How To Work Inside The Able2Extract Productivity Box

able2extract productivity tips

When you have a PDF document and are strapped for time and resources, it becomes a challenge: how much and what exactly can you accomplish with your PDF tool?

As an Able2Extract user, you’ve probably wondered the same.

So this week, we’re uncovering ways in which you can streamline your PDF productivity with  Able2Extract Professional.  

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How To Sign PDF Documents With Google Docs & Offline

Sign PDF with Google Docs and PDF Editor Software

The business world is now a digital one. Professionals and users are looking to do and keep everything digital–even signing PDF documents. Users are turning to access a quick way to deal with e-signatures without having to print, sign, and re-scan contracts and forms.

There are a ton of services that can help you sign your documents, both online and offline.

In this tutorial, we show you how to sign your PDF documents offline using Able2Extract Professional PDF editor and online using Google Docs.

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PDF Usability And The Web: Is The Format Still “Unfit For Human Consumption”?

Portable document format

There has always been a well-documented love-hate relationship between users and the PDF format. You either love it when things go right or hate it when it doesn’t co-operate.

Yet for better or worse, the PDF document is in our daily lives. We convert and create PDFs, always emailing and reading them no matter how much we may complain about the format.

But think about what it was like before. Back in 2003, authoritative web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, criticized the usability of the PDF on the web in his article PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption, in which he catalogs what he calls  the format’s “usability crimes.”

If you were an early PDF adopter in the late 90’s or early 2000’s, then you could probably relate very strongly to the article.  But would you still agree with it after more than 10 years? Probably not. You can’t deny the format’s improvement since then.

Despite the misgivings we have about the PDF, we can’t do without it. Because of large scale adoption, ISO standardization, and third party tools, the PDF format is a heck of a lot easier to work with. But it’s also due in large part, to the Internet itself and how it’s been shaping our user habits.

The State Of Our Online Behavior

Today we live in a highly technological world that co-exists hand in hand with the Internet. And whether we like it or not, our compulsion to stay connected online greatly influences our need to edit and work with documents on the web, including ones that weren’t meant to be edited.

We connect and communicate online.  Blogs, social media, and forums are endlessly engaged in discussion. Social networks are highly public, yet personal.  We need to access and do things online, to create an individual work space which we can control.

Connecting With The Internet
Photo Credit: Justin Marty via photopin cc

It’s no surprise then that because of this necessity, the digital documents we use daily are following this trend.  Our files have become part of the interactive and streamlined user experience.

Developers have been giving digital documents like the PDF a lot of integrated support.  Online app services like Google Drive, for instance, allow us to upload PDF documents for viewing, commenting, and sharing, all with a simple URL.  Desktop tools are also extending document sharing to real time collaboration over the web.

We can log in from anywhere and check in with our files on-screen.  Whether a professional on a tablet or a student enrolled in an online class, we can always connect with PDF contracts and research papers.  And on top of this, we can read and download PDF e-books from the web onto our mobile devices.

Using The Internet As A PDF Tool

Let’s not forget that Google has been able to index PDF files since 2001. Since then, the popularity of PDFs online has grown to such an extent that by 2013, 80% of non-html documents posted online were PDF files.

Admittedly, web browsers back in 2003 didn’t support PDF viewing very well.  However, browsers like Chrome and Firefox have begun including native PDF viewers. Add to that the ability to create a PDF for fast web viewing and your PDF documents are easier to go through than ever.

What’s interesting to note is that this online PDF viewing and sharing has gradually changed the role of the format itself.  Before, the PDF was considered only a final print format. But thanks to online services and advanced PDF creation and editing tools, it can be manipulated at any point in the workflow.

PDF In Document Workflows

Photo Credit: Saad Faruque via photopin cc

Consider how and when you’ve used online converters and web apps, or social networks and document search engines for a PDF. What did they do to help you with the file? Given the right utilities and extensions, we can interact with PDFs in our browser or annotate, highlight, and merge them instantly.

Truth is, it isn’t as hard to work with PDF files online as it used to be. In fact, presenting PDF content online is now perhaps the most basic thing you can do.

But what do you think? Is the PDF still hard for you to consume online–viewing, handling, or otherwise? It seems that with the way the Internet and the format are developing, there’s no better time to be a PDF user than now.

How 3 Investintech Tools Can Save Your Academic Life

School’s just started and already you’re starting to sink into your own routine. Whether that means mapping out the quickest route to class or finding the best study spots along the way, you need to make sure everything works smoothly for you in the academic world.

As a tech user, it means getting your laptop and gadgets all set to keep up with you on your daily study grind. With the rise of tech gadgets and the popularity of the Internet, the academic landscape is changing.  More group participation is done via forum discussion, class notes are being posted up online, and text books are being downloaded from the web.

However, organizing your arsenal of software tools can be tough when you can’t anticipate where or when you’ll need it.  If you’re a user of our software and asking yourself, where and how Investintech software fits in with your academic routine, it’s time to take a closer look. Here are a couple of tip offs.

1. SlimPDF Reader

One way students are upping their productivity these days is to use a laptop in class. It’s easier to type up lecture notes and it eliminates the need for multiple notebooks.  Moreover, instead of a 13 or 15 inch laptop, students are now resorting to netbooks. They’re small, efficient, and more convenient on-the-go than a laptop is.

Netbooks, however, while great for mobility, aren’t so great for the hard-core major software programs you have on your desktop.  For instance, Adobe Reader is a notable resource hog, taking up a good portion of your desktop hard drive, let alone your netbook. So you’ll need the smallest applications you can find.  Luckily, SlimPDF Reader is only 1.43 MB.

Slim PDF Reader Screenshot

SlimPDF Reader gives you the essentials needed for a quick clean viewing experience without the bloat.

So if a prof scans in a PDF sideways, SlimPDF can rotate it right side up with a single click from the toolbar.  And as PDFs aren’t always created with a readability and navigation in mind, you can zoom in (up to 400%), quickly skip to any page, and easily search the file for keywords. Copying simple text is also made easy–just select your content and CTRL+ C it. You can paste it quickly into another application.

2. Free Online PDF to Word Converter

As mentioned, most professors will post up lecture notes or slides online. Of course, this makes it easier for everyone, as a) you don’t have to worry about getting everything down, and b) you have spot-on accurate notes from the professor  himself. Definitely a resource you want to cash in on for any future assignment.

But, I bet you can guess what format these notes will more than likely be in: the hard-to-edit PDF format. This is where a PDF to Word converter saves the day. You can convert PDF to Word instantly using our free online PDF to Word conversion service.

3. Docx to Doc Converter Online

With the release of Microsoft Office Word 2007 came a new default format, .docx, a format that not everyone is using. In fact, most users are still quite attached to the .doc format.  For users with Microsoft Office Word 2007, they can simply save to .doc by changing the Save As format before they save their file.

DOC to DOCX converter

Yet for those who are receiving a .docx file, it isn’t as easy. Students on the Mac OSX platform using Pages need to import the .doc file to Mac, but have no direct way of converting it. Others may not even be using Microsoft Office 2007, but older versions with no way of opening it.

This .docx to .doc converter is perfect for any difficulties you may come across, whether it be a deadline, lack of compatibility, or being locked out of your email accounts.

DOC to DOCX Converter Interface

It lets you bypass all those hurdles. It’s free, you can use it regardless of the platform you’re using, you can access it anytime online, no registration is needed, and you get the file converted instantly without having to leave the site.