PDF Unlocker

If you work with a lot of PDFs, you've probably come across the dreaded "Protected" PDFs. You can't print these PDFs, or even copy the text in the PDF. Many a desk-jockey has been subjected to the menial task of re-typing the contents of these PDFs.  

Enter PDF Unlocker...

1. Download and install PDF Unlocker. 
   
2. Drag a protected PDF onto the PDF Unlocker icon on your desktop
3. Print, copy, and throw back your head as you laugh at their feeble attempts to thwart your productivity!

Seriously, it's that easy. 

Now you know, 

Garrett Woodroof

Legal issues:

I should point out that there are 2 different types of security that PDFs use. The first is the no-copy/no-print type, which is the type you can now get around. The second is the can't-open-the-file-without-a-password variety, which can't be helped using this software. There is software out there that claims to circumvent this second type of security, but be warned that circumventing this type of security on the wrong PDF may be illegal.

Okay, so that said, I can't speak to the legality of this software either, but I wouldn't think it would be illegal to print a document when you could take a screen shot, and I wouldn't think it would be illegal to copy text when you could just re-type it. 

Toggling ALL CAPS in Word, Outlook, and Excel

Have you ever received an email or come across a document that was in ALL CAPS? I'm not sure why some people choose ALL CAPS for anything other than a heading or for web shouting, but some do nonetheless. Even in a business setting, you occasionally come across over-zealous typists who just don't know better, but what do you do if you need to re-use the content?

Until recently, I've simply re-typed the content, but the other day I came across this little gem:

[Shift]+[F3].

While in MS Word or Outlook, select the text you wish to toggle, and try that key combo to see the text toggle between ALL CAPS, Proper Caps, and lower case type.

If what you have selected is formatted like a sentence, the "Proper Caps" option will only capitalizes the first letter of the first word of the sentence. If the text isn't formatted like a sentence, it capitalizes the first letter of each word selected.

In MS Excel, you can use the following formulas to to change you text to ALL CAPS, Proper Caps, or lower case:

UPPER()

PROPER()
LOWER()

Now, in Excel, the PROPER() formula always capitalizes the first letter of each word in the selection.

Now that should save some serious typing time!

Now you know, 

Garrett Woodroof

Free Survey Tool ... Google Forms

Many businesses fail to employ their most valuable consultants ... their customers. Other businesses thrive because they strive for continual improvement by asking their customers how the products or services might be improved.

And there are some good tools out there to help facilitate that kind of feedback.

Enter Google Forms.

The Form option used to be buried in the Sharing menu in Google Spreadsheets, but recently, Google made it a lot easier to get started. Now Form is it's own object alongside Documents, Presentations, and Spreadsheets.Building the form is very intuitive. You can choose from Text, Paragraph text, Multiple choice, Checkboxes, Choose from a list, and Scale (1-n). See example:

You can create a link to the form, embed the form on a webpage, or even embed it in an email. (only works with certain email clients)

After you finish building the form and you have some submissions, you can see the responses in the spreadsheet-like view or in the graphical view:

Unlike Zoomerang and other non-free options, you cannot make the form change based on the customers previous answers, but most people don't need that option anyway.

Google Forms is free and easy to use (like the rest of the Google Office Suite), and can be used for a myriad of research applications as well as for customer feedback. All you need to get started is a Google account, which can be set up with or without a GMail account.

Now you know,

Garrett Woodroof

Google Mobile App for Blackberry

Yesterday, Google came out with "Google Mobile App", a conglomeration of GMail, Maps, Calendar, Reader, Documents, News, Photos, Notebook, Sync, and Search for Blackberry users. 

Pros:

• Google services are easily accessed and organized
  
• Search suggestions
  
• No waiting for search box to load
  
• Icon strip is customizable
  
• It makes phone books even more obsolete

Cons:

• Uses your default browser (It's almost just a Google Bookmarks folder)
• GMail froze up on me when I tried to open it
  
• Doesn't replace GMail, Maps, Sync
• Doesn't link up to Google Talk
• Doesn't link up with Grand Central
  
• Same ol' clunky spreadsheet interface

Ultimately, it could be a lot more polished and/or slick, but I'm glad to see Google put this together for the Blackberry. It's smart for Google largely beause it helps contribute to the feeling that any time I'm looking for data (email, maps, pics, rss, etc) I simply need to "go to Google" to get it. I hope that this service grouping is opened up to the iphone soon. 

If you're a Blackberry user, try it out for yourself. Keep in mind that it doesn't replace GMail, Maps, or Sync; it merely links to them. Therefore, do not uninstall GMail, Sync, and Maps (like I did) because you'll just have to reinstall them later.

To install "Google Mobile App" go to http://m.google.com from your Blackberry Web Browser. 

Now you know, 

Garrett Woodroof