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TECH TIP
Posting PDF Files on Facebook
You can attach one to a post or a status update, but only if you are using a certain type of Facebook page.
Q. I wish to import a PDF file to accompany my post in Facebook. Can this be done?
A. Facebook allows its members to attach and upload PDF files to posts only under certain circumstances — and not on personal profile pages. If you have a Facebook business page for a restaurant, you can upload the menu as a PDF file. To do so, go to the page, click About on the left side, go to the More Info area, click Add Menu and select the PDF of your menu.
You can also share a PDF file with the other people in a Facebook Group. To do that, go to the Group page, click the More button, select Add File and choose the PDF document to upload. On the left side of the Group page, you can also click Files and then Upload File to add the PDF document.
While Facebook may limit uploads for personal pages to photos, videos, animated GIF files and web links, you have other ways to share the content of the PDF file with friends. For something like a single-page poster or form, saving the PDF file as a JPG photo allows you to post an image of the document as a picture; you can convert it for free with the Mac’s Preview program or the PDF to JPG app for Windows. Taking a screenshot of the open page is another way to create a picture of it to post.
If it is a more complicated file, like a multipage document or an interactive form, store it on a file-sharing site like Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive. Once the file is online, create a public link for sharing and then post that link on your Facebook page.
Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.
J.D. Biersdorfer has been answering technology questions — in print, on the web, in audio and in video — since 1998. She also writes the Sunday Book Review’s “Applied Reading” column on ebooks and literary apps, among other things. More about J. D. Biersdorfer
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