Some PDFs can’t be converted to another format, but they can be copied and pasted into another document. That’s a little inconvenient but not a real problem. However, some e-books are so secure that copying is disabled. There’s no way to read those on anything other than a computer with Adobe Reader.

I totally agree that PDF is the format of choice for a self-published e-book, as much I dislike it personally. :-) Actually, I don’t dislike PDF … just PDF e-books.

I prefer to read HTML or rtf because I can read them on my e-book reader. However, I can usually convert PDF to one of those formats to import to my e-book reader. And most people who read e-books may not have a dedicated reading device, but everyone has (or can download for free) Acrobat Reader. If the PDF is encrypted so it can’t be converted to another format, I don’t read it unless it’s very short.

FYI – Word 2007 has the feature to save as PDF as part of the program. Since I have Adobe Acrobat, I haven’t used the built-in Word function, so I can’t positively say whether it includes hyperlinks or not, but I believe it does.

I never reinstalled OpenOffice after the last hard drive reformat I did, so I installed it again yesterday. I don’t know if I’ll switch over to using it or not, but I’ll monkey around with it a bit. Maybe I’ll do my challenge e-book using that and PrimoPDF, just to show that it can be done as easily for free. We’ll see.

@Opal – Yes, any word processing software should work just fine. :) Does the pdf feature in Scrivener let you include live links? That’s a good thing to know for those who might also be on a Mac. :)

I’m hoping I can participate in this project I still need to make sure I have the time to commit.