PDFs

CloudOn MS Office iPad app adds PDF viewer and e-mail option

With its latest update, CloudOn's free MS Office app for the iPad just keeps getting better.

Designed as a tablet-friendly version of Microsoft Office, CloudOn includes full-featured mobile editions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You can create new documents, edit existing ones, and store your files online for easy access. I use the app quite often to open and edit several documents stored through my DropBox account.

Version 2 adds the ability to open Adobe PDFs, a nice addition for me as I house a lot of PDFs online to use as reference material. A toolbar at the top … Read more

How to combine multiple PDFs into one document

Maybe you're constructing a portfolio, or maybe you just want to reduce file clutter.

Joining PDFs is handy now and then, but for those of us who haven't shelled out the bucks for Acrobat, it was previously out of reach. Now we can use PDFBinder, a free Windows app on the Google Code site that works admirably. Here's how to use it:

Install PDFBinder here.  Launch PDF Binder.  Drag and drop PDF files into PDFBinder or click Add file& to select PDFs to join. Select a PDF file and click the up and … Read more

Print to PDF for iOS: The killer alternative to AirPrint

Here's the problem with AirPrint: not nearly enough printers support it. Plus, there's that whole consumables thing. Aren't we supposed to be living in a paperless society?

Print to PDF for iOS solves both problems, allowing you to "print" e-mails, Web pages, and documents as PDFs right on your iDevice. It's a clever app, one that works much like PrimoPDF and other utilities for Windows.

In other words, it intercepts just about anything that uses the iOS print command and generates a PDF instead of a piece of paper.

All you do is run … Read more

How to make PDFs easier to read on mobile devices

If you've ever given up on trying to read a PDF until you get back to the office, you may want to check out Papercrop. It's a great Google app for Windows and Linux that lets you rebuild PDFs for easier mobile reading. It requires some prep work and can't (yet) be done on the fly, but if you have time to run a quick app on your laptop first, you can make many PDFs much easier to read on mobile devices. Here's how it works: 

Download and install the Papercrop app. Run it … Read more

iPad your screenplay: FDX Reader vs. GoodReader

I've written a screenplay or two in my life. When the iPad was released more than a year ago, I imagined that it could eventually be a killer tool for reading and editing scripts, saving a trip to a printer or laptop. Well, so far, the iPad's been great for a lot of documents and publications...but a little slow on the uptake when it comes to the complicated formats of screenplays.

For my last screenplay revision, I actually saved my script to PDF format using Final Draft, then opened up GoodReader to check out my work. iBooks … Read more

Microsoft, Adobe: PDF security flaw treatable

Microsoft and Adobe Systems have announced that a recently released Microsoft toolkit can be used to block zero-day attacks targeting a security flaw in Adobe's Acrobat and Reader programs.

In an advisory published Friday, Microsoft detailed how its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 2.0 could be used to short-circuit the threat. Adobe, which has not yet released a patch, updated its original advisory to reflect the new information.

Adobe considers the flaw to be "critical"--it could let an attacker take control of any of the millions of computers running what is far and away the most … Read more

How to put PDFs on your iPad

Though the iPad is a fantastic universal e-reader able to handle multiple formats, you're often better off using PDF files than the EPUB format in many situations. This How To video is, if nothing else, a reminder of the fact that the PDF is your friend.

The EPUB document format is admittedly better for its adjustable fonts and formatting, and it's recognized by Apple's iBooks app. But saving your own writing to EPUB format isn't exactly simple. Getting that EPUB onto your iPad still requires connecting via iTunes with a sync cable.

PDFs are the Web'… Read more

Comics, PDFs, and more: Stanza for iPad is a universal (and free) killer e-reader

The iPad is rapidly becoming a Swiss army knife for e-reading apps of all types. Just in case you find Apple's iBooks disappointing (and most of us do), there are the Kindle, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble apps. While each has its advantages, they're generally not compatible with each other. They also make sharing and file-format recognition beyond their e-books pretty difficult.

Well, here's the good news: Stanza just hit the iPad last night.

Stanza has been a longtime favorite of iPhone and iPod Touch users--it accesses a variety of e-book stores directly, can read several formats, and has an amazing amount of font, spacing and color customization. It was a bit of a surprise to see this latest update, simply because Amazon acquired Stanza last year to create the backbone for their Kindle app.

The universal iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad app update that has just arrived, version 3.0, looks superficially just like Stanza did before, albeit on a larger iPad screen. Unlike the Kindle and Barnes & Noble apps, Stanza can still browse Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, and several other book collections directly within the app. The app doesn't connect with Amazon, nor does it offer any indications of an Amazon link.

The additions to this version, however, are eye-opening: Stanza now supports PDFs and comic book files in CBR format (yes, full-color ones). That comic book reader we were excited about that costs about 7 dollars? Irrelevant.

And here's the final kicker: Stanza also happens to be free. … Read more

Add alternative text and other Section 508 features to PDFs

Not everybody views the Web the same way. In fact, lots of people don't "view" the Web at all, but they spend as much time online as anyone else. It's just that they're listening rather than reading or watching.

Using the alt attribute of HTML image tags to add a text description of a picture is second nature to anyone who posts many images or other graphics online. It's almost as easy to provide alternative text for graphics in Microsoft Word and other Office applications. Making sure the alternative text persists when Office files … Read more