четверг, 21 августа 2008 г.

How to devise and deal Digital Documents

I'm a big believer in "eating my own dog food". In other words, if I'm going to recommend something to you, it's commonly being I do it myself. that write-up is all about digitizing as uncounted of your paper documents as you can. There are several ways to digitize your documents. Suppose you go hungry to share a document, perhaps a proposal, with a client. Traditionally, we would institute and print the document, years ago communication it or fax it to the client. A far better alternative is to explore the document as an electronic data, soon after sincerely communicate it via parcel. You can erect the document as a Microsoft Word (or other word processor) document or you can coin a PDF document. In general, I recommend using PDF documents. There are times, however, when using Microsoft Word is the incomparable choice.

Assuming that you decide to use PDFs or word processor electronic documents, what are some of the benefits to you?

armor--Electronic forms ca! n be secured with passwords or certificates, thus preventing unauthorized third parties from viewing their contents. confident, there are tools available on the WWW that can crack some forms of document bond, but remember that paper documents can over be stolen, photocopied, and dip into by unauthorized individuals.

Format consistency--Although that doesn't apply to all electronic documents, PDF documents maintain the consistency of their format cross all platforms. In other words, humans using a Macintosh will see exactly the coequal document as those using a PC. The formatting is consistent from one platform to another. The formatting of word processor documents, however, can spending money as they move from one computer to another.

Searchability--Electronic documents are no sweat searchable. upright use the key combination of supremacy+F and horn in a word or a phrase and the computer will search for it within the document. Have you ever old-moment reading a ! bestseller or magazine column that mentions a brand that was r! eferred to earlier? You scan the pages seeing for that surname or phrase, but can't find it. That problem quietly doesn't exist in electronic documents. (It's notably true in technical fields with lots of acronyms.)

Portability and conserving space--As a technologist, I used to have shelves and shelves of technical books and documents (ultimate of which did a inordinate job of gathering dust!). Today, utmost of my technical documentation is stored in PDF documents on my laptop computer. They're regularly searchable, very cartable, and don't gather any dust. I routinely have my laptop with me, so no matter where I am, I have an entire library of documentation with me. I've even started reading electronic novels. I carry a Palm Treo 700p. The E-Reader software is free for it and I can download free books from divers sources including the Gutenberg Project (gutenberg.org), which is a source of classics. (I tried finished "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".) If I craving something in ! progress, I can buy e-books for very reasonable prices from copious sources on the scoop superhighway. Since I always have my phone with me, I always have a dictionary to skim while I'm waiting for whatever (delayed flights, unpunctual clients, etc.). By the way, the e-reader software begets it realistic to skim books on a meager screen. Hard to believe, I be acquainted, but it really does drudgery very well.

Speed and sendability--I blameless signed a contract with a client to present some video training. They emailed me the agreement, we worked out some of the terms, and I signed it electronically (the subject of electronic signatures is a whole item in itself) and emailed it. They received it within others of me signing it, even though their offices are by a hundred hundred miles from mine. I am employed on presenting a seminar for a client's customers on how to go digital (after going postal). He needed a brochure describing the seminar and my picture for publicit! y. He whooped me with the demand and within succeedings, he ha! d what h e needed for I was able to postal assistance the files to him. Before the digital age, I would have had to print the documents and hurry off them to him via postal printed matter or an express courtesy. that is what Bill Gates was talking about when he referred to "livelihood at the speed of thought" (another primer I have on my Treo, by the way).

Forms--that is a feature I've old-fashioned using for years. In Microsoft Word (and presumably other word processors), you can set up a document which is locked except for configuration fields. In other words, I organize a questionnaire in which you can't spending money any of the text that I wrote, but you can fill in undoubtful fields, bail out the document, and return it to me with your responses. We use it in our training occupation when preparing for an onsite presentation. We direct an electronic questionnaire to our client asking about elements cognate the exact seminar tract, credentials needed for entry, goals of the! training, names of attendees, etc. Our clients intelligibly tab interpolated fields on the plan and are able to complete it in a matter of ethical a few minutes and newsletter it back to us. To major in how to do that, search on "creating forms" in Microsoft Word.

How can you establish and use digital documents? The easiest way is with a word processor such as Microsoft Word. nondiscriminatory unshackle it and broadcast it. There are, however, incomparable formats for saving documents in Word. For the greatest compatibility, in Word 2007 choose "redeem As" and recover it as a Word 97-2003 document. If you're using Word 2003 or earlier, you can trustworthy emancipate it as usual and route it. What if you call for to procreate a PDF (movable Document Format)? You can buy Adobe Acrobat which is a huge program, but pricey. You can furthermore buy subordinate expensive versions of PDF creator software from various vendors. For Microsoft Office 2007 final purchasers, you c! an download a free plugin that allows you to free documents as! PDFs. G o to www.microsoft.com/downloads and search on "PDF plugin". Remember, saving your document as a Microsoft Word document is the easiest way to do it, but PDFs preserve formatting and are readable on nearly any platform.

How do you perceive PDFs? Nearly everyone has the free Adobe Reader software installed on their computer. If you don't, it's a free download from acrobat.com fair-minded look for the portion to download Adobe Reader.

For a calendar of PDF creation software, you can either Yahoo on "pdf software" or have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software

But, it's not right about digitizing paper documents. The benefits of going digital apply the music and videos, too.

As I've old-clock hand, I've out finishing the process of ripping my CD collection (that means converting the CDs to digital files). More on that in a future theme.

Copyright (c) 2008 Don R. Crawley

President and chief technologist at Seattle, Washing! ton-based IT training firm soundtraining.net Don is a speaker, writer, and veteran IT guy with disciplined 35 years trial in technology for the workplace. Today, he delivers keynote speeches, workshops, and seminars to employment humans on how to go digital past going postal. whoop him at 206.988.5858. He's on the web at http://www.doncrawley.com and blogs at http://www.digitalnotpostal.com
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