Even though the need continues to decline, we still may find ourselves in the position to occasionally have to fax a document. While some of us will continue to own multifunction printer/copy/scan/fax machines (I have an HP Officejet J6480 All-in-One), for others who don’t this need to fax means a trip to the UPS or FedEx store. However as Sandy Berger notes in a recent article, GotFreeFax may be just the answer to save you the trip.
Archive for the ‘Utility’ Category
Need to Edit a PDF Document?
July 29, 2009The PDFtoWord website converts PDF files to either Word or Excel for free so you can then edit them as you choose. You first upload the PDF file to their site and then they send you a link where you can download the converted file. Of course if the PDF file is protected you need to supply the password.
Save Time Entering Often Used Text
March 13, 2009Do you frequently need to enter the same text into an email or when filling out a web form? This might be something like your full name, an organization’s name, a url for site, or just a long word that you have trouble typing correctly. I recommend trying Texter a free utility created by one of principals at LifeHacker. All you have to do is enter a “hot string” or abbreviation in Texter and its replacement text, and then select how you will trigger the replacement. For example I have PO as an abbreviation for POA No. 6 so that when I type PO and hit the space bar PO is replaced with POA No. 6. While my primary use is in Outlook emails and Word, I have yet to find an application where Texter will not work. Other “abbreviation expander” utilities I’ve tried either did not work in web forms (like this blog) and Flash forms, or cost around $50.
Shrink Photos in Email
January 16, 2009Want to send smaller photos? I just learned from Sandy Berger’s Compukiss eNewsletter of an excellent free utility called Shrink Pic. It allows you to use a variety of email clients and shrinks the picture in the background before your email is sent. You can select the amount of compression you want and also define what file types. While it works great on my XP Pro computer it crashes Outlook 2007 on my Vista computer.
For Vista I found two solutions:
- A free program that adds a resizing selection to the Explorer Context menu http://prishcom.spaces.live.com/
- Or after selecting a photo in your Explorer window click on E-mail in the Tool bar and you will get a chance to select a compressed size to insert automatically in an email message
