Sending out Pages documents

Note: there is an important follow-up article on this blog in which I describe how to send Pages documents as email attachments. Please read it here.

In a Pages document

- click Print (command+P)
- in the Print dialogue window click PDF drop-down menu, go to Mail PDF, click and the Pages file automatically converts to PDF and attaches itself to a new email message.
- send.

Pages documents are huge files (in fact they are a collection of folders smartly put together and displayed by the Mac) and are difficult to send, share and modify via e-mail. So PDFs have to be used.

I was first converting Pages to PDF and then sending them out. But then I noticed that little feature - Mail PDF, which saves a lot of hassle and does the job straight through.

There are a few qualifications, though.

- Press quality PDFs with CMYK colour separation have to be processed and checked separately.
- Hotmail adresses for some reason don't function reliably with Apple Macs and it is best to avoid using them, ask your correspondents for an alternative address.
- Graphics heavy PDFs may exceed the ISP mail message size limit (often set at 10Mb) or be rejected by recipients mail application. In the bottom left corner of the Mail message there is an Image Size drop down menu which allows to reduce the size of the ATTACHED file, rather than the original file itself.