Step 1.

Go to Mom's Break and click on Military Printables.

Locate the PDF Free Printable.

Find the download link, and click on it to download the free printable.

If you need more help with downloading free printables or free printable collections, please go to Download a PDF Free Printable from Mom's Break for an illustrated tutorial.

The PDF free printable will open as a web page.

Although you can personalize and print from the web page, it is recommended that you save the PDF free printable to your computer. This will allow you to use the same free printable as many times as you wish.

To save the PDF free printable to your computer, click on "File" in the top left corner of the web page.

Click on Save As.

In the "Save in" field (near the top and slightly to the left of the pop-up window), find the folder where you would like to save the blank PDF free printable to your computer.

You can save the PDF free printable in folder in My Documents, or if it is easier, simply save the PDF free printable to your desktop. No matter where you save the PDF free printable, make a note about where to find it so that you can go back to it later.

In the "File name" field (near the bottom and in the middle of the pop-up window), type in a name for the file. As as example, you could type "Love_My_Soldier_blank" and save this as the non-personalized, blank page.

After you save the blank PDF free printable to you computer, open it in Adobe Reader. To do this, simply open the file as you would any other file or document on your computer (double click the file name, or right click on the file name and then click on Open).

The PDF free printable will open in Adobe Reader and is now ready for you to personalize.

To be able to personalize this PDF printable, you will need Adobe Reader version 8. This is free software that is available by downloading it from the Adobe website. Go to Adobe Reader 8 to download this version, if you don't already have Adobe Reader 8.

For more help with personalizing the PDF free printable, see more instructions below.

Once you have opened the PDF free printable in Adobe Reader 8, your screen should look very similar to the one shown at left.

Remember! You will need Adobe Reader version 8 in order to be able to personalize this free printable. Go to Adobe Reader 8 to download this version.

To start typing your letter, click the mouse anywhere below the graphic and the top of the page, and start typing. If nothing appears, then click the mouse a little lower, and start typing.

NOTE: Depending on the PDF free printable that you downloaded, you may not be able to change the font, font size, or color.

See Step 12 for more ideas for personalizing the PDF free printable.

Once you have finished typing your letter, you can do one of two things:

1. Save it, and print it later.
2. Print it now.

To save it (and either finish or print it later), click on File (at the top left of the screen), then Save As. Save the letter, using essentially the same steps as outlined in Step 5. Be sure to use a different name for this letter, such as "Mike_Letter_1" so that you will still have the original blank page to use again.

If you are finished the letter and do not wish to save it, you can print it in one of two ways:

1. Click on File, then click on Print
2. Click on the Printer icon on the toolbar.

In either case, you will get a pop-up window to finish printing, as shown here. Click on OK at the bottom to print just one copy. If you want to print more than one copy, then change the "Copy" number as desired.

For more advanced printing, you can click on the Properties button to change the printing quality or adjust for the type of paper you are printing on.

There are a few other ways to personalize this PDF free printable! To do so, you will have to open the "Comment & Markup" toolbar.

Click on Tools, then click on Customize Toolbar.

In the pop-up window, click in the box next to "Comment & Markup Toolbar" and then click OK.

When you click in the box, several other boxes will be automatically checked off. It is OK to leave them as is.

For more advanced users, uncheck the toolbar functions that you do not want to use.

There are now more icons on the toolbar.

When you click on any one of these icons, the "tools" associated with them will be ready to use. If you have never worked with these types of tools before, it might be a little awkward at first. However, with practice, you'll be using these like a pro in no time!

The best way to learn to use them is simply to click on one and then experiment with it, to learn what it does and what you can do with it. However, for this tutorial only the Pencil Tool will be explained (see Steps 16-19 below).

Move the mouse over the Pencil icon on the toolbar. A small pop-up window will appear: Click and Drag with the Pencil Tool to draw freeform on the page.

See Step 16 for using the Pencil Tool.

Once you have clicked on the Pencil Tool icon, that icon will be shaded.

Click anywhere in the page now and then drag the mouse around. A red line will appear wherever you drag the mouse. To stop the drawing, just click the mouse. Then you can move it, click, and drag the mouse again to draw another shape.

To try each of the other shape and drawing tools, just click on an icon, and then click on the page. Drag the mouse around and play with the shape.

These tools would be fun for kids to play with so that they can send a picture to Mommy, Daddy, a brother or sister, or any other relative or friend who is currently in the military.

When you want to STOP using the Pencil Tool or any other shape tools, click on the black arrow icon or the icon that looks like a hand (in the picture to the left, these icons appear  above the heart).

To print this, review Steps 10 and 11 above.

This completes the tutorial for personalizing PDF free printables.

The PDF free printable used here was furnished by Mom's Break. To get the military stationery featured in this tutorial, go to:

• Mom's Break Personalize Military Stationery

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Jan K., The Proofer owns the copyright on all tutorials and crafts. © Copyright 2005 to present.