In the Windows world, you do have to have an Acrobat writer, although I've heard of some freebie
PDF writers. Anyway, Acrobat writer (like all Adobe products) is fairly expensive. I use an academic
version 6.0 that cost me $150 several years ago.
One feature is that the Acrobat writer program creates a virtual printer, which any program can use. If
you're using Word, it merges a PDF writer function, and provides access to PDF document controls.
The Acrobat Writer program also allows direct editing of the PDF document at text and graphics levels including
inserting/deleting pages, figures, even sound and animation plus links to other parts of the document, external
documents and internet URLs.
You can also control compression, add security features and passwords, insert markups and comments, etc.
It's quite a bit more than a simple PDF writer.
L.
PS - You don't have to append pages one by one, you simply print your entire document as a PDF. Also, the writer
allows you to insert/merge multiple documents together, PDF file editing.
"Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune is always here." -Goethe