alfa shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.docmanagement:

I need to save word files to pdf files. How can I do this best? I
currently have Office 2000 and Windows XP home edition. I have Adobe
Acrobat Reader 5 so can read pdf files, but cannot create them. I
have been told that newer versions of word can easily be saved as pdf
files - is this correct? So do I need to upgrade my version of word?
Does the type of printer and its software make a difference?

Alfa,

You have been misinformed. You need a "PDF printer" like CutePDF (as Jo
Peti wrote).

You can also install OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org), a free/libre
productivity suite with a *very* high degree of com{b,p}atibility with
MS Office. OpenOffice supports creation of PDF files "out of the box".

Some would consider switching from MS Office to OpenOffice an upgrade,
but this remains a point of discussion, upon which I shall not pursue
in greater depth.

--
Amedee Van Gasse