To save on printing, shipping and packaging costs, many software and hardware companies no longer provide printed manuals. One of the top complaints I hear from computer users is; “I wish there was a manual.” Instead of printed manuals, many manufacturers use online manuals or Adobe Acrobat files on the item CD to house their manuals.
Often times these manuals contain great information, but can be hard to thumb through on your computer screen. My Canon camera came with a 250 page manual in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format on the CD. Instead of battling with the online version, I took the CD down to a local printer and had them print and bind it in small format. The total cost was under $25, and now I have a Continue reading →
If you ever have the need to create a PDF file so you can share it easily with others, or have the need to convert a PDF file into a word processing file, then I recommend giving PDF Online a try. In just a few steps, you can upload a file you want to convert to a PDF or upload a PDF file you want converted to a Word file. Once the file is uploaded, it takes just a minute or two for the service to perform its magic and give you your finished product. Amazingly simple and amazingly accurate.
I fielded a call from a client today who wanted to know how to transfer a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) form he received via email to Microsoft Word so he could fill it out using his computer, save it, then email it back. My short answer was that he couldn’t do it.
Technically, it can be done through a series of computer hocus-pocus, Jedi mind tricks, a great deal of knowledge about the Windows clipboard, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word and a lot of time. Knowing that this client didn’t have these tools at his disposal, I elected to tell him that it couldn’t be done.
Adobe Acrobat forms (PDF files) are not easy to edit or annotate because the purpose of a PDF is to preserve the formatting and integrity of the original document. Some PDF form designers can make their forms fillable using our computers, if they choose to do so. For example, many government sites like the IRS have forms that can be downloaded and printed or filled out right from our computers. Again, these forms are designed this way and not all PDF forms can be filled in via computer.
It bothered me all day that I still didn’t know of a better solution for this common question; how to fill in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) form on the computer. I did some research tonight and found that our new favorite PDF reader (Foxit Reader) has this capability built-in (see illustration). However, the free version will let you fill it in, but if you save, print, or email the filled in form, it will have some verbiage along with it stating that the feature is a pay feature. If you pay Foxit $40, you can use the feature and not have the trial verbage printed on your form. If you need to fill out a lot of PDF forms, this looks to be a great solution.
I write and talk about Web 2.0 all the time and lo-and-behold there is a Web 2.0 option for filling in PDF forms online. Aptly, it’s named On-line PDF form filler. Unlike many of the Web 2.0 services I have introduced, however, On-line PDF form filler charges $1.49 per form. Considering the time savings a tool like this can provide, I think the cost is certainly more than reasonable for the occasional form. And if you need to fax the filled in form to someone, they can do it for you for just another $1.
I like the above two options just dandy, but I did find a few other PDF form fillers that can be purchased, but I haven’t tried them:
For years, most of us have used Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader, later named Adobe Reader, to view PDF files. PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is the easiest way to distribute files and forms to many people without worry about compatibility. Like most commercial software, Adobe’s product used to be small, fast and work well. Since version 5 (now they are on 8), the product has become as bloated as many other big name software packages today. It remains free, but will plague your system with slow performance and lots of many irritating automatic updates.
Today, a Windows 98 customer of mine was having trouble with his Adobe Reader versions 5 and 6. After doing some research, I remembered a small, free program called Foxit PDF Reader that does exactly what Adobe Reader does but in an extremely small package. The Foxit download is barely over 2 megabytes which is just 1/10th that of Adobe’s 22.3 megabyte behemoth.
If you are looking to get better performance from your PDF reader software, give Foxit a try. It works for all Windows versions from 95 through Vista.
I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but the following is an excerpt from an email that my brother-in-law sent me. As Windows Vista proves to be a bigger lemon than anyone ever expected, Linux geeks are taking control. The future of non-Windows systems is very promising.
Freespire is the free version of Linspire (which used to be Lindows before Microsoft sued them). They started releasing a free version a while back to try to get some more community development going.
I recommend it because they start their codebase with Ubuntu version 7.04 (so underneath the hood, it’s completely Ubuntu), but they add in a bunch of really useful stuff.
The most useful of these extra features are the proprietary codecs and drivers. Linspire/Freespire is the only major Linux distribution that comes bundled with support for MP3, WMA, etc, plus a bunch of non-open source drivers for wifi and video cards and other hardware.
They also include a bunch of proprietary software like Flash, Java, Quicktime, and Adobe Acrobat.
The other distributions don’t include this stuff because they don’t want to pay licensing fees, and because it’s not open source software, so if you’re a purist, it kind of violate the Linux philosophy.
On my old laptop, I tried half a dozen different distros (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Gentoo, Suse, etc…), and Freespire was the only one that got my wireless card working right out of the box, without fiddling with ndiswrapper or any of that crazy command-line stuff.
Like I said, Linspire/Freespire both contain a bunch of stuff that’s not open source, so for somebody who’s moving to Linux as a political or philisophical thing, it’s probably not a good choice. For somebody who’s just looking for solid, free alternative to Windows, it’s pretty cool, though.”
Extensions are small add-on programs that either enhance your Internet browsing experience or give you new tools that give you quicker access to information you already search for using the Internet. Mozilla Firefox gives you the most options at customizing your browsing your experience. In addition to being, what I believe, is the smartest and safest web browser around, Firefox extensions make Firefox a browser that is second to none.
To find Firefox extensions, Click Tools –> Add Ons –> Get Extensions from your Firefox menu.
Once you arrive at the Firefox extension page, you can search through what is available, and install the ones you feel might be helpful. Like almost everything in life, too much of a good thing can be bad, however, so install extensions judiciously so you don’t end up with a browser that has SO many extras that it takes a long time to load and slows down your entire experience.
Once you find an extension you want to try:
Click the large, green “Install Now” button
Click “Install Now” again on the next screen
Restart Firefox if necessary (many extensions do require a restart).
My favorite extension is extending the capabilities of the built-in search box in Firefox. On installation, Firefox automatically gives you a search box that has Google, eBay, Amazon, Wikipedia, and a few other search engines. If you click the little arrow next to the search box and then “Manage Search Engines” and finally “Get more Search Engines”, you can add as many search engines that are relevant to your needs.
To remove an extension that you may not like or use, follow these steps:
To find Firefox extensions, Click Tools –> Add Ons –> Get Extensions from your Firefox menu. Click the extension you want to remvoe, then click the “Uninstall” button.
Here is my list of favorite Firefox extensions (other than customizing the search box):
Forecastfox – Great weather add-on including radar button
Google Browser Sync – If you have more than one computer, this tool keeps your history, bookmarks and passwords the same on all your computers. GREAT!
PDF Download- Firefox supports reading PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files in the browser quite well, but this tool gives you more options as to what to do with PDF files.
IE Tab – Most sites look and act great in Firefox, but occasionally a site requires Internet Explorer. This tool allows you to open that site within Firefox by putting IE in a special tab.
There are hundreds of other Firefox extensions, and you can find them as I described above, but again, don’t over do it! I have provided a video tip of today’s topic as well that you can see below.
Adobe Acrobat files (PDF) don't open properly in the Firefox browser window. However, one of the main advantages of Firefox is the vast library of add-ons to the browser called extensions. Here is a great one called the PDF Download extension you need if you use Firefox.
I was reading a review of smart phones the other day and had to comment on a topic that comes up frequently in technology…old technology. You all know that my philosophy is 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Too often, I think companies roll out upgrades simply for the sake of upgrading when their original product functioned perfectly. Think about products like Norton AntiVirus, Microsoft Word, McAfee, Acrobat Reader, and others that hit a peak of performance and features about six or seven years ago and did their jobs well. After that, the company's programmers (maybe pushed by managers) continued to roll out product after product with very little extra functionality, but an awful lot of extra junk that was not needed nor is it used. All leading to products that slowed down computers and didn't increase efficiency in any way.
I still think that we are in the infancy of the technology age and many products and technologies need to be continually pushed and improved, but sometimes products perform all the needed functions and need not be over laden with the extra weight of unnecessary code. Microsoft Word worked great in the 1997 version and no appreciable improvement has been made in the latest four upgrades. Instead, the product has become slower and more prone to crashes since the '97 version. The same can be said for the other products that I mentioned earlier.
The article I was reading talked about the Palm operating system, found in Palm handheld organizers and Treo smart phones, being old and having not been updated in nearly four years. Gasp! I can honestly say that after using the PocketPC/Mobile Windows smart phones that come out with new versions almost every six months, the Palm based smart phones are more usable, functional, efficient, user friendly, and smart than any of the other smart phones. Why? Because Palm developed an incredibly intuitive system that works and works well without any hassle. It's easy to learn, maintain, and grow with as needs increase. I never look at my trusty Treo 650 and say, "If only the Palm operating system did…."
Let me compare technology to a mouse trap. I contend (and sales figures agree) that the spring loaded mouse trap with peanut butter, seeds, or cheese catch more mice than any new fangled mouse trap that is on the market. Once a product has proven its worth, don't try to improve on near perfection. Put energies into developing other technologies to assist and enhance what we already have, not replace it for the sake of replacing it.
It bothered me all day that I still didn’t know of a better solution for this common question; how to fill in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) form on the computer. I did some research tonight and found that our new 
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