Pdf Doc Created In Win Works On Any Os

I have of course viewed tons of PDF docs in my time, but I had never really thought about the behind the scenes details. So, I read about it some yesterday. I wanted to confirm if my understanding was right.

Sooo ... say I convert an MS Word Doc into a PDF doc with my Windows XP. I used an App called PDF24 or something along those lines. Now ... can that PDF doc be opened up and viewed as is by ANY OS, be it MAC OS, Linux or whatever? No need for any converters of any type on their end?

 

The format was developed to be cross-platform:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format

 

That was one of the sources I was reading ... that one and one straight from Adobe. I just wasn't 100% certain that how and what I thought I was understanding, was actually correct.

Thanks for the confirmation. At least I THINK that was a confirmation of a YES.

 

tl;dr Yes, confirmed.

PDF means "Portable Document Format". To make it "portable" it is necessary to make it follow international standards. The current PDF 1.7 specification is standardized in ISO 32000. There are more ISO standards around it, e.g. exchange of graphics (PDF/X, ISO 15930), archiving (PDF/A, ISO 19005), format for technical documents (PDF/E, ISO 24517), etc. That means, yes in general PDF documents that meet the standards are portable/cross-platform even though standards are not static forever. E.g. Adobe already developed extensions for their software. Descriptions of these extensions are published but other software developers may or may not implement them. PDF 2.0 is already under development ...

 

Thanks for that clarification of MaxTurner's confirmation, GermanOne.

Now the next time I'm in a situation of for example, sending my Job Resume Online with the only options specified being either PDF or Text Only ... I'll opt for PDF this time. Only until recently did I realize how easily I could convert my MS Word Doc version of my Job Resume to PDF. Before, in those situations I chose Text Only over PDF when MS Word Doc was not allowed. However, I never felt comfortable because it's usually some tiny box that one has to copy & paste a Text Only Resume into and who knows what jumbled mess might arrive at the other end sans all formatting if that tiny box removes all formatting. Well, whatever little semblance of layout formatting one can sprinkle on a Text Only doc.

 

You can save something you produced originally in doc format to a plain text copy and upload that, or you can copy n paste the body of a doc into a text option. Employers, in the main, don't care at all about formatting. They care about the words in it and it not being long-winded. As well as that more employers than you would think use OCR recognition software which is already programmed to identify key phrases they want to see in a CV/Resume, and the fewer it finds the more likely it will never be printed out or looked at by a human being.

 

Still though, a plain ole Text Only Resume not displayed / not rendered as it was meant to do so, can make for a mess ... Text Only, but a mess nonetheless. I just don't like the idea of not knowing how something is going to display at the other end.

Anyway, thanks for the additional info regarding the OCR recognition, Max.