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Filed under: Office, Web services, Adobe, BlackBerry, iPhone, Mobile

Acrobat.com gets revamped and gets a mobile app

Adobe's Acrobat.com service is getting a big update tonight, followed closely by a new mobile app for iPhone and BlackBerry. The name "Acrobat" goes hand-in-hand with the PDF file format, and Acrobat.com allows you to convert documents to PDF and save, store and view PDF files. It also features some other applications, including the Adobe BuzzWord word processor, a web meeting service called ConnectNow, and storage space for docs, spreadsheets and images.

The new features include searching by filename (I'm still wrapping my head around how they didn't have this before), but not searching within documents. That feature is reportedly coming soon. Your files are also now displayed in a file organizer that lists everything you have stored on Adobe's webspace - I think this includes saved stuff from other web apps, including presentations.

The mobile app is reportedly going to be a pretty basic mobile front-end for Acrobat.com, with the ability to upload documents and send faxes (what's a "fax?") from your phone. It will come in both free and paid flavors, and the free version will allow a limited number of uploads and faxes per month.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Business, Internet, News

Twitter's internal documents: stolen, boring

Some internal Twitter documents were recently compromised by a hacker who offered them to various tech websites for publication. Other than the illicit way they were obtained - via some weak passwords set by Twitter employees, Biz Stone suggests in a blog post - the documents are pretty boring. TechCrunch, as you might expect if you're at all familiar with that blog, has gone ahead and published some of them anyway, because Twitter's financial projections and the details of the Twitter TV show pitch have "so much news value."

Most of the arguments against revealing this information have been made on ethical grounds, resulting in TechCrunch's Mike Arrington responding with a lecture about the history of news, and citing cases where published info has been obtained in similarly shady ways.

Fair enough. That's the news business sometimes, and Twitter can take action if they don't like the decision to publish. In fact, Biz's blog post suggests they're looking into it. "We are in touch with our legal counsel about what this theft means for Twitter, the hacker, and anyone who accepts and subsequently shares or publishes these stolen documents," he writes.

My problem with sites that publish this stuff is that it's ultimately pretty boring, and the attention and extra pageviews that come their way are because of the controversy, not because of some inherently interesting new story. The story here is "hacker compromises Twitter documents" not "we now know a little bit more about the Twitter TV show."

Wake me up when this is all over.

UPDATE: The hack wasn't due to weak passwords, says Twitter's Evan Williams.

Filed under: Office, Web services, Google

Google Translate now handles uploaded documents

Google Translate documents
Google Translate already provided tools that let users translate snippets of text or entire web pages by entering a URL and choosing the source and output languages. Now you can also upload documents to translate.

Google quietly added the option sometime int he last few days. there's not a ton of information about the new feature available, but it appears to handle TXT, HTML, XLS, DOC, and PDF files reasonably well. It choked on an OpenOffice Sheet ODS file I tried to upload.

The results are spit out in HTML format, so if you upload a spreadsheet you won't get a translated, downloadable spreadsheet in return. Instead you'll get an HTML table. But this isn't a bad start. I wouldn't be surprised if Google eventually adds the ability to open translated documents in Google Docs.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Blogging, Web services, Web

DocShots makes it easier to share documents on your web site


The folks behind online document sharing service DocStoc have released a new product called DocShots. The new tool is designed for web publishers who want to be able to share Word, Excel, PDF, or other documents with their readers without redirecting visitors to a new page or pasting a huge embedded document viewer on a web page.

Here's how it works. You install a bit of code on your site and whenever someone hovers their mouse over a document link you've placed on your site, a preview window will pop up showing the document. You can customize the size of the preview document and you can decide whether the documents you upload will be marked as public or private.

Readers will also be bale to find a list of related documents and other documents uploaded by the same user, all without navigating away from the web page.

Overall, I can definitely see this service adding value to some web sites. On the other hand, I can also see it annoying the bejesus out of some people who accidentally hover over the wrong links, much the way that pop up windows from Snap or Vibrant Media ads do.

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

Embed documents or images on any web site with Embedit.in

Embedit.inEmbedit.in provides a drop dead simple way to embed documents or images on a web site. Just upload a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF document or an image file and click the embed it button.

You'll need to login to the site before getting your embed code, but you can login using your Google, Yahoo!, AOL, or OpenID information.

The service creates a Flash widget that visitors to your web page can use to view the image or read the document. You can resize the images or click the button in the bottom right corner to view them in full screen. I've embedded a blank tax document after the jump in case you want to see what the widget looks like in action.

Embedit.in is far from the only service that lets you upload documents and embed them on web sites. But it's certainly one of the simples to use.

[via TechnoSpot and MakeUseOf]

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Filed under: Text, Office, Productivity

Textflow parallel word processing app now in public beta


Textflow is an Adobe AIR-based collaboration app that allows you to incorporate changes from several different people into one Word document. Sending your draft to everyone you're working with, and then manually combining all of their versions is a pain. With Textflow, you can just drop in each person's document and see a side-by-side view of the changes, and then put everything in order with a little bit of dragging. The app is now in public beta.

If you've used track changes in Word, Textflow's "choose or refuse" interface will be familiar to you. But textflow is like track changes on steroids, if you'll pardon a cliché. Besides the ability to handle several sets of changes from several separate Word files at once, it's also a lot easier to tell at a glance who's changed what, and decide which version to use. There's even a scrapboard to store ideas you're not sure about yet. The best part is that your collaborators don't even have to know what Textflow is for you to use it effectively.


[via Go2Web20 Blog]

Filed under: Internet, Office, Web services

Docstoc Sync makes automatic backups of your docs online

DocStoc Sync
Online document storage and sharing service Docstoc has rolled out a new desktop application for Windows and Mac users that lets you automatically upload documents to the web service. Docstoc Sync stuff scans a group of selected directories for new files and uploads all supported file types to Docstoc where you can access them from any computer with a web browser and share them with other users with a link or by embedding a document on your web site.

By default, Docstoc Sync will scan your My Documents folder and upload your documents to a private folder. The program also creates a folder on your desktop for public documents. You can drag and drop any files you want to share with the whole world to this directory and they'll be available to anyone searching for similar documents. You can find all of your uploaded files in the new Docstoc My Docs section.

Docstoc provides unlimited file storage, but you can only upload .doc, .pdf, .xls, .ppt, .ppt, and .txt files.

Filed under: Business, Design, Internet, Office, Productivity, Google

Google Docs introduces template gallery

A lot of desktop word processing and text editing apps feature templates you can use to jazz up your documents -- or make them look terrible, depending on your opinion. Now Google Docs gives you the same option, with a new template gallery. There are over 300 templates, featuring everything from resumés to cards to calendars.

The selection of different templates is impressively versatile. Expense reports, presentations, invitations -- it's all there. Styles range from minimal (basic blue bars) to ostentatious (robots!). Something that immediately struck us as clever is the selection the Avery Dennison-sponsored themes, so you can print to those Avery labels and business cards that every office seems to be up to its ears in. If you use templates in your desktop writing app of choice, you'll probably also find a use for them in Google docs. Although the designs are hit or miss, there are enough of them that you should be able to find what you're looking for.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: Business, Text, Web services

Self-publishing site Lulu adopts Scribd's iPaper

Document-sharing site Scribd and online self-publishing service Lulu have teamed up to offer Lulu's free ebooks in Scribd's iPaper format. iPaper is designed to be a versatile cross-platform means of displaying different document types online. Key draws include the ability to embed docs in any webpage, including your manuscript in Scribd's library, and adding ads to your document.

Lulu is a popular self-publishing site, handling print versions and ebook versions of manuscripts, so getting them to start rolling out iPaper is a big win for Scribd. It's not going to be available for all Lulu books at first, just the most popular free ones. If this catches on, though, the two companies will have all the publishing bases covered, from printed books to iPaper ebooks.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

Tofu makes on-screen reading actually bearable

If you're like us, you have to read long blocks of text on a monitor all the time, and it's kind of a pain for your eyes. E-books and long PDF articles would be great if they could somehow get diced into neat, readable columns. Hey, it works for newspapers. Well, Tofu brings that pleasant reading experience to the Mac.

In a nutshell, Tofu cuts up what you're reading -- whether it's a PDF, a doc, or a chunk of text you've selected -- into columns. This is a good, because monitors are wider than the human eye is really comfortable with, and columns fit the text into your optimal scanning area for easy reading. Tofu's full screen mode and adjustable text size and colors are crucial, too. This app is good enough that we'll think twice before printing out something we can just read in Tofu.

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

Scribd launches iPaper: Embed documents on any site

iPaper
Document sharing service Scribd has launched a new platform called iPaper that makes it easy to upload and embed PDF and Office documents on any web site. The iPaper viewer is based on Adobe Flash, which means it loads quickly and can be embedded on any web page just as easily as a YouTube video.

You can share documents by uploading them to Scribd and grabbing the embed code. Scribd has also released an API that lets web publishers add iPaper tools to their own sites. The company is also letting publishers embed Google AdSense ads in documents, which lets you monetize your content.

The document viewer is pretty slick. You can view multi-page documents easily. And you can navigate large documents using your mouse or keyboard. Check out a sample after the jump.

[via GigaOm]

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Filed under: Text, Features, Linux, Office, Productivity, Open Source

Flipping the Linux switch: Text editors for new users

Cream Text EditorFirst, a little experiment. What are the first three applications you think of when someone mentions text editors?

If you can only answer Notepad, Notepad and Notepad, there's help for you yet.

True, the ubiquitous Notepad is a text editor. People who regularly use text editors often find Notepad quite limiting. That's why there are so many alternative text editors available for Windows.

Linux text editors are a different breed, more closely akin to the uber-editors that you can add to Windows (in fact, many Linux-based text editors have been ported to Windows and OS X). Sure, you can use them exactly the same way you use Notepad, if you want. But you can do so much more: programming in languages from C to XML, annotating documents with notes, and even collaborative editing.

Read more →

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Office, Web services, Beta, web 2.0

Live Documents, a peek at the next online office player

Live Documents, a peek at the next online office player

We covered Live Documents, the new online office documents competition last month, that is about to make a move to steal some market share aware from Zoho, ThinkFree and Google.

Live Documents has released some screen grabs from its interface, giving a little more insight into what they are all about. The Flash based interfaces do resemble what Microsoft currently has on the market, but add the ability to collaborate. Screenshots include Presentations, Spreadsheets and Documents.

Live Documents does reference Microsoft, and Microsoft's Office applications quite a bit when talking about its own suite, and the look and feel closely resembles what MS offers, so we have to assume that they have relied heavily on Office as a starting point. Is this a bad thing? Not if you're looking to quickly build and sell the business.

We'll have to test Live Documents when it becomes readily available to see what its winning points are, and whether or not it will become a major player in the online office space.

Filed under: Internet, Web services

DocStoc user generated document directory opens to the public

DocStoc
Looking for a sample invoice, lease, will, W-2 or pretty much anything else that can be saved as a document? Online document sharing company DocStoc has emerged from private beta. We got our first look at DocStoc last month, and the service is easy to use, and most importantly, useful.

There are over 12,000 documents online so far, and they cover everything from business plans to software tutorials. You can easily read documents online, download them, or embed them on a web page.

Like other user generated content sites, you need an account to upload content. But anyone can browse, read, download, and share documents that other users have uploaded.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, Beta, web 2.0

Free Docstoc invites for Download Squad readers


A few days back we gave away a handful of invitations to DocStoc, a new online document sharing community. It's sort of like Scribd, but with more an emphasis on professional documents like contracts, budgets, and leases.

The site is still in a closed beta, and our first five invitations disappeared pretty quickly. But DocStoc CEO Jason Nazar has agreed to give Download Squad readers a chance to check out the service. Just enter the invitation code "downloadsquad" on the registration page.

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