Convert Office Documents with Zoho Viewer

Zoho Viewer, an online tool that lets you preview Office documents and PDF files in the browser without any desktop software, now supports document conversion as well.
You may use Zoho Viewer to convert Office 2010 specific formats (like docx) to the more common file formats (like doc) as well as for converting text and Office files to PDFs.

Click the “Convert” tab in Zoho Viewer to get started or directly go to viewer.zoho.com/converter. You don’t have to sign-up for performing document conversions.
Zoho Viewer doesn’t support a variety of file formats as Zamzar does but the service is instant and doesn’t ask for your email address.

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Nuance PDF Reader Can Convert Files Accurately

Nuance, the company you probably know for their speech recognition software, has released a free PDF viewer for Windows that you may not only use for reading documents but for also converting PDFs into other formats.

There's plenty of competition in this space – there are desktop tools like Adobe Reader and Foxit that are also free and then you have online viewers where you can read PDF files directly in the browser without requiring any software.
Since it can be a bit difficult to compete when rival products (read Adobe Reader) are equally good and available at similar prices ($0.00), Nuance has added some unique features to stand out.
When you install Nuance PDF viewer, they give you an option to completely disable JavaScript so PDFs with bad intentions are less likely to harm your system. You can turn off JavaScript in other PDF viewers as well but here you can make that choice at the installation stage itself.
Nuance PDF Reader includes support for basic annotations so you can highlight text with a marker inside PDF document and also save the changes.

The real reason why you want to give Nuance PDF Reader a try is PDF conversion. You can use the software to convert your PDF files to Microsoft Word and Excel formats with a simple click.
I just converted a fairly complex PDF document to Word and the conversion was quick and fairly accurate. The only problem is that conversion happens in the cloud and not on your desktop - you click the "Convert" button, the software will upload the PDF document to Nuance servers and the converted file will reach you as email attachment.
For more, check out nuance.com.

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Convert PowerPoint Presentations into DVD-Quality Video

With PowerPoint 2010, you can create a high-quality video file of your PowerPoint presentations that can distributed by burning a DVD or you can upload it to YouTube and other video sharing sites on the web.
The video file created by PowerPoint incorporates all recorded timings, narrations, and laser pointer gestures. It will also preserves all slide animations, transitions, and media that may be embedded in your presentations.
You can create videos from PowerPoint presentations in the following three formats:
1. Computer & HD Displays - For viewing on a computer monitor, projector, or high definition display (960 x720)
2. Internet & DVD - For uploading to the Web and burning to standard DVD (640 x480)
3. Portable Devices - For devices like iPod or Zune (like a video podcast); Small text may be difficult to read (320 x240)
PowerPoint will create videos in the Windows Media (wmv) format only.

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Use Google Docs as a Batch PDF Converter

If you have a huge bundle of Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint Presentations on your hard drive that you would like to convert into PDF at once without investing in commercial software like Adobe Acrobat, try Google Docs.
While it has always been possible to convert Office documents into PDF using Google Docs, the new export feature makes it even easier for you to batch convert Microsoft Office and OpenOffice file formats into PDF (or HTML) in three easy steps.

Batch Conversion to PDF with Google Docs

Step #1 - Create a new "input" folder in Google Docs where you'll upload all your documents and presentations that are to converted into PDF.

Step #2 - Now select the Upload Document option in Google Docs, set the destination folder to the one that you created in Step #1 and upload* all your documents.
Google Docs officially supports the following file formats though you may also upload images:

• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), OpenDocument (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).
• Microsoft Excel (csv, .xls, .xlsx) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).

[*] You may also use the email option to upload documents onto Google Docs but that would put everything on the main folder and managing documents can therefore become a issue especially when you have too many files.
Step #3 -  Once all files are uploaded onto Google Docs, open the dashboard again and select the "input" folder from the right sidebar. Select all the files in this folder and choose "Export" under "More Options".
Here's select "PDF" (or HTML) as the output format and all your Word Documents, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. will be instantly converted into PDF.

And if you are converting a large batch of documents into PDF, you don't have to wait in the browser for the conversion to finish as Google Docs will automatically send you an email once the processing is over. The email will have a link from where you can directly download all the PDF files in one large ZIP.

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BlackBerry eBook Readers – Read Books & Office Documents on the go!

Got a BlackBerry? Here's a round-up of some free BlackBerry apps that will turn your mobile phone into a proper eBook reader - not like Kindle or Sony Reader but close. Later, we looks at workarounds to help you catch up with business documents, downloaded web pages, PDFs, etc. on your BlackBerry from virtually anywhere.

Review of BlackBerry e-Book Readers

Following is a list of eBook readers currently available for BlackBerry - they are all free software and support most BlackBerry models including the latest ones like BlackBerry Bold and Storm.
1. eReader Pro - This eBook software from Barnes & Noble will help you browse and download books directly on to your BlackBerry device. It can read any of your existing eBooks that are written in the PDB format or you may download one of their free titles to get started.
Just connect the BlackBerry device to you computer, copy the PDB files on to the phone's memory card, disconnect and you can now read this eBooks inside BlackBerry. The eReader software includes a handy search function, you can bookmark pages and it automatically remembers where you left off.
2. Short Covers - This is a unique online book store that provides both a desktop and a mobile interface for reading ebooks. That means you can buy an eBook from Short Covers and read part of that book on your desktop browser and the remaining part on your BlackBerry or another computer. These mobile and online interfaces are always in sync so you can pick up from where you left off on the previous device.
The first chapter of any ebook / magazine available on Short Covers is always free so you can easily decide whether you want to make the purchase. You can also upload your own Word Documents or HTML web pages to Short Covers and either sell this content as other ebooks or distribute it for free under a Creative Commons license.
The BlackBerry Reader software of Short Covers is not perfect yet though their online store and reading interface is pretty nice.
3. MobiPocket Reader - This ebook reader is from Amazon, the same company that develops the popular Kindle e-ink reader. With MobiPocket, you can read files of virtually any format in your BlackBerry including PDF documents, CHM Help files, HTML web pages and Microsoft Office formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
The eReader software supports annotations (or text highlighting), you can copy text from an eBook into the BlackBerry's clipboard (useful for emailing snippets), add notes on individual pages, the layout margins are adjustable and you can quickly navigate around the book with simple keyboard shortcuts. Just perfect.
Using BlackBerry as a PDF Viewer
To read Adobe PDF files in your BlackBerry, you can simply send that file as an attachment to your own email address and then use the built-in PDF viewer of BlackBerry's email client to read that document. The same idea may be used for reading Office documents, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, on the BlackBerry.
That's one approach but if you have multiple PDF documents on your computer that you want to read on a BlackBerry, you may consider buying a standalone PDF viewer like the Documents to Go or Beam Reader. These apps can handle both PDF attachments and PDF documents stored on the memory card of your BlackBerry but they cost money so here're some free alternatives.
Read PDFs & Office Documents on a BlackBerry as eBooks

Amazon owned Mobipocket eBook Reader comes with a free Windows application to help you manage your entire eBook library from the desktop. This app has a built-in tool to convert Office Documents, PDFs, HTML pages, etc. into eBooks that your BlackBerry ebook reader can understand.
So all you have to do is import documents into the Mobipocket Reader bookshelf (see screenshot) and connect the BlackBerry to the computer. It can't get simpler than this.
Save HTML Web Pages as BlackBerry eBooks
If you like to read offline web pages (say a long article that you downloaded from The New York Times website) on your BlackBerry, try Stanza Desktop - you probably know Stanza for their popular eBook reader for iPhone that was recently acquired by Amazon.

With Stanza Desktop, you can open any web page directly in the application and export it into a format that can be read on most mobile devices. It support epub, Palm PDB, Microsoft LIT, Adobe PDF and most other popular ebook file formats.
Unlike Mobipocket, Stanza formats web content (and Office documents) like a real book (sans any distracting elements) and you are therefore very likely to enjoy this layout for reading. You may transfer these Stanza ebooks into BlackBerry via MobiPocket Desktop.
How to Create eBooks for BlackBerry from Scratch
The tools and techniques discussed about are more about conversion but if you like to create an eBook from scratch for reading on a BlackBerry, check out Mobipocket Creator.
It's a free application that lets you create eBooks from scratch using text files, PDFs, Word documents and images. You may preview the eBook in a local simulator before publishing it to the world.

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Extract Tables from PDF files into Excel or HTML

Q: How do you extract tables from a PDF document (like the quarterly earnings report of a company) and paste them into Excel for further editing or what-if analysis.
A: If you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can open the PDF file, select the table with your mouse and copy-paste that data into Excel.
If you don't have Acrobat, you can upload the file the online PDF to Excel Converter here and specify you email address where you want to receive this PDF as an editable XLS document.
PDF documents converted with this utility will work in Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice, Google Docs, Corel WordPerfect and any other software that can open open XLS or XLSX files.
Remember that this utility won't convert your entire PDF into an Excel file - it will just identify the tables in the PDF and will package them into the XLS file while retaining the font styles, colors, cell height and other formatting.

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Save your Word Documents as MP3

If you like to listen to Word Documents on your mobile phone or an iPod, check the Save as Daisy add-in available for Microsoft Word.

This will convert the text of your Word Documents into a Daisy book along with an audio file in MP3 format. The audio is generated by the default text-to-speech (TTS) engine on your Windows computer.
"Save as DAISY" add-in is available for Microsoft Office works with Word XP, Word 2003, and Word 2007. It was originally created through an open source project with Microsoft.

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