Create your own PDF's

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BY ERIN PHEIL
special to the daily
December 9, 2007

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Sure, you can read PDFs online, but do you know how to make your own?

Adobe Acrobat is the industry standard for creating PDF files - but it's not your only option. Currently, Adobe Acrobat 8 (Professional version) will run you about $450, but why spend that if you can make PDFs for free?

Here's my little secret: it's called PDFCreator, and it allows you to easily create PDFs from just about any Windows program (sorry, Mac users). Use it just like a printer in Word, Publisher, or Excel, and make your very own PDFs without straining your checkbook.

Download PDFCreator, for free, here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator.



Six Firefox Tips and Tricks of the Week:

Stop those annoying animated gifs - Ever been to a site filled with graphics that kept flashing and looping - you know, like the envelope that endlessly puts itself into a mailbox over and over? Try hitting the ESC key on your keyboard - that should freeze them all. (Unfortunately, this trick doesn't work with Flash animations.)

Change the font size on your screen - Try holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while scrolling the wheel of your mouse (if you have one) up and down. Instant font-size control!

Quick Auto-Complete - Click in the address bar and type in the name of a website without the "www" or the ".com". For instance, if I wanted to show you this trick using my website as an example, I'd type in "timeforcake". Now, instead of just hitting enter, hit Ctrl + Enter and Firefox will automatically fill in the "www" and the ".com" for you and take you directly to www.timeforcake.com. (Keep in mind that if you're trying to go to a .net address you need to hit Shift + Enter and for .org addresses you need to hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter.)

Ctrl + D - This keyboard shortcut immediately adds the page you're viewing to your bookmark list.

More Screen Space - Free up more space on your screen when you're browsing the web with Firefox by going to View > Toolbars > Customize. Once you're there, check the box next to "Use small icons" and hit OK.

Ctrl + T - This keyboard shortcut will open up a new tab for you instead of an entirely new window. MUCH better.



Grab Bag: Five Links of the Week

• http://tinyurl.com/2qm4hq - Mind-blowing shadow art.

• http://tinyurl.com/2x4jfd - Mandatory viewing if you're a mom. Hilarious.

• http://www.fins-up.com/servlet/StoreFront - Take a look if you're searching for a portable computer handle/stand (designed to work with Apple notebooks).

• http://www.verify-email.org - Clean your e-mail lists of bad and undeliverable e-mails; use this tool to verify if mailboxes actually exist or not.

• http://tinyurl.com/26t2ex - The best, most creative test answers ever given by students, and they get progressively funnier as you scroll down the page. The elephant response is one of my personal favorites.

And that wraps it up for today. Have a great week, and see ya next Monday, everyone.



Based in Frisco, eRin pheiL is the primary creative force behind timeforcake (www.timeforcake.com). She can be reached via phone at (970) 668-0709 or e-mail at info@timeforcake.com.