PdfMeNot: Online PDF to Flash conversion

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, web 2.0

PdfMeNot: Online PDF to Flash conversion

by Brad Linder Feb 13th 2008

PDF files are great if you want to share a lot of information in an easy to read format. And in theory, visitors to your web site can easily download the files to their desktop or open them in a web browser. But the truth of the matter is that opening PDF files using the Adobe Acrobat plugin for Firefox or Internet Explorer can be a bit of hassle. It often takes a long time to open the file, and their browsers are rendered pretty much useless while they wait.

Enter PdfMeNot. Like Scribd, DocStoc, and Issuu, PdfMeNot instantly converts PDF files into Flash media that can be quickly loaded in any web browser. You can either embed the Flash image on your site or offer readers a download link to the original PDF file. And you can convert files that are already online by entering a URL or upload files from your desktop.

PdfMeNot, which was developed by the folks behind BugMeNot and RetailMeNot, has a few tricks up its sleeve that other services lack. For example, if you want to view any online PDF as a Flash image, just enter http://pdfmenot.com/view/ before the URL. For example, http://pdfmenot.com/view/http://test.com/document.pdf.

The coolest trick comes in the form of a browser bookmarklet. All you have to do is drag this boomarklet to your browser toolbar and any time you visit a site with links to PDF documents, click the bookmarklet. Every PDF link on the page will be converted to a Flash link, saving you the frustration of dealing with PDF documents online.

PdfMenot is in private beta until Thursday. Until then, you can login to the site with the username "stateless" and the password "system."

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: bugmenot, flash, pdf, pdfmenot, retailmenot

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Pierre said 4:46PM on 2-13-2008

Great tool, I don't see a "download link" for the Flash though meaning that I can't download it, just view it online.

James said 8:33AM on 2-14-2008

That would sort of defeat the point -- if you're going to download a document, it might as well be PDF. Get a decent reader (like FoxIt or one of the other Adobe alternatives they've featured on this site) and you can open PDFs offline without dealing with Flash.

Guy said 6:45AM on 2-14-2008

Just letting you know there's now a handy firefox extension for it too:
http://pdfmenot.com/tools/

Pierre said 8:59AM on 2-14-2008

The point of being able to download the converted files would be able to 1) keep a backup copy and 2) store the result on my own server so I don't have to depend on their service to stay available. It wouldn't be the first free service that gets bought and/or goes out of business.

Besides that, I was also commenting to the fact that the article says "offer readers a download link to the original PDF file" and a link to view it online is not the same.

sam said 12:03PM on 2-14-2008

this ones free and u can download.. might need to work thro the command prompt
http://www.swftools.org/

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