Ready From Start Up

iBooks Author is available for download in the Mac App Store. After downloading the free application, you have the average agreements shown that you must agree to, then you are shown the Template Chooser, as shown above. This page is what you see every time you start up. You have a choice of six templates, all with an educational theme. Less emphasis is put on your previous projects, all confined to a drop down menu at the bottom left of the window. If you have an old iBooks Author project, for example a finished one, you can access it by going to Open an Existing File, and search for the book from there.

iBooks Author’s Interface

The application’s interface gives me many memories of other applications I have used on the Mac. iBooks Author just has that classic Mac app look that we know. This also means that navigation is easy to catch on. You have the top left area that allows you to add a page or section. You can then change the page orientation at the top, edit text, add graphics and graphs, add widgets, and even preview and publish the book by clicking one of the selections at the top. The far right section is where you can access more intricate editing, add photos and other media, as well as customize color and font.

The left side is where you can see the cover, add an introduction photo, and view Table of Contents. This is the point when things get a little confusing. Instead of seeing the Table of Contents of the whole book, you see it for the section. You also have a section for a glossary, showing the application’s emphasis on education. The bottom half of this side allows you to see the full layout of the book, per chapter and section. When focusing on interface, we notice that it’s quite easy to understand. Everything is based on drag and drop. There isn’t a loading time, for example, when I dragged a six minute long video. When you drag multiple photos, the application has blue alignment lines that allow you to align all photos together.

Additional Features

iBooks Author allows you to add widgets into your book. The widgets include photo galleries, videos, the ability to add interactive tests, a Keynote powerpoint, interactive and 3D images, as well as a custom widget through HTML. The widgets section is the feature that allows you to add components that distinguish classic paper textbooks from digital ones. There are many possibilities with using widgets. For example, photo galleries can make the text in your book come alive. Videos can offer a better way of showing the content than what text and even photos can. Interactive tests allow the reader to know if they correctly or incorrectly answered a question, in real time. You also can see interactive images as great for showing off a globe or maybe the anatomy of a body, where the reader can click certain sections and learn more. The possibilities are endless.

The Finished Product

After completing the book, you may want to preview the book on an iPad. Simply connect your iPad, launch the iBooks app, click Preview in the iBooks Author Mac app, select your device, and preview from there. Once done, you have three exporting options. The first option allows you to publish your book on iBookstore. This is where your book is available for mass download/purchase. You then have the ability to export through PDF. Lastly, the whole book can be saved in a text file.

Each option has their benefits and drawbacks. The benefits with iBookStore is that you can publish and sell your books quickly and started making money. The export to PDF option has your book available in a widely shareable format. On the other hand, publishing to the iBookstore means that your content is now partially in the hands of Apple, who get a cut in profits. This also means your book is under their regulations. The PDF option is nice, but you have an iBooks Author tag on each page. The text option is convenient, but interactive content won’t show up.

Our Conclusion

We all want or at least wanted as a child to be an author. iBooks Author has made it incredibly easy to do so. The ease of use will allow Apple to be the gateway for many aspiring authors, creating a new batch of educational content for all to enjoy. However, this ease does come with some drawbacks for the author. If you have read the user agreements (I bet you don’t), it stated clearly that you cannot make money from your book on any other site. This prevents you greatly. Very few well published books stay on just one site. Many are on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other sites. This won’t be possible through iBooks Author. However, if iBookstore is sufficient for you, then you will greatly enjoy the application’s ease of use and accessibility. Why aren’t these eTextbooks available on iPhone? Beyond me, maybe the extra screen real estate, however it won’t be far fetched to see this change soon.

iBooks Author for Mac: Download Link

Over the past few years, I have amassed a great collection of ebooks, albeit in pdf format. I have recently got myself a tablet and found that reading pdf ebooks on the device is a tiring task. While some of the ebooks are formatted properly, others come with 2/3 columns layout and moving from one section to another is rather distracting. Converting these pdf ebooks to epub/mobi format becomes an necessary task.

1. Calibre

Calibre has always been my favorite ebook manager. Without a doubt, it is also the best tool for converting your ebooks from one format to another. Calibre is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and it supports a variety of file formats, ranging from pdf to epub, html, mobi, txt, rtf, zip etc.

To convert an ebook from pdf to epub/mobi, first add the book to your Calibre library. Next click the Convert Books (you can choose to convert individually or to batch convert all your books in the library). Change the output format to either epub or mobi. Edit the metadata and cover image. Lastly, click the OK button.

2. Zamzar

If you want a quick solution to convert your pdf files and is not keen to install any software, Zamzar is the one for you. Zamzar is an online conversion tool that allows you to convert files from one format to another. It supports a variety of files format, ranging from images (jpg, bmp, gif, png), videos (mp4, avi, 3pg, ogg) to ebooks (chm, mobi, epub, pdf), and many more formats.

The usage is easy.

1. Go to Zamzar.com.

2. Upload the pdf file that you want to convert.

3. Select the output format (.mobi in this case).

4. Enter your email address.

5. Click Convert.

The converted file (download link) will be sent to your email address.

3. Online Convert

Online Convert is another online conversion tool that you can use. What makes it different is that you can select the device that you are converting the ebook for so it can format the ebook accordingly. In addition, you can change the ebook title, author, add border to the pages and change the input encoding. Also, you don’t have to leave your email address (for those who are worry of receiving spam). Once the conversion is done, you can download it immediately.

Conclusion

As with all conversion, the final format will not be exactly the same as the original format. For some pdf files that are properly formatted, you shouldn’t have problems with the converted ePub/mobi format. However, for some pdf with complicated or badly formatted layout, you might experience some formatting issue in the converted format.

What other ways do you use to convert your pdf files?

Image credit: BigStockPhoto

The Docany PDF converter software exist for only one purpose: to allow you to convert your PDF file into an editable format. Needless to say, the PDF to Text converter converts PDF to text and the PDF to JPG Converter converts PDF to image file (not only JPG). Read on for its review and the giveaway details.

Once you have download and installed Docany PDF to Text converter, you can open it up and start adding PDF files to the list.

You can specify the page range to convert the PDF file into text and also the encoding format (UTF-8 or Unicode).

Lastly, choose the location to save the file and click “Start”.

This is the result:

Similarly, for the PDF to JPG converter, you can select the resolution and the image format (JPG, BMP, PNG or TIFF) to be converted to.

Free Giveaway

The free version of PDF to Text converter only allows 3 files to be converted. The premium version costs $19.90. Thanks to DocanyPDF.com, we are glad to have 20 license keys for each software to be given away.

Update: This contest has ended.

Here’s what you need to do to participate:

Tweet to Enter

All you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

This giveaway begins now and ends Tuesday, 20th September 2011 at 2359hrs Pacific Time. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email.

Share and enjoy!

Check out DocanyPDF.com.

MakeTechEasier would like to thank DocanyPDF.com for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interested in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us.

To save your document as a .PDF, you can either email it to yourself, or you can send it to iTunes. Click on Share a Print, then choose send to iTunes, followed by PDF. To get it into iBooks, we need to first send it to iTunes. There is no option to immediately send it to iBooks, but it definitely seems like there should be.

The PDF document doesn’t even show up in iTunes on your iPad as is. Yet, if you sync to your PC or Mac, you will see that it is stored in your books in iTunes, along with any other PDFs, audio books, or e-books you have in your collection. I only have a few, as I prefer to read books on the Kindle app, rather than iBooks.

If you find your device in iTunes, then click on the Books tab, you’ll see all the e-books and PDFs stored in iTunes. It allows you to check off the things you want on your iPad. It’s very manageable.

Once you’ve checked off the items you want to appear in iBooks on your iPad, whether they be e-books or PDFs, click apply, and iTunes updates your iPad, deleting the items you no longer want, and adds the new items.

Going back to the iPad, open the iBooks app, and you’ll see all the books that you checked off from iTunes. All of them are there. You can also add e-books at this point by going to the store within the app and buying new books. Again, I prefer the Kindle app for this.

Yet, it was the PDFs I was looking for. Once I view the PDFs in iBooks I find the testing document finally added to iBooks. Hopefully Apple will make some changes to this process at some point. It’s not a laborious process, but it does seem to take some extra steps that shouldn’t be unnecessary. The process shouldn’t have to involve going back to your Mac or PC.

What LeapDoc does is pretty smart and useful. It allows you to convert your document on-the-fly and instantly push them to your iOS devices. LeapDoc works with a pair of coordinating apps on your Windows or Mac computer and your iOS-enabled device, such as an iPhone or iPad.

After downloading the app on your device, head to LeapDoc on your computer and initiate the free download by either clicking on “Download for Mac” or “Download for Windows”.

Once the download of the Windows/Mac version isn initiated, it opens up the “Setup Wizard” which guides you through the process of getting the app installed on your computer. It will ask where you would like the app to be installed before it finishes.

With LeapDoc installed, it needs to be able to pair it up to your device. It does it similarly to the way bluetooth pairs items together. It checks your Internet connection, and as long as it’s working correctly, you’ll be asked to set the Device ID.

If you open LeapDoc on your device, it will have the word “ID” in the upper right corner. Clicking on this will give you the device code that you need to plug into the appropriate spaces on the setup of the LeapDoc app on your computer. Doing so will have the two LeapDoc apps now paired up.

Finishing a document, select “Print” in whatever app you’re working in, in my case Pages. From this dialog box you will see “PDF” in the lower left corner. If you click that, it gives you several options of what to do with the .PDF, such as save, mail, open in Preview, etc. Also included in this sub-menu is “LeapDoc.”

This opens up the LeapDoc application and sends a .pdf of your document to your device. When it’s complete, your device will show a push notification letting you know that it’s been received.

Opening up the LeapDoc app on your device, if you click on the word “Download” in the lower left corner, it updates the listing of the PDF files you have uploaded through LeapDoc.

Scroll through the listing to find the file that you are looking for. Clicking on it will open the .PDF for you to view. If you open up the Options menu you can email it or open in or appropriate apps, such as iBooks, Evernote, or a printer.

LeapDoc works with the file formats .PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, iWork, JPG, PNG, and GIF. However, it opens it up as large as possible for viewing purposes, so working with pictures, while it works, should only be used limitedly, as it stretches them out to 8-1/2 x 11 and loses their quality. Regardless, it can be a useful way to transfer your documents for viewing purposes from one place to the next.

The LeapDoc device app can be downloaded from iTunes, and the Windows or Mac app can be downloaded from the LeapDoc website. The iOS download is $4.99. The Windows or Mac download is free.

1. Foxit

Foxit is one of the best alternatives to Adobe Reader.

Firstly, opening a PDF document is almost instantaneous without any noticeable lag. It also does not have any problems handling large documents, images, or any other complicated graphic.

Additionally, Foxit comes with a bevy of useful features, such as a note-taking tool, a highlighting function, and it is even possible to manipulate the text within certain PDF documents. You are also able to fill-in digital PDF forms and save them for later completion. The only criticism of this reader is the the intrusive ads that push its paid products.

Finally, we would like to mention that during installation it is a good idea to enable Safe Reading Mode this ensures that malware attached to PDF files is not able to infect your computer.

In addition to this long list of features, Foxit provides a number of “add-ons” completely free. These include a jpeg decoder, JavaScript support, Firefox plugins and a spell checker. There are also a few pad advanced add-ons, including the PDF Editor and the PDF Creator

Foxit Reader is free and can be downloaded from Foxit Reader 4.3.

2. Sumatra PDF

The principle goal of Sumatra is to provide a fast and simple PDF viewer.

It does not come with many frills, however it loads files quickly and has a number of keyboard shortcuts that make browsing through documents a breeze.

Sumatra supports a number of other formats, including XPS, CBZ and CBR. It can be downloaded from SumatraPDF 1.5.1

3. PDF-XChange Viewer

PDF-XChange is similar to Foxit Reader, it comes with a large feature-set and has speedy load times.

You can browse PDFs using its tabbed or thumbnail view,  perform annotations, add comments, and draw a variety of shapes to mark-up the document. Some of the features, such as text extraction require an upgrade to the “Pro” version.

You can download a free version from PDF-XChange Viewer 2.5.195

4. Nuance PDF Reader

Nuance is arguably the slowest PDF reader as it loads after a splash page.

It also feels slower when browsing and the feature-set is not as complete as Foxit or PDF-XChange. However, it does come with the basic features such as text annotation and commenting and as a bonus there is a free PDF to text converter.

Download Nuance PDF Reader (requires email verification)

5. Google Docs

Google Docs comes with its own PDF reader which is useful in a crunch as it works on any computer connected to the internet.

In addition to viewing PDFs sent to your Gmail account, Docs allows you to upload PDFs from your computer and convert them if necessary.

Once uploaded you are able to view the PDF. Unfortunately, Docs does not come with any other features, such as the ability to manipulate the PDF.

Although Docs lacks features found in most PDF readers, the fact that it is available in the cloud makes it incredibly useful when you are at a computer without a PDF viewer installed.

6. Google Chrome

Like Google Docs, Chrome is a featureless PDF reader. It is useful when you wish to view PDF files without downloading them to your computer.

Clicking on most PDF links on the web automatically launches Chrome’s built-in reader. It is then possible to save the loaded PDF document to your computer.

Conclusion

My clear favourite is Foxit Reader as it combines a complete feature-set with speedy browsing of PDF documents. If you want pure speed I would recommend Sumatra, however for a feature packed product, look no further than PDF-XChange or Foxit Reader. To ensure that you can access PDF files from any location Google Docs or any other web based viewer works best. Finally, for ubiquity, I would recommend simply installing Google Chrome which handles most PDF files on the web without a problem.

Converseen is easy to install and use and will have you on your way to converting and/or resizing your small or large collection of images in just a few simple steps.

Installation

The Converseen website has binaries for the program available for Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE, complete with installation instructions for each.

To install in Ubuntu, type the following in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:faster3ck/converseen
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install converseen

If you need to install it from source, follow these directions:

tar -xvf converseen_0.x_src-tar.bz2
cd converseen_0.x
qmake && make
su
make install

Setup and Conversion

Converseen’s global settings only have two options, one for language and the other for giving you the option to either automatically overwrite images with the same names or “ask first”.

The first thing you should do to begin converting is to select the images you want to manipulate. Click “Open Images”. In the file browser you can select more than one image in a directory by holding Ctrl and clicking each one, or select them all with Ctrl+A.  Click “Open” to add them. If you later need to add more, click the “Add Images” button instead.

In the left column, you will see a preview of the selected image followed by settings to change resolution, dimensions, output directory, and batch name assignment for the new files. You can change dimensions using percentages or pixels. The “maintain aspect ratio” option allows you to set either a uniform height or width, while keeping the right aspect ratios for all images. If the output directory is the same as the current one, you will need to decide whether you want Converseen to overwrite the current files or create new ones. You can do this in the “Output Options” section.

If you want to rename your files, check the “Rename” option and then enter the new naming scheme you want to use. By default it is “#_copy”. That means, if the original is named Beach.jpg, the converted file will be named Beach_copy.jpg.

To convert the images you have added, check the files you want in the batch or click “Check All”. Then, select the image format you want from the dropdown menu. Be sure to click “Image settings” to configure any available features for that format.  JPEG and PNG formats will have “compression level” settings that will affect image quality and size.

When you are satisfied with all of the settings and selected images, click “Convert”. A dialog box will appear showing you how many files have been converted and if there were any errors. When it finishes, click “Close”.

Image Bliss

Converting a large number of images can become time consuming. With Converseen you can let it do the work while you do something else. It also cuts down the number of steps since you can convert and resize images all in one swing. With such an easy tool, you will be in image bliss.

Windows users have it easy. If they’re willing to part with a few hundred dollars, they can use Adobe Acrobat for all of their PDF manipulation needs. On Linux, there’s no one tool that does everything that Acrobat does. The closest is pdftk, a powerful command tool that’s like a Swiss Army Knife for working with PDFs.

pdftk’s strength, and weakness, is that it’s a command line utility. There’s nothing wrong with the command line, but if you only use pdftk once in a while then you’ll probably struggle to remember the commands that you need. Looking at the documentation for pdftk will just slow you down.

So why not go GUI instead, and use PDF Chain?

Getting and installing PDF Chain

You can download and compile the source code from the PDF Chain Web site. If that’s a bit too geeky for you, then check your distro’s package manager for pdfchain. It’s available in Fedora and Ubuntu, and probably a few other popular distributions.

PDF Chain can do a lot. Make that a lot. But most people will probably want to combine and split PDFs. Let’s take a quick look at how to do all both.

Combining PDFs

Why would you want to combine PDF files? Maybe you’re a student who has a bunch of papers you’ve collected for research. Maybe you’re adding a cover to an ebook you’ve written. Or perhaps you want to rejoin the pages of a PDF that you split with PDF Chain.

To get started, click the Add Some File button (it’s the green plus sign). Then, find the PDF files that you want to combine in the dialog box that pops up.

When you’re ready to go, click the Save button. Give the new PDF file a name, and then click OK. Merging the PDFs could take upwards of several seconds depending on how big they are.

Remember that you’re only limited to merging entire PDFs. You can tell PDF Chain which pages from each PDF to combine. Just double click in the Page(s) field. You can tell the application to merge a range of pages (say, 1-5) from each file or a number of pages (for example, 1,2,7,13,21).

Splitting PDFs

Splitting a PDF is just as easy, but it can be a little messier. When splitting a file, PDF Chain takes a PDF and breaks all the pages out into individual files. Like I said, messy. But it is effective.

In PDF Chain, click the Split tab. Then, click the Add button to find the PDF that you want to break apart. If you want, type a prefix for the split files in the Prefix field. The prefix will be the first part of the name of each of the resulting PDF files – for example, Sheet01.

Once you’re ready to go, click the Save button. Tell PDF Chain where to save the files, and then click OK. Depending on how many pages are in the original PDF, it can take several seconds for the process to finish.

Is that all?

Hardly. PDF Chain can also fill PDF forms, extract data from PDF forms, add a watermark to a file, and even pull out any files that might be attached to a PDF that you’re working with. You can also apply passwords and encryption to the PDFs that you create or split, as well as block anyone from printing, copying, or modifying the PDFs.

PDF Chain is powerful and flexible. While it can be a bit on the quick and dirty side, PDF Chain is a useful tool when you have to manipulate PDFs files. It’s one of those applications that you might only use once in a while, but when you do you’re glad you have it.

Photo credit: saavem

Well, we can use a simple tool to allow you to open them as a PDF. Then once they are readable we can make it up with Preview.

Let’s begin by opening that .pub file as a PDF. We will do that with the help of an online tool called Word to PDF. Don’t let its name fools you, it can convert a lot more than just .doc files.

Converting to a .PDF

1. First head to the conversion site, www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf, by tapping it into your browser.

2. Once the page loads, choose the file that you need by clicking on “Browse” in the step one box. Then choose an output name in the second box and put your email address into the third box. Then click on “Upload and convert to PDF”. This site will then convert the files and email it to your inbox.

3. Retrieve the file and save it to your desktop, or to some place where you will be able to find it easily for the second part of this procedure. Just be sure to open the document once to make sure that the original formatting stays the same.

Marking Up Your PDF

Now, we can begin marking up that PDF with Preview. You will only be able to mark it up, and not make any major changes. If you need to send notes to a collaborator, or edits to a freelance professional you have hired, it will be enough. Let’s begin by making your marks:

1. Use your normal highlight tool to select your text.

2. Choose Tools from the menu at the top.

3. In the Tools menu choose Scroll down to “Annotate”. From here you will see a variety of annotation options. You will have a lot of different options. Some of them like strikethrough, underline and highlight you will be familiar with.

Or

You can add a note – they will give you a new bar on the left side with your notes. You can click on them and type whatever you need to say.

See, all of that, with no cost to you at all. Add text will allow you to add words to your project on the document. All you have to do is click on the spot that you want to add text to when the crosshairs appear. Just be aware, while you may be able to alter the size of the box, the text inside it will not change size. You can use this same technique for adding ovals and boxes to the PDF.

Now, you can go ahead and mark it up as you see fit. Then just save the file and you can send it wherever you need to.

If you want to try to go paperless, one way to do it is by scanning all of your important documents and archiving them. That can be easier said than done sometimes, though.

Linux has a number of scanning tools, but many of them are big, bulky, or simply don’t work. If your needs are simple or if you need to scan something quickly and with a minimum of fuss and features, you can’t go wrong with Simple Scan and gscan2pdf.

Simple Scan

If you want simple, you can’t get any simpler than Simple Scan. It’s the default scanning utility in Ubuntu, and it makes the job of going from paper to digital easy.

Get going by selecting “Applications -> Graphics -> Simple Scan. All you need to do is put your document (or whatever) into the scanner and click the Scan button on the application’s toolbar. You can scan one page or multiple pages.

Once you’ve finished scanning, there’s not much else you can do in Simple Scan. You can crop pages or rotate them. Supposedly, you can email scanned files but I’ve never been able to get that to work. Regardless, those options are more than enough for most people.

You can also change the resolution of your scans from 75 DPI (which is pretty low quality) to a whopping 2,400 DPI. But remember that the higher the resolution, the longer your document will take to scan. That can be an important factor, as you’ll find out in a moment.

Simple Scan will save your documents as a PDF, a JPEG file, or a PNG image. Again, nothing special but those formats get the job done.

The only drawbacks to Simple Scan are that it’s a bit slow even when you’re scanning at lower resolutions, and what you scan often winds up with a light gray background – even if the original background was white.

gscan2pdf

If you’re looking for a scanning app that has a few more features but is still fairly lightweight, then look no further than gscan2pdf. While a little heavier than Simple Scan, gscan2pdf is actually faster and overall the scans it produces are better.

You can install it by compiling the source code or by using the package manager in any Linux distribution that uses GNOME. I recommend using a package manager. gscan2pdf requires a few additional libraries, which your package manager should take care of installing for you.

Again, this is an easy application to use. Just click the Scan button on the toolbar.

Before you scan, you can set a number of options like resolution, color, and paper size. This allows you to change your options as you scan, rather than having to remember to reset them before you scan. It’s not a huge gain in productivity, but it saves a bit of time.

Before you save a scan, you can clean it up and crop it or apply some graphical effects from the Tools menu. Other than cropping, I haven’t had much luck with the other tools.

Saving scans is a different story. You can save them as PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and DjVu. You can also email a scanned document using your default email program. When you save a scan as a PDF, you can add metadata containing additional information to the file.

Final Thoughts

Both Simple Scan and gscan2pdf are simple yet useful. They definitely don’t produce the best scans that you’ll ever see, and they’re not the best choice for scanning photos but the results are better than pretty good. If you need to archive documents – anything from receipts to forms to contracts – then Simple Scan and gscan2pdf are a fast, easy, and efficient way to get the job done.

Image credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

A much better way to share PDF files is CrocoDoc.

Introduction

CrocoDoc is a free to use website that lets you view, annotate, and share PDFs online without requiring the installation of any software on your computer. The site converts the PDF file into a document that is readable in its HTML5 interface. Additionally the site can be used to collaborate on PDF documents with other computer users.

Reading a PDF online

To begin using the site’s tools, just click on the blue “Upload Document” button on the homepage.

Next you will point the site to the PDF file stored on your computer. As the document uploads, you will see the following image indicating the progress of the upload.

With the document uploaded, the site’s HTML5 reader will appear and make the PDF available for reading.

Annotating a PDF Online

In the top left portion of the document you will find various buttons that help you annotate the PDF. These are clearly shown in the following image:

The first most useful annotation tool is highlighting. You can select from 4 available colors to highlight portions of the PDF file.

Secondly you can type in your own text on the document. You can change the font size and color of this typed text.

You can even make drawings on the document using the provided pencil tool and its different colors.

Commenting is another annotation tool that can be used to leave notes on PDFs in CrocoDoc. The comments appear to the right of the document. The right-most pane shows all of your annotations along with a list of people who are collaborating on that document.

As you can see, the site provides a comprehensive set of annotation tools all of which are used from within the web browser.

Sharing

You can share the uploaded PDF documents with others in a variety of ways. The most useful way perhaps is to share the unique URL of the document. Visitors to this URL read the annotated PDF document in CrocoDoc’s HTML5 interface.

Furthermore, you can directly send the link through email or obtain the document’s embeddable code. This code can be used to display the document on your website or blog.

Visitors to the URL have the option to download the document in its original form or annotated form. Both downloads are provided in the PDF format.

Collaboration

When somebody visits the URL of the PDF document, they can edit the document if they wish. Hence by sharing the URL with your friends you can work with them in jointly annotating the uploaded the PDF file.

Conclusion

CrocoDoc provides its users with a very valuable service by excellently handling PDF files. Its ability to make PDF files readable in an online HTML5 interface and then make the annotated HTML5 document available as a PDF download will surely be appreciated by all internet users. Add this website to your bookmarks. You will need it.

CrocoDoc.

Open your Google Chrome and type “about:plugins” in the URL bar.

Scroll down the list until you see the option “Chrome PDF Viewer”.

Click the “disable” link beneath it.

That’s it. From now on, whenever you click on a PDF link, it will prompt you to download the file instead of displaying it in the browser.

To restore the PDF Viewer feature, just follow the same steps and click the “Enable” link.

PDFZilla is a simple, yet useful software that can convert a PDF document to many other commonly used formats with as few as 3 mouse clicks. The program preserves the original quality of the PDF files and converts both text and images. You have a choice to convert the entire PDF or selected pages only and even convert multiple files in the batch mode, which may come in very handy when working with large book or document archives. Formated supported by PDFZilla include DOC, RTF, TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF, HTML and SWF files.

The software is priced at $29.95, but for a limited time, you can download it for free.

Simply head over to PDFZilla giveaway to download the free software. This is a fully functional version and the license key is available on the download site.

This free giveaway will be valid till Feb 5th, 2011. Grab it while it is still available.

PDFZilla Free Giveaway

PDF-Shuffler is the frontend interface for pyPdf. pyPdf is a PDF toolkit built with pure-python library. It is capable of extracting document information, splitting and merging documents, cropping pages, encrypting and decrypting PDF files. PDF-Shuffler merely make use of the splitting and merging functionality of pyPdf and turn itself into an easy to use and useful application.

In Debian-based distro, you can install it via:

sudo apt-get install pdfshuffler

In Ubuntu, you have the extra option of installing it via the Ubuntu Software Center. Alternatively, you can grab the deb file from Sourceforge and install it in your system.

Usage

The usage is easy. Open PDF-Shuffler. Click the “Import pdf” button to load your PDF file(s).

Once you have loaded the PDF file, you can drag the individual pages to arrange them or to highlight any pages and press the “Delete page(s)” button to delete them from the file. You can also import in other PDF files that you want to merge with the current document.

When you are done with your editing, you just have to click the “Export pdf” button to save your work. That’s it. Didn’t I say it is easy to use?

A point to note

While using the “export” function, I have difficulty getting it to work. The window just stand still and not doing anything. it took me several attempts to finally save my work. A quick research shows that there is some issue with the pyPdf export functionality, but apparently, very few people have this issue, so it could just be me.

There are several ways to convert a webpage to PDF in Android.

1. Firefox Browser

If you have installed the Firefox browser for Mobile, you will know that it comes with plenty of goodness, including Firefox Sync, tabs support, addons support and personalized start page. The latest beta update also comes with a new feature – Save webpage to PDF.

Using the Firefox browser app, on any webpage that you want to save, press the Menu button and tap on “Site Options”.

This will bring up another window with the “Save to PDF” option. Tap on it.

It will automatically save the webpage as PDF in the Downloads folder.

Firefox market link | Appbrain

2. Web to PDF addon For Dolphin HD browser

Dolphin HD browser is one of the few great Android browsers that comes with gesture, tabs and addons support. One of its many addons is Web to PDF that allows you to save a webpage to PDF file.

As the name implies, the Web to PDF addon requires Dolphin HD browser to work. There is no activation required. You can use it as soon as you installed it. At any webpage that you want to convert to PDF, just slide the page to the left to reveal the right sidebar. Tap on the PDF icon.

It will prompt you to enter the name of the file.

Once you tap “OK”, it will start the conversion.

Dolphin HD browser | Appbrain
Web to PDF addon | Appbrain

3. UrlToPDF

UrlToPDF is a bit more troublesome to use. In your browser, you have to first copy the web URL of the webpage you are going to convert. Open the UrlToPDF app and paste the URL in, then can you click the Send button to start the conversion.

On the other hand, UrlToPDF makes up what it is lacking by providing you with several PDF converter tools. You can choose from Joliprint, Pdfmyurl or CreatePdf.

In addition, I also find its quality of the converted PDF better than Firefox and Dolphin HD. It is also formatted for easy reading on a mobile device.

UrlToPDF | Appbrain

What other ways do you use to convert webpage to PDF in Android?

In Ubuntu, regardless which browsers or applications you are using, as long as it supports the “Print” function, you can quickly create a PDF, postscript or SVG file of the work you are doing (or the webpage that you have come across).

In the application (say Google Chrome), go to the “Print” option in your menu.

Select “Print to File” in the popup window. You will see an option for you to save the file as PDF, Postscript or SVG. Choose the option you want, set the filename and the save location. Lastly, click on the “Print” button.

That’s it. The PDF quality might not be the best, but the process is very fast and it just works.

Note: This trick was tested on Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10. It should work on other Ubuntu derivative distro as well. I have not tested it on older version of Ubuntu and all other distros. If you are using a distro other than Ubuntu, test it out and let me know if it works.

Thanks to @Carl Draper for the trick.

If you are yearning for a better (or faster) PDF reader, here are several options for you.

1. Adobe reader

Adobe reader is the old granddaddy of all PDF readers. At 60+ MB, it is also the bulkiest and most resource-intensive among them all. In term of features and rendering quality, it is also the best. Features included in Adobe reader include commenting capability, interaction with forms, detach and locally save attachment, extended search capabilities and so on.

Adobe reader also comes with a Firefox plugin so you can view PDF file directly in your Firefox browser.

Installation: You can install Adobe Reader in Ubuntu via the Ubuntu Software Center

2. Foxit

Foxit is best known for being a lightweight alternative for Adobe reader. It used to be only available for Windows, but now has released a Linux version too.

The Linux version of Foxit does live up to its name. It is speedy and the quality of rendering is superb. There are also features such as a marquee select function where you can select an area and copy it as image. It also comes with a one-click full screen mode, great for those who like to read PDF ebooks on their desktop. Highly recommended.

The Foxit PDF reader is currently not available in the repository, so you have to download the deb (or tar) file from its website.

Download Foxit PDF reader

3. Google Chrome

All beta and dev version of Google Chrome come with an inbuilt PDF reader that you can use immediately. It is very minimal and only comes with the zoom in/out feature. The rendering quality is good (much better than Evince). If it comes with a search function, it will be a good replacement for Evince.

Screenshots: Comparison of PDF rendering on Evince, Foxit, Google Chrome and Adobe Reader (click to enlarge).

4. Okular

Okular is more than just a PDF viewer. It is more of a universal document viewer that supports documents of multiple formats.

One good thing about Okular is that it allows you to annotate on the PDF file, which most software don’t allow. The bad thing – it does not write the annotation to the files, so if you open the same file on another PDF reader, the annotations will not be around.

Read the full review of Okular.

5. XPDF

XPDF is another popular PDF reader for Linux. It supposes to be a lightweight and efficient PDF reader, but I find it to be terribly slow and ugly. Some of you may like it, but it is not my cup of tea.

XPDF can be found in Ubuntu Software Center.

For intermediate to expert users

6. Apvlv

For those who loved Vim, I am sure you will love Apvlv too. Apvlv is a vim-like PDF reader and it is specially built for speed. It is fast and extremely lightweight. If you are familiar with Vim, you will feel extremely at home with Apvlv.

Download Apvlv (required compilation)

7. Zathura

Zathura is well-liked by many people in the Linux community, mainly because it is highly customizable. It is a command line based PDF viewer (like Apvlv) but it allows you to customize to your liking. Things you can configure include the appearance, keyboard shortcuts, toolbar etc.

Download Zathura

8. MuPDF

MuPDF is a lightweight PDF viewer written in portable C and is tailored for high quality anti-aliased graphics. For a lightweight PDF reader, I prefer MuPDF much more than both Apvlv and Zathura, mainly because it is fast, provides high quality rendering and doesn’t take up plenty of space. One thing though, when you first start using it, it will take some time to get used to its control interface.

Download MuPDF

Quick Poll

You have seen all the alternative PDF readers. It’s time for a quick poll.
Take Our Poll

Cometdocs not only converts commonly used file formats to other commonly used formats, it allows you to convert from file types I haven’t even heard of to PDF and other commonly used formats. Below is a quick walk through of how to use Cometdocs and why.

Using Cometdocs

To convert a file, start by navigating to Cometdocs.com. The main page is laid out in a very easy to use way. Once there, you will see something like this.

Click on the big green Browse button. This will pull up a search window letting you navigate to the document you cannot open.

Once you find the file in question, select the file by double clicking in it. You will be asked what you want to do with the file you selected. Depending on the original file type, your choices may be limited. In the picture below, I was working with a OpenOffice text document.

As you can see there are only 3 choices. When I use something like a plain text document, the available choices raise to 13.

Once you decide on the type of file you need, you will be asked to enter your email address. According to the site, it is for anti-spam reasons and your address is kept private.

You will receive a request asking you to confirm your email address. Click on the link in the email. Once you do, you will be sent an email with a link to download the newly converted document. I was instantly emailed a link to the document. Click on the link and you can download the new document.

Signing up for a free account

Signing up for a free account is super simple. Name, email twice and password twice. The reason for signing up for an account is twofold. You do not need to enter and confirm you email address each time you need to convert a document. The second reason is you will receive priority over non-registered users.

Another nice feature you get when you sign up for the free account is a file manager. Cometdocs will immediately put the file once converted into the file manager so you can access it right away. You can also store the file there. This is great if you are not on your own computer and don’t want to download the file then upload it to an email account, email it and download it later at home.

Conclusion

I think this is a great service for anyone who uses a public computer or if you need to frequently convert file times from something that may be uncommon to something a little more common like a PDF.

What do you do when you need to open a document and Microsoft Office doesn’t recognize the file type?

Cometdocs

If you are like me, and are also using Google Chrome, you are in luck, here are several PDF extensions that you can use to make the whole conversion process much easier and faster.

1. Save As PDF

This is my favorite extension for pdf conversion. In my experience with several other extensions, this is the best, in terms of the speed and quality of conversion.

After installing the extension, you will see an icon at the toolbar. When you come across any webpage that you want to convert to pdf, simply click on the button and it will start the conversion immediately. The conversion is fast (typically less than 5 seconds) and it runs in the background without disrupting you from your work.

Save As PDF also comes with plenty of configuration options (in fact, it is the only pdf extension that comes with configuration option). Things you can configure including the page size, page format, page margin and whether it should convert javascript, images and background. The best of all, it allows you to set a password for your converted pdf file.

2. PDFmyURL

Instead of an icon in the toolbar, the PDFmyURL icon appears in the URL bar. Similarly, on a page that you want to be converted to pdf, just click on the icon and it will do all the work in the background.

The speed of conversion is rather fast, but it is not able to convert images properly for sites that are using lazy loading. In addition, it seems to add an extra margin to the four sides of the page, which make the file size bigger.

3. Web2PDFConverter

Web2PDFConverter is yet another pdf converter extension for Google Chrome. One of its unique feature is the ability to view your converted PDF files in Google Docs. You can then choose to save the pdf file in your Google Docs and free up storage space on your computer.

One annoyance with Web2PDF is that during conversion, it takes control of the browser and prevents you from doing any other things. You won’t be able to switch to other tabs, or even other applications. Doing so will terminate the conversion process. In term of user-friendliness, this is definitely the worst in my opinion.

Wrapping up

If you are looking for a pdf conversion tool for your Google Chrome, I would strongly recommend SaveAsPdf. What other tools do you use to convert your stuff to PDF?

Example: Suppose your friend has messed up her Windows network settings and can’t connect to the internet. She needs your help, but she is unable to understand the textual instructions, articles and the step by step procedure that needs to be done.

In such situations, either you have to go to her home to solve the problem or you can record a step by step screen video, explaining how to fix the issue. That’s when you need screen recording tools and one of the easiest ones out there is IORAD.

IORAD makes it very easy to create step by step instructions on just about anything. If you have developed an application and want to create a visual demonstration, explaining how to use the product amongst other features, IORAD is a tool worth checking out.

How to Create Step by Step Application Instructions Using IORAD

1. First, head over to the IORAD website and sign up for a free account.

2. Once you are in, hit the “Go to application” button, as shown below:

3. Depending upon your browser’s and Windows firewall settings, you may get a prompt as “The application’s digital signature could not be verified”. Choose “Always trust content from this publisher” and hit the “Run” button.

4. This will open the IORAD project application window on a new browser tab. You will see the following interface:

Enter a name and description of the project which you are going to create. This will be useful, when you want to edit or search for the same recording at a later point of time.

4. Once you hit the “Create” button, the application editor will open, which looks like the following:

5. You are ready for the screen recording session. To start recording, hit the “Capture” button on the left and the application will ask whether you want to record the whole screen or just a part of it.

There is another drop down menu which will list all the currently open applications. Select the application which you want to record and hit the “Start Capture” button.

6. As soon as you hit the “Start Capture” button, IORAD will load the same application window in it’s recording frame. Hit the “Record” button and the app will record a complete snapshot of the application window you had defined in the “Window” dropdown above.

When you are done with recording the first screen, hit the “Done” button and a snapshot will be loaded in the IORAD app editor. Now you may add other instructions e.g highlight a section with an arrow, adding custom texts, labels, adding rollover texts and so on. Here is how the interface looks like:

7. This is only the first step of your screen recording. To add more steps, simply hit the “Capture” button again and the app will record the application window of your choice and open it in the same editor.

Once you have edited and added custom instructions to the second snapshot, it will be linked with the earlier snapshot. The same procedure continues with any number of slides that is required for your tutorial.

8. When you have finished the entire screen recording procedure, hit the “Deploy” button to save your Project. That’s it, your screen recording is ready to be viewed by anyone.

Now you have three options:

• Share the direct link of the recording with anyone.
• Embed the recording in your blog or website.
• Download a PDF, .DOCX or PPT version of the recording on your computer.

Hence, IORAD makes it really easy to create a step by step application usage recording and supports easy sharing. Agree there are screen recording applications like Camtasia Studio, ScreenToaster etc but then again, you will need to upload the video on YouTube and then share the video with your friend.

Another problem with videos is that you can’t add so many effects that easily and the videos can not be edited at a later point of time.

Apart from providing tech support, IORAD can also be used for a variety of other purposes. If you have a blog and want to show the most important sections of the website to your visitors, it would be a nice idea to create a screenshot tour using IORAD and embed the sideshow on your blog’s “about” page.

The company is fairly new and promises to add more features and improvements in the coming days. Give IORAD a try and let us know your ideas in the comments section.