Omnivorous Surfer

Youblisher is an interesting site. It takes your PDF document and makes it into a flippable online document. The site requires registration, but it is 100% free.

I tried it out on a simple Word document I've been working on to see how it works. After saving it as a PDF document and uploading it, I was given a link to the publication, code to copy and paste a link to the publication, and code to embed either a small or large cover to serve as a link to the publication. Click on the embedded cover at right to view my document. When on that site, click and drag on a page to turn it.

How cool for students to be able to "publish" their creations in this way!

If you ever need or want to edit, comment on, or fill in a PDF document...or for that matter, Word document, PowerPoint document, PNG or JPG image, or web page...then you might want to check out crocodoc. You simply upload the file, or enter the URL of a website to create a snapshot. Then you can insert comments or text, strike through or highlight text, or draw on the image. Your document will be stored by crocodoc and can be downloaded as a PDF. Additionally, you can choose to share the document for collaboration. You can view and try out crocodoc's features on the website.

crocodoc could be used by a student to highlight and annotate any text or pdf document or annotate an image or website and then email it to the teacher. Evaluating the design or content of any of the supported formats could be done by an individual or multiple individuals. I'm sure there are many other specific educational applications that others will see.

I was creating a form in Excel for a friend this morning and wanted to have her take a look to see if she liked its appearance and suggest any changes. I won't be seeing her for a few days, and she is not very comfortable with computers, so sending her an attachment was not going to be the best option. In looking for a way to let her easily view a PDF version, I tried Zoho Viewer. While Zoho is a complete suite of productivity, collaboration, and business applications, I won't attempt to address those in this post. Instead the focus will be on Zoho Viewer.

It really couldn't be easier. All you have to do is browse to select your document, indicate how long you want it to be available from their server (1 day-"do not expire"), and click the view button. From the viewer you have option of saving the file, sharing it (put in an email address and a message, and off it goes), embedding it (code is generated for embedding the document itself or a link), and printing it. From the email or the link, someone who views the document has the same options.

For presentations, text documents, and spreadsheets, you have the additional option of exporting it to any of the supported formats appropriate for that type of file. For the spreadsheet, even the charts exported as editable charts.

File formats supported include MS Office, OpenDocument, and OpenOffice formats as well as pdf, rtf, html, txt, and csv. The Excel example on the site shows that it will display multiple sheets in a workbook. A PowerPoint presentation can be viewed as a slideshow (no animations or transitions) or exported to any of the above-mentioned presentation formats.

I was not successful in obtaining an acceptable view of a document with several images included, probably because of the layout specified for them within Word. This was my only failure. The solution in this case would have been to upload a pdf version of the document.

This is so quick, easy, and clean. To make it even better, there is no registration required! I think this is a great way to share a static document simply for viewing or for downloading, or to share a document via email without having to use an attachment. Nice!

I have used Zamzar for a long time and just realized that I have never posted it here. This site will do a greater variety of conversions than most others I have seen and so can be quite useful.

This is my preferred site for converting YouTube or "otherTube" movies to a format (.mov, .wmv, .flv, or other) I can save to view/show offline; use the "Download Videos" tab for this. All you need to do is to paste the URL (Internet address) of the video in the first box and choose your preferred file format. If you have a video file on your computer you want to convert to another format, Zamzar will do that, too. The audio from these videos can also be converted to .mp3 or other audio format if you don't want or need the video portion.

For converting PDFs to .jpg, however, I use ConvertPDFtoImaGe.com. The site does other conversions, too, as described in an earlier post. Rather than email the converted file to you, this site allows you to simply download it once the conversion is complete.

For conversions other than video and PDF to .jpg, you may want to compare for yourself to see which you prefer.

There are times when I have wanted to convert a page of a PDF document to an image to be inserted into a Word document or PowerPoint presentation. Finally, I have found a site that will do that for me...for FREE.

Upload a PDF document to ConvertPDFtoImaGe.com, and in short order you can download your converted file(s). If you upload a multi-page PDF document, you will receive JPG of each page. I definitely like that the file is (nearly) immediately available for download. Other sites I have tried used email to deliver the completed document, and often a substantial amount of time elapsed before it arrived.

Tabs across the top of ConvertPDFtoImaGe window give access to other file conversion actions: PDF to Word, PDF to Text, PDF to html, Text to PDF, and Word to PDF. Wow! That's a lot of file conversion options from one site, and you download your converted file immediately; no there's no waiting for it to arrive in your email inbox, as with other sites I have used. I haven't actually tried each of these other conversions, so I can't comment on their performance, but I certainly will check them out next time I have a need for their functions..

I love having the ability to fill out a form on the computer in the same way I would have done in the "old days" with a typewriter. Unfortunately, not all pdf files are made available in an editable format, so they have to be downloaded to be filled in by hand. This happened today with a medical history form for my dentist, so I looked around to see what remedies might be available online. The best FREE site I found was PDFescape.

Inserting text is fairly primitive, as you have to click each place you want the text; you can't tab from field to field as you would be able to do in an editable pdf document. I think this is a small price to pay for a free option. Each text entry is placed in a text box which can be moved around and the text within it edited. Checkmarks, circles, rectangles, arrows, lines, links, sticky notes, and form fields can also be added to the document.

Important to note: To download a copy of the edited document to your computer, you need to use the site's File menu to Save and Download; saving only saves your current edit on the site. Though you can print the document from the website, you will probably want to download and print from your computer unless you are comfortable changing page setup options in your browser to eliminate the standard text which is added to Internet printouts.

Registration is available but not required. Documents of unregistered users are available for editing only until the web browser is closed; I have exited the site, then opened it in another window and was able to "View My Previously Opened PDF Documents" to continue editing. With free registration, however, documents can be stored on the site; these files will be deleted after 15 days of no use. Registration also allows multiple users to collaborate and edit documents. Additional features for paid subscriptions are described on the site.

I've tried others, but this site really works! Just upload your PDF file to pdftoword.com and you'll receive by email your file converted to a .DOC or .RTF file. The file I tried was fairly large (50+pages) and contained a graphic and several tables. Worked like a charm!