Prepare your document

Create a PDF file from your document

Reducing the size of large PDF files

Prepare your document

AMIS can only host electronic versions of documents (PDF format). So before uploading a document, you need to have or create a document in PDF format. This document will be accessible by all AMIS visitors worldwide, so make sure you upload quality documents!

Your document should have a front page with at least the following information:

• the editor,
• the author,
• the full name and reference of the document,
• the version (final, draft; if applicable),
• the date (year) of publication

Make sure the content is well documented. 
Example: if you are talking about the annual rice production statistics in Rwamagana being 8000 tonnes. This information is not sufficient and has to be clarified on the following points: Which entity is defined by Rwamagana (the city, the district or the cel)? Does the production concern dried rice, after husking?  Does it concern wetland rice only? ...

If you want a particular licence to be used, specify your licencing information. Per default, all content on AMIS without licensing information is subject to the Creative Common Attribution (CC-BY) licens. This means that anyone is free to distribute and modify the file as long as you attribute its author(s) and licensor(s) (mention source of document). For more information about licencing issues navigate to the Help menu About licences. 

Create a PDF file from your document

Once your document is well "ready", you will have to transform it into a PDF file. 

To to transform a document, spreadsheet, presentation... into a PDF file file, you will need the appropriate software. If you do not have this kind of software (Adobe Acrobat Professional or a PDF printer for example) go to the create PDF files section in the Useful software tools page to find out about freely available PDF creation tools. 

The PDF printers act as a printer, but instead of sending the to be printed information to a printer, it creates a PDF file that you can save on your computer. Other free software like OpenOffice can convert most types of office documents into PDF files while keeping the links active of the table of contents. 

Please make sure to create your PDF files as small as possible. In PrimoPDF for example choose the option to create the smallest files (Screen).

Reducing the size of large PDF files

With PDF printers, it is also possible to reduce large PDF files by reprinting them using a small PDF format, and thus reducing the image sizes etc.