Converting a Word Document to a PDF

By Reen Rose

Word is a fabulous program. For the most part it is easy to work with and you can quickly make changes to a document. The ease of editing in Word is both a blessing and a curse. It is simple to modify a document, but if you send it to someone they can make changes just as easily. You may also run into problems if you send your document to someone who doesn't use MS Word. WordPerfect is still used and loved by many. A Word document may not look the same if it is opened in a different word processing program. If either of these situations is an issue for you, it may be time to become acquainted with Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.

PDF stands for Portable Document File. If you want to do anything advanced with a PDF you will need the Adobe Acrobat program. Acrobat is not a word processing program; it is more like a translator. Basically that means it doesn't matter what program the file was authored in, or what program is being used to view it, a PDF document will look just the way you intended it to.

The other advantage of sending your documents to others as PDFs is they can't be easily modified. This gives you a certain level of security if you don't want the recipient to be able to make changes. Adobe provides a free Viewer that anyone can download, so opening a PDF isn't an issue.

There are several ways to PDF a Word document:

• Perhaps the most straight forward method is to use the Save As dialog box (File - Save As). Near the bottom of this box you will see Save Type As. Usually this will say Word Document, but if you want a PDF you need to change it. Click on the drop-down arrow and choose PDF from the list. Choose the file name and location and then press the Save button.
• If you are working in one of the newer versions of Word you will see an option to Save As Adobe PDF when you click the File tab. This takes you to a dialog box that is very similar to the Save As box, but you don't have to change the Save As Type.
• If you are in one of the versions with Ribbons there are also options to create PDFs if you go to File and then to Save and Send.
• If you are running the full version of Adobe Acrobat you should have an Acrobat tab to the right of your normal Word tabs. This gives you a button to create a PDF as well as other more advanced options.

When you save your work as a PDF, the new document will automatically open so you can view how it looks now that it has changed file extensions. If you don't like having the PDF automatically open you can stop it from happening. The Save As or Save As Adobe PDF dialog boxes each have a check box that you can uncheck. Look for Open File after Publishing or View Result and take off the check mark.

Saving a PDF does not in any way change your Word document. Word will prompt you to save your Word version before it creates the PDF. If for any reason you need to make a change to your PDF, go back to the Word version, make the necessary changes and then repeat the process to convert it to a PDF. If you don't want both versions of the PDF then choose the same file name and location and save over the old PDF.

If you have been watching a lot of de-cluttering programs and you feel you should only keep one version of your document, make sure it's the Word file. Acrobat is not a word processing program. If you need to tweak your work you should return to Word or whichever program the document was authored in to make changes.

Reen Rose is an experienced Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Office Specialist Master.

She has been described as 'focused, fun and very effective'. Reen believes in guiding people to become empowered Microsoft Office users by giving them the skills they need to be successful, in an engaging and enjoyable environment.

Social Email, Email Market Trend

By Maria De La Hera

Today, it would be hard to imagine a workplace where email is not the base for business critical communications. The e-mail has become the communication tool number one for business.

Email has many aspects that make it ideal for business-level collaboration, such as:

• The exchange of messages is almost in real-time. Transmission of Messages is within seconds, even between companies in different cities of the world.

• There are widely used standards thus email is universally accessible.

• You can access Email from almost any computing device and availability through most of the security infrastructure of the company.

• Integration with enterprise security policies, including message encryption, SPAM filtering, antivirus.

Email is one of the vital communication tools within firms. You use email for everything from communication advances projects, information about the business.

Email handling frustrate users, getting to spend about a quarter of the day in the mail reading/handling activities. On the other hand, companies deal with employee productivity and significant costs of running a mail infrastructure.

Regardless of the costs and frustration, email is still seen as an essential tool for getting done business successfully. Workers think that email is critical to the success and productivity at work, even more than a phone. Users report that social media have not reduced their reliance on email to treat their customers.

There have been additionally a series of collaboration tools such as blogs, social networks, videos, complimenting email.

The use of email will grow, but at a slower pace than some of the new capabilities, such as blogs, wiki, social communications and videos. Email will keep its relevance as an essential tool for business collaboration, evolving into a more integrated approach with these new tools. The evolution will take users to a collaborative integrated environment where users can easily switch among the various tools.

There are certain aspects that affect how a company operates and works, such as:

• Smartphones widespread used, even surpass laptops. At the same time, people expect companies to support their personal devices at work, the phenomenon known as Bring-Your-Own-Device.

• Employees are more connected, as they use their devices to connect to the social and professional networks.

• People use the power of mobile devices and social networks to make better decisions.

These changes are opportunities to create a real competitive differentiation. The Company has transformed into a social enterprise, as a key response to this opportunity.

But, what is a social enterprise? One can say that a social enterprise is the technology that leverages social media to connect people with the knowledge. The company seeks to show improvements in how we do things and better process performance. Becoming a social enterprise can improve business productivity.

Email is evolving to a social email. Social email functionality leverages social networking technologies in business processes and manage workers' expectations. Social Email includes a cleaner user interface and a simplified visual integration with other applications directly into the environment.

Another important aspect of social Email is mobility. Email and mobile applications respond to the growing employees' demand is to bring their own devices into the workplace.

A social email experience should also consider cloud computing. Social networks, mobile devices, and cloud email integration is best achieved when the email is part of a complete collaboration platform, not a standalone application. This provides easy integration of existing tools with new ones, and provides a basis for building new applications and value added services for the company.

An email experience more social offers real benefits. Social technologies, especially those integrated with email and collaboration tools, leading to significant productivity improvements:

• Increased efficiency of the workforce.

• People can make better decisions. Information is available.

• Increased innovation. Users can share their experiences, and get ideas for more sites.

• Less need for formal education. Workers learn more doing it because the tools help their functions.

• Increased flexibility of the infrastructure.

But What features includes a social mail?, What are the features you need?. Some of the main features of a social experience are:

• Share files socially. To not only share files, you have to include the ability to comment files shared.

• Provide rich user profiles. Profile information must include dynamic information with photos, status and social relations, and not only a static corporate directory.

• Share status updates from the email environment.

• Access to email from other applications.

• Online presence and real-time communication.

• Mobility. Manage email, calendar, tasks and other applications on the device of user's choice

• Integration with public social networks and other social applications.

• Social calendars. Schedule management and corporate staff from a single view.

Email evolution allow a better integration with the company in collaboration tools, causing process improvements, and effective decision-making.

5 Awesome PfSense Features

By David Zientara

PfSense is well-known for providing many features that are only otherwise available on expensive commercial firewalls. Moreover, with the release of pfSense 2.0 in 2011, several new features have been added to the software. Here are five features that provide compelling reasons to deploy pfSense on your network.

[1] Load balancing: Using multiple components with load balancing, a method for distributing workloads across multiple computers or other resources, may increase reliability. It is generally only necessary within large or sensitive systems (for example, popular web sites, large IRC networks, high-bandwidth FTP sites, NNTP and DNS servers), and not all firewall and router products support load balancing. pfSense, however, supports it, and can be configured to load-balance or failover redundant WAN interfaces. Load-balancing will divide all traffic among the interfaces while failover will use a single interface, but upon failover it will automatically switch to another. This brings us to the next feature:

[2] Failover: PfSense can be configured to switch to a redundant or standby computer server, system, hardware component or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active application, server, system, hardware component or network. For example, you could configure pfSense to automatically redirect traffic from the primary webserver to a backup webserver in the even of a failure. You can even configure multiple pfSense systems for failover, so if one pfSense computer goes down, the firewall still functions.

[3] Customizable rules: All firewalls have rules, but pfSense, especially with version 2.0, has made rules highly customizable. For example, a rule can be set up to only accept traffic from a certain OS (Windows. MacOS and Linux are supported, of course, as well as a number of UNIXoid variants and Novell). In addition, there is a scheduling option, so rules will only invoked during certain hours and days, and numerous other options.

[4] MAC address spoofing: Most of the time, an ISP registers the client's MAC address for service and billing services. This can be circumvented easily by MAC spoofing, and it is trivially easy in pfSense, where MAC spoofing is as simple as typing in a different MAC address for a network interface. This can be handy if you want to force the ISP's DHCP server to lease you a new IP address, or for other reasons.

[5] VPN: Most firewalls and routers support virtual private networks (VPNs), but few have the flexibility of pfSense. For example, m0n0wall supports VPNs, and has many of the options you would expect to see for VPNs (e.g. support for different encryption and hash algorithms and different authentication methods), but m0n0wall only supports the IPSec and PPTP protocols. PfSense, on the other hand, supports IPSec and PPTP as well as OpenVPN and L2TP protocols, and has many advanced options, such as NAT traversal (allowing users to connect from behind restrictive firewalls) and dual peer detection.

This list of features is not, by any means an exhaustive one, but these are some of the reasons why pfSense is more flexible and powerful than competing firewall/router products.

The Necessity of Manufacturing Software Tools

By Mike Zhmudikov

The benefits of using high quality software in manufacturing and industry are well known but it never hurts to repeat them again, because they can really speed up development and help a lot of enterprises achieve results that are outstanding with the same budget as big corporations with thousands of employees. So here are a few areas where software tools for manufacturing can be used.

Sales. Getting the sales aspect right is important for the success of the whole project. But the sale needs to be not just accurate but has to be done quickly too. Software tools for sales and estimating can make those tasks much easier for anyone. Using such tools can help get rid of variables and wonders in the process, and be more realistic about everything you do. Clear projections can really give you insight into the whole project and show you what you can do with everything you are currently faced with. This is also great to use in the future for reference when you schedule your next projects.

Project estimating and insight. By using the right software tools you can start analyzing your successful projects much closer and make sure you are making the right decisions. Educating yourself about how to succeed in each type of project is very important.

Visualizing information. Ever envy those birds who circle around the construction site, taking in the view, the big picture? Well, you can have that now with the cool tools available from online software providers. This way potential problems can be forecasted and you can finally see what you are doing right and what should be avoided for now and for the future as well. Visual project management software has helped many people reach the top in their careers and really make the most of all the projects they are working on. You will finally be able to manage all your project's aspect, from finances and logistics, to time issues and project risks.

Adequate adaptation to change. In manufacturing there are many variables and the market changes often so that success is only achievable when you learn to adapt quickly and effectively, without major losses anywhere. Customized software solutions to embrace change can really help you be more proactive about the alterations that happen in your industry and the niche in question. You can get a demo set of the software to try it out for yourself and see how fast it will change your life and the way you deal with change.

Automation. Software does help to make manufacturing more efficient by automating the processes that can be automated. Trying this out as a trial will show you how much time and money you will save by using these revolutionary products that can take your business to the next level.

3 Outlook Features That Keep Me Organized

By Michael LeJeune

Quick question for you... Are you using Microsoft Outlook to its fullest potential in your business? The answer is probably not! Well here are a couple of simple things you can implement right away to get more organized using a program that's right on your desktop already. That is unless you are a complete rebel and went with a Mac.

Top 3 Features in Microsoft Outlook that I USE!

1. Folders

I love the folders in Outlook for organizing by topics. I have one for my coaches, one for clients, personal stuff, travel, etc. Here's why I like this, in the old days you needed a folder for everything and that got pretty cumbersome. The level of organization inside a Windows folder just flat-out rocks! For example, in my client's folder I can click on that folder and organize the view I am looking at by client name (From), by subject, date received, etc. My trick is that I collapse all the sub categories so I can scroll through them quickly to find the person I'm looking for. It's like having folders inside folders without all the mess.

2. Tasks

This is by FAR the hidden GEM inside Outlook. If you don't use anything else, USE THIS! I even have it setup in my view when I open outlook so I can see what tasks need to get done today and what I have coming up tomorrow. I use this for everything that isn't an appointment. That includes projects, follow ups, blog posts, etc. You can set it up to remind you or just appear in your view. One thing that I also love about this feature is the ability to add a category to each task. Categories are those 4 little colored squared in your task pane that most people have no clue about. Simply click on the 4 little colored squared to customize your categories. One of the ways I use this feature is to mark my blog tasks. That way at a glance, I can see how much writing I have scheduled. You see, I don't write every time I get an idea. I create a Task; give it a headline about the idea, jot down my thoughts and SCHEDULE IT!

One more cool thing about tasks is that you can click on the main view of this section and filter it by topics... So my most used topics are, Completed tasks, overdue tasks, and active tasks. It's a great way to remind yourself of all the things you have accomplished.

3. Quick Parts

Quick Parts are super cool for several reasons and occasions. For me, I like to use this feature to keep an easy record of my canned email responses or email campaign content. This one is easier to understand once you see it.

So click on "New Email". In the new email message, click on the "Insert" tab at the top of the email. Toward the right of the window you will see a "Quick Parts" drop down menu. Click it. That will show you what you have in the Quick Parts section already.

To use this feature...

Type up an email that you want to save. Highlight the text that you want to save and then click on the Quick Parts drop down menu. Click on "Save selection to Quick Part Gallery". That's it. You are done.

Next time you want to use that quick part, just open an email and click "Insert", and Find the quick part you want to use.

I hope these quick tips help you get more organized in your business...

One last note... If you don't know how to set up your Outlook, find a 12-year-old and ask for help. A 6 pack of red bull, mountain dew, or copy of halo is all it will cost you...

A Short History of Internet Browsers and the Most Popular Web Browsers Used Today

By Gareth Barrow

It is common knowledge now that the guy who invented the internet was Tim Berners-Lee, his Worldwide Web used an internet browser called Mosaic. This later was renamed as Netscape and the browser was born.

Midas Worldwide Web - The First Internet Browser?

But for those of us who were on the internet using a 16KB connection may have remembered a browser called the Midas or Midas Worldwide Web. It certainly was rather advanced for its day, as it could easily handle Postscript text even if it was compressed, and viewed web files via a system called UNIX and VMS.

Most early internet users who had some form of the super-slow 16KB connection may remember the operating system Windows 95. But this operating system was in its day, the king of all operating systems, but what few people know is there was another one operating our desktop PCs before that called Windows 3.1 and anyone who remembers that will remember Cello, a browser that was released in June 1993. It also worked fine on rival operating systems like Apple's OS2 and N.T. 3.5.

The Birth of Internet Explorer

By the time we reached late 1995 an explosion in the sales of desktop PCs hit America, Europe and Japan. North American based Microsoft Corporation had Windows 95 established as the operating system of choice installed on our computers and the very first version of perhaps the most famous browser of them all Internet Explorer was released. The web browser has now reached version 10, if running on the new Windows 8 operating system.

Microsoft, Netscape and Mozilla Firefox

Microsoft and Netscape went head to head in battle during the late 1990s and once we moved into the 21st century we began to look at alternatives. It was slow at first but Mozilla Firefox users made up around 4% of all browsers in use during 2001. In 2004 Internet Explorer was still the most popular choice of browser with as many as 92% of all people using the net browsing on Microsoft's IE.

But from 2005 onwards sales of Apple's Mac (which used Safari as a browser) began to take off and even those running Windows XP operating system began to favour another new kid on the block in the form of Google Chrome.

Newer Browsers For Smart Phones

Now with the new revolution of smartphones sitting in our pockets we are suddenly seeing browsers like the Dolphin and many independent ones becoming popular. We now have a choice of internet browsers and are no longer forced to use one that may have a monopoly on us.

Double Your Profits With Java Software Development

By Steve Tait Graham

A Sun Microsystems product, Java is an enigmatic and powerful software development platform. This programming language can be used to develop multipurpose and multi disciplinary applications, ranging from applications for mobile phones, various enterprises and going up till super computers etc. As an organization, one cannot afford to remain oblivious to the features of this revolutionary web application development technology. Here's discussing a few momentous benefits of the same:

1. Java is easy to learn and access - The technical interface of the scripting language is pretty easy to learn and grasp. The programmers find it very easy to work their way around developing applications based on this technology. This is significant because if the developers would not require a lot of time and effort to develop feature rich and cutting edge applications, it will drastically improve the business environment, will help to reduce the prices and further improve the business ties.


2. Highly flexible open source technology - The source code of this client side scripting language is available to be used and customized by the developers free of cost. Thus, one can easily work around Java without swelling the invoice receipts. As a development company you will not be required to pay huge fees each year for owning this technology and as the software solicitor, you would not be charged copious amounts for the software powered by this technology.


3. Ubiquitous execution of Java applications due to platform independency - Java is a platform independent platform, both at the source and entry level and thus the applications developed with it can be accessed through various popular platforms. From the point of view of software development and outsourcing, this is a very important factor which works in the favor of Java.


4. Availability of automatic memory management - garbage collection is completely supported by Java and hence the feature of automatic memory management is available too. Thus, users will not be required to manually manage the memory, which can be very tedious and time consuming. However, the option of manual management of memory is available as and when it is required.


5. Object oriented support to create modular programs - and talking about the benefits that this scripting language renders to the programmers, we would like to mention that it works completely based on the object oriented principles. It allows the users to create the modules and use them as and when required. Besides, a code thus generated can be used and reused as and when needed. This reduces the amount of hard work which a developer has to put in, nullifies the need to rewrite the same code and allows them to concentrate on the logical pathways instead.
6. Full support for distributed computing - The language was initially developed with an aim to support distributed computing and render simple to use networking capabilities. The system comes with these features and hence has its very own perks and privileges.

Java has facilitated networking so much that now it is almost a cinch to develop browser compatible networking platforms. With the industry riding high on the features and functionalities provided by this dynamic scripting language, it is very easy to Hire Java Developers for the project. With the benefits of offshore Java software development exceeding significantly the feeble cost elements etc, as an enterprise you should be quick in opting for it. Act now, before your competitors take the cake away from under your nose.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7839569

Accounts Payable - To Automate or Not to Automate? Are You Getting Ahead or Just Getting by?

By Caroline Wigley

An interesting report from the Payments Council highlights that as individuals financial planning is the task we are most good at putting off. Apparently only 5 percent of us have the topic at the top of our 'to do' list.

This is despite 35 percent of the 2,085 UK adults polled in the Populus study's The Life's Long List revealing that saving for a rainy day figures on their daily 'to do' list. But it seems that we definitely regard getting down to reviewing pension arrangements, or looking at whether to move bank accounts or change utility supplier, as jobs for 'manjana'.

And according to the research it's not because we don't know how to do these things - almost a quarter of those asked believe they would be reasonably easy to do - it's just that we don't want to do them now. The respondents in the survey claim to feel 'overwhelmed' by the prospect.

According to the social psychologist, Dr Gary Wood who co-authored the report, this is because "Where finances are concerned we tend to be more reactive, than proactive... In short, we focus on getting-by rather than getting ahead."

This 'if it ain't broke, don't mend it' approach can also overflow into business and an organisation's systems and procedures - even to the extent of it being an 'if it ain't totally broke' attitude and the proverbial bandages and sticking plaster subsequently keeping together an outdated and inefficient process.

Take automating Accounts Payable (AP) processing. The benefits automation brings to the department and business overall are overwhelming, enabling businesses to:

• not only reduce costs but also improve efficiency
• eliminate duplicate invoices and late payments
• enhance supplier relationships with fast query response time
• take advantage of early payment discounts
• identify bottle-necks and speed-up the payment cycle
• enhance visibility and control across the whole AP process
• and benefit from the rise in e-invoicing.

EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier says in the recently released E-invoicing in public procurement: another step towards end-to-end e-procurement and e-government in Europe, "Switching from paper to fully automated invoicing can cut the costs of receiving an invoice from 30-50 euro to 1 euro".

The UK government is actively promoting the adoption of e-invoicing. In the Information Economic Strategy announced at the G8 Innovation Conference last month, the government states its aim is for central government to use electronic invoicing for all transactions, and to ensure that UK businesses, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, realise the full benefits of e-invoicing.

Sometimes taking the short term view has been the result of Chief Finance Officers' (CFOs) wariness of the unknown - technology. But it seems that CFOs and finance executives are increasingly realising that technology is growing ever more important to the success of finance departments and are determined to bridge the knowledge gap.

CFO.com recently posted an article, CFOs Open to Improving Tech Literacy, reporting on a survey in which 930 CFOs were questioned, with over four fifths (84 percent) saying that cooperation with their organisation's CIO (Chief Information Officer) had grown over the past three years.

That's good news. But crucially, finance departments need also to know that solution providers speak their language too, able to advise on best practice with a full understanding of the issues and processing involved - and without the technical jargon getting in the way.