Reducing the file size of a pdf

Sometimes, when creating a pdf from a Word doc, I find that the file size is just way too big.  Often, a single page pdf can have a file size of 100k or larger.

To get the file size down to a reasonable level, I print it.  But rather than sending to a printer, I send it to Adobe PDF.  

After selecting Print from the file menu ->

Choose Adobe PDF, rather than a physical printer.  When prompted for a file name and destination, I choose the same file, thus overwriting it.

On a Mac, you should see a the printer dialog box like this:

After this runs, your doc should have a significantly smaller file size.

I don't know if this process strips out any of the functionality or features of the resultant pdf (I wouldn't be surprised it if did), but for my purposes, which is usually just to present a printer-friendly version of the doc, this method works really well.