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Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Web

Convert PDFs with tables to Excel documents online

PDF files are great because you don't have to worry about the formatting of your document getting lost in translation when you send it to someone else. The only problem is that they're notoriously tough to edit. Nitro's new web-based PDF to Excel converter solves at least part of the problem. If you've got a PDF with tables, and you want to do more than view them, then this is for you.

PDF to Excel does a pretty decent job of keep the formatting of the original PDF intact. Colors, text sizes and cell formatting all carry over into Excel. Just as importantly, it reliably detects tables to keep from forcing your non-table content into the Excel document, where you'll probably just end up deleting it. The only complaint I have about PDF to Excel is that it delivers the results by email. I'd like to see a direct download option as well.

Filed under: E-mail, Office, Web services, Google

Gmails adds Spreadsheets option for Excel attachments

Spreadsheets in Gmail

One of Gmail's handiest features has long been its ability to open a large variety of attachments with its "View as HTML" option. Now Google has taken it one logical step futher with an "Open in Google Spreadsheets" option when you receive an Excel file as an attachment. I checked it out and found it to be pretty convenient. While Gmail's HTML view is occasionally lacking, Google Spreadsheets is somewhat more faithful to the original, though charts are still lost in the process. Though like Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen I'm wary of lock-in, this is the sort of integration "Google Office" needs to compete against other desktop and web-based offerings.

Filed under: Finance, Office

Spreadsheets for fixing your finances

MoneyI tried budgeting once. I even wrote a simple Ruby on Rails app to help me. I only stuck with it for a couple of months, but I'm thinking maybe it's worth giving another shot, but this time with the proper tools. Get Rich Slowly (a blog I'm really loving) has a handy little pile of links for freely available Excel spreadsheets that will help you keep your finances under control. There are several for day-to-day budgeting plus a few for paying off your debts, building your savings, and more. What have you got to lose?

Filed under: Office, Web services

ajaxXLS: Web-based spreadsheet from ajaxLaunch

ajaxXLSMichael Robertson's ajaxLaunch is trying hard to keep up the buzz from the launches of its web-based word processor ajaxWrite and drawing app ajaxSketch, and today it's launched ajaxXLS, a web-based spreadsheet app. ajaxXLS looks promising, and will no doubt look familiar to Excel users, but having spent a few minutes with it I can already tell ajaxXLS is far from finished. In fact, it's downright hard to use and seems like it would be infuriating to anyone trying to switch from Excel. Some of its issues might just be due to high opening day user load, but much of it just seems buggy or incomplete. Here's hoping Robertson can turn ajaxXLS into something usable; at present it's uninspiring.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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