Convert Documents to PDF Format Online

By Alan Buckingham on October 10, 2012 - Tags:PDF

PDF, or portable document format, was invented about 20 years ago by software giant Adobe and it quickly became their signature product.  Then Flash and Photoshop came along and the PDF was released to open source.  Now PDF has been built into third-party apps from Foxit, Nitro, Sumatra and even Microsoft Word.  In fact, you can even convert files to the format right online without having to even install any sort of software on your computer.  A new site called PDFconv will do everything you want for free and without any download required.

The site is ad-supported so expect to see those while using it, but they aren't intrusive and it beats the heck out of paying for a service or software.  It also supports multiple formats, including JPG, BMP, DOC, TXT, HTML, GIF, RTF and about fifty others.  This opens things up, allowing users to convert, not just basic text documents, but presentations, spreadsheets, images and more, into PDF files.

To get started, simply browse to http://pdfconv.com/ and click the "Browse" button, then navigate to the file you want to convert to a PDF document.  Click "OK" and the file will immediately begin uploading to to the PDFconv web app.

Once you have uploaded your files (you can do up to five files at a time) you can click the "Convert files to PDF" link and the process will begin.  Depending on the file size and the amount of files you added, this could take a few seconds or a few minutes, but the processor does work fairly quickly in the tests I carried out (image files seemed to take more time than text).

When the process completes you will be prompted to right-click the file and choose the "save" option to get your new PDF document onto your computer.

The web app is free, but it does have some reasonable limitations.  It can only convert five files at a time and there is a file size limit of 25 MB.  Neither of those should be deal-breakers for the vast majority of users.  It was quick and efficient, and best of all, it was free.  For those who don't need to process a lot files then this online solution should work fine.  If you find yourself doing this daily, then you may want to consider a desktop solution.

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How to save old Office formats in Google Docs

By Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2012 - Tags:google docs, Microsoft Office

Google recently implemented a change on Google Docs that removed download and export options for older Microsoft Office formats. It is not clear why the change has been implemented, but the result is quite problematic. All documents that you have uploaded in doc, ppt or xls formats cannot be downloaded anymore in those formats. The download as option only displays the new Office formats docx, xlsx and pptx, as well as unrelated formats such as pdf or Open Document formats.

Even Google's file synchronization service Google Drive is not synchronizing the original documents with computer system's it is installed on. All you get are links pointing to Google Docs where the documents need to be accessed.

There is however a way left to download those old Office document formats from Google Docs. It may not be pretty, but it is the only option that you have if you want to download the documents in their original format.

Open the document on Google Docs that you want to download in an old Office format. Click on File > Email as attachment afterwards. This opens a small overlay with a form asking you to add at least one recipient. What it also makes available is an attach as pulldown menu that you can use to change the output format that is sent as an attachment. If you select Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint here, the document will be made available in its original format.

What you basically do is send yourself an email with the document attached to it. This not only works for original Microsoft Office documents, but also other document formats that you have uploaded to Google Docs. Some formats on the other hand, like docx documents, it is not working as you can only attach them in their original format.

The workaround can be useful if you need to create a local copy of an Office document that is hosted on Google Docs in its original Office format. You can also attach multiple documents at once to an email. This is done by selecting the documents in the main document listing on Google Drive and then More > Share > Email as attachment. Note that the option is grayed out if you mix formats. (via Technixupdate)

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Nitro PDF Reader 3.0 available for download

By Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2012 - Tags:PDF, Windows software

Nitro PDF Reader 3.0 has just been released and is now available for download on the official website. The program is a popular Adobe Reader alternative that is offering more features than just the ability to display pdf documents in the program window. Besides that, it ships with options to create pdf from hundreds of input formats, to collaborate with other users, and to use the application's quick sign feature to sign pdf documents. Nitro Reader ships with a set of tools, like extracting images, converting documents to text, or adding text and contents to existing pdf documents that set it apart from pure reader apps such as Sumatra.

Nitro PDF Reader 3.0 is a major release. Existing users can use the built-in update checker to check for that update manually if the application does not do so automatically. To do that, you need to click on Help > Check for Updates. If you are running into troubles updating from a previous version of Nitro PDf Reader to the latest, you may want to give the Nitro PDF Readercleanup tool a go which removes the program forcefully from the system. You can then install the new version of the program after the necessary reboot.

So what is new in Nitro Reader 3.0?

The following four features are new additions that have been added to this version of the program:

• Type Text Smart Alignment provides dynamic visual guides to accurately align typed text in reference to other text, form fields, annotations, images, shapes, and other page elements
• Auto Recovery automatically restores open PDF files, unsaved document changes, as well as viewstates and document focus after Nitro has terminated unexpectedly.
• Scanned Document Detection shows a notification when the PDF file opened is image-based, or scanned.
• Autonomy WorkSite Integration for enterprise deployments of Nitro Reader 3 enables PDF files to be opened from and saved to a WorkSite repository (digital signatures not currently supported)

Below are enhancements that the development team has made to various existing features of Nitro Reader:

• Japanese and Simplified Chinese support for Asian text across all Nitro Reader 3's PDF tools
• Scripting Object Model (SOM) support when filling out static XFA forms
• Web Browser Plugin supports hyperlinks with hashtags that link to a PDF page
• Smaller files sizes when adding text annotations
• General rendering and performance enhancement across many areas of Nitro Reader 3

All users will benefit from general performance and rendering enhancements, while the remaining features only benefit part of the user base. The auto recovery feature sounds fine, especially if you are working with a lot of pdf documents on a regular basis.

The web installer ships without toolbar offers, something that has started to get a bit out of control on today's Internet. What's not so great is that there is no sign of a full installer on the Nitro Reader website, and some users may object to the dependency on Microsoft's Net Framework 2.0 (even though it is included in all recent versions of Windows).

Nitro Reader is definitely one of the better programs when it comes to doing more with pdf documents than just accessing them.

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Comodo Releases Internet Security 2013 Beta

By Alan Buckingham on October 11, 2012 - TAGS: None

Computer security and anti-virus company Comodo have rolled out the first beta version of their Internet Security 2013 suite of utilities.  The latest set of utilities contains an anti-virus scanner, firewall, sandbox technology and all of the other apps included in past versions.  While there aren't any new apps included in the suite, there is quite a bit of new technology that will bring the software into the modern age of computing, making it ready for the new mobile generation.

The user interface has been completely redesigned with a more colorful look and touch features that give a nod to the upcoming Windows 8 and the move to tablets.  Improvements have also been made to the sandboxing feature in Comodo.  Sandboxing, if you aren't familiar, locks an app out of the rest of your operating system, preventing it from accessing your PC in the event something goes wrong. The 2013 version introduces a Virtual Kiosk which basically offers a virtual environment for Internet use and apps.

There is a Registry tweak for a full virtualization mode:

• Press Windows-R, enter regedit, and hit the enter key
• Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\software\Comodo\Firewall Pro
• Create the Dword EnableDefaultVirtualization
• Set the Dword to 1

This mode makes sure that "unknown" applications are automatically sandboxed on the system.  The 2013 app utilizes the Kill Switch and Cleaning Essentials to help identify dubious processes attempting to execute on your system.

Finally, Comodo is claiming that the latest version of the Internet Security suite is the fastest and lightest version of the software ever released, but independent testing will need to be carried out to verify that statement.  Keep an eye on sites such as AV Test to get the latest information.

If you are moving to Windows 8 then you may want to pass on any third-party security software since the new Microsoft operating system comes with it's own built-in security, which uses Windows Defender.  If you are sticking with Windows 7, or feel the need for additional protection, then you will have some options, like Comodo, and the other big names in the field such as Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky and many others, as well as free solutions from companies like AVG and Avast.

The beta is currently available in the beta forum which is only accessible by registered users. You probably find it as well on various download portals.

Here is a good video walkthrough of the new Comodo Internet Security 6.0 Beta version (which is the 2013 version).

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Fix Internet Explorer Runtime Errors

By Martin Brinkmann on October 2, 2012 - TAGS: None

When I was working in tech support for a large bank I sometimes had to deal with users who received runtime error messages in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The error messages were always the same: A runtime error has occured. Do you wish to debug? This was followed by the line the error occurred in and the error type. A click on yes opened another window that you enabled you to debug the issue.

We used to fix the issue for users by disabling script debugging in Internet Explorer. To do that, users had to open the Internet Options. Internet Explorer 9 users can do that with a click on the settings button and the selection of Internet Options from the context menu. It is alternatively possible to open the options from the Control Panel.

A click on advanced opens configuration options. Internet Explorer 9 offers two script debugging related settings:

• disable script debugging (Internet Explorer)
• disable script debugging (Other)

You can furthermore make sure the "display a notification about every script error" setting is not enabled to block script related error messages from being displayed in the web browser.

Microsoft has released a Fix It tool to disable script debugging in Internet Explorer. The core benefit here is that you can make the modifications with a few simply clicks  instead of having to make the changes manually. While that may not be much of an incentive for tech-savvy users, it may help users who want the issue to go away without having to dive into the Internet Explorer configuration settings.

Not all web sites may display correctly after making the changes to the browser. While it may fix some issues that you are experiencing, it may very well be an issue of the web page itself. The best option in this case is to switch browsers to see if the page renders fine in another browser, or try Internet Explorer on another computer to see if the issue occurs on that computer as well. The Fix It page lists additional solutions to resolve the issue.(via Techdows)

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