5 Tips on Cutting College Costs with PDFs

September is National College Savings Month. Did you know that many students are turning to PDFs to avoid the cost and physical hassle of textbooks and handouts? It makes sense, as the typical student spends $300 - $400 per semester on textbooks (at least!) while their electronic counterparts can cost 50 percent less.

PDF software such as the free PDF reader from Nitro PDF do much more than just allow students to "read" documents. Students can take notes on the PDF, copy text for writing papers, and search for important facts without having to "dog-ear" text books. Using PDFs is a greener solution, too. According to the environmental consulting firm Cleantech, the typical book generates almost 17 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents. Textbooks release more than double the CO2 equivalents of the average book. So not only will college students save money by using PDFs – they will help the environment too!

Want to know more ways to save money? Here are Nitro PDF's 5 Tips on Cutting College Costs with PDFs:

1. Digitize note-taking with PDF
More students than ever before are working with PDF files thanks to professors and faculties who issue electronic excerpts from books, course notes, and more. A growing number of college textbooks are also being made available for electronic purchase – often at half the price of their physical counterparts – enabling students to take notes faster, search them more easily, and access all of their coursework and materials from the convenience of a laptop or USB drive.

2. Carry less on campus by going paperless
Avoid lugging heavy books around and scan paper to PDF using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to create easily archived, searched, and edited documents you can reference all semester long.

3. Easily re-purpose text and images
When referencing a quote or paragraph, don't spend time re-typing an entire passage – simply extract the text electronically and copy-and-paste what you need – even snapshot images or charts for easy re-purposing.

4. Store your school materials in the cloud
Nitro Reader's Evernote integration makes storing and accessing your coursework easy – and free. Save PDF files directly to your Evernote account to access them from anywhere, and easily share them with others.

5. Take group project collaboration online
Group assignments are a fixture of college – they can also be incredibly frustrating. Collaborating electronically saves time otherwise spent trying to balance multiple schedules and contributions and allows all members to be involved regardless of time or place. It even makes it harder for that one slacker in the group to fly under the radar.

Head on over to www.nitroreader.com to download the free Nitro PDF reader. Or, if you want even more features than the free version, Nitro PDF is offering an exclusive Back to School discount on its flagship product, Nitro PDF Professional.

From September 1st through 15th, students can use the discount code BACKTOSCHOOL to obtain a 50% discount on Nitro Pro – a saving of $49.99!