at their site.

Writing Your eBook

Once Open Office is installed on your computer, you can go to your Start menu and click to open OpenOffice.org. You want to create a text document, so choose that.

The program in Open Office that makes the text documents is called Writer – and it is really, really similar to Word.

Now, you write…or well, you type =)

I’m sure you have a terrific idea already for your digital ebook, so type away. Go ahead and add images or screen shots if you’d like – whatever you want and need to make your ebook complete.

As for putting links in your ebook….

This is one thing I LOVE about Open Office – all the links WILL work.  You don’t have to only make http:// type straight url links – you can make anchor text links, too.  They will all “take” and work great if you make your pdf ebook with Open Office.

How To Convert Your Document Into a PDF

This is the other thing I love about Open Office Writer.  Look at the top of your Writer screen….see that little PDF button?  Yep, you guessed it, when you are ready to convert your document into a PDF, all you do is click that.

Once you click that, Open Office Writer will ask you to give the pdf a file name. Do that and click “save”. (Note: I always choose to save my PDFs to my desktop so I can easily find them right after creation. I tend to lose things on my computer, so this trick has really helped me when working on PDF ebooks.)

After clicking “save” you will see Open Office do it’s thing and convert your document into a PDF file. As soon as it’s finished, you will find your new pdf report sitting right there on your desktop (if you save it to your desk top like I do)

Just double click the pdf on your desktop and you can read your eBook!

Now, THAT was easy, wasn’t it?

Common Questions About Making an eBook PDF

Q.  What if there are errors in my PDF eBook?

A. NO PROBLEM!  You can go back in to your Writer document and correct, add, or whatever you want to do and then convert it into a PDF all over again.

Q.  Is my original Writer document gone after I convert it into a pdf?

A.  Nope – it’s all still there.  You can work on the Writer document as much as you want, and convert it into a PDF as many times as you want. Don’t forget to save your Writer document, too!

Creating a PDF ebook or report is very, very simple to do.  Try it – I bet you’ll love how easy it is, too.  It’s really great when you don’t have to download and install a separate PDF converter – especially one that doesn’t convert your links properly.  This process is all-in-one and works like a charm…..AND, the price isn’t bad either (free).

Next post: How To Sell an eBook with PayPal

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Make A PDF eBook