TextMaker is a relatively new word processor that runs on Linux, Windows, as well as on several flavours of handheld PC. I won't debate the merits of TextMaker here -- suffice it to say that I'm an enthusiastic user of this application and think that it is the best standalone word processor available for Linux. It's well worth its $49.95 (U.S.) price tag.
One aspect of TextMaker that I really like is its integrated print to PDF function. To use this function, you must have GhostScript installed on your system.
To print PDFs from TextMaker, you first have to set up the printer to use. Do this by selecting Print from the File menu to open the Print dialog box. On the Print dialog box, click Setup to open the Printer Setup dialog box, as shown below.
On the Printer Setup dialog box, select GhostView[System] from the Options list. Then, select PDF (via ps2pdf) from the Output list. If you want to set a resolution for the PDFs, select a value from the Resolution drop-down list. Remember that the higher the resolution, the larger your PDF file will be.
Click Close on the Printer Setup dialog box, and then click Yes when you are asked if you want to save the changes. Now, you are ready to print document to PDF.
Open a document, or create a new one. When you are ready to create the PDF, click the Print icon to open the Print dialog box. Click the Print to File option, and then click OK. TextMaker asks where you want to save the PDF.
Type a path and filename in the dialog box (for example, /home/scott/Conversions/doc1.pdf) and then click OK. After a few seconds, you get a PDF.
The PDF you get is similar to the PDFs generated by OpenOffice.org. The PDF has no navigation or external links, and is larger than one that you can produce using ps2pdf and its various options. Still, using the print to PDF function in TextMaker can produce usable proofs, documents to e-mail to friends or colleagues, or even for archival purposes.