Saving an Excel Workbook as a Portable Document Format (PDF) converts a spreadsheet into a universal, non-editable file format, allowing for easy sharing and viewing. For example, a user might save a financial report as a PDF to share with colleagues or clients who do not have access to Excel.
Converting Excel to PDF offers several benefits. PDFs are universally accessible, preserving formatting and layout across different platforms and devices. They are also more secure than Excel files, as they cannot be easily edited without specialized software. Historically, the ability to save Excel as PDF gained prominence with the rise of digital document sharing in the early 2000s, as it provided a standardized format for exchanging complex data.