Surf7.net Blog

Have you ever receive a complain from your supplier or customer that they cannot open the PO or invoice you send to them because they don’t have the compatible software to open the file? Or, they can open it but it doesn’t display correctly because they are using out dated or different version of the software from yours? I am sure many have experienced it. That is why PDF become so popular. Anyone can open any PDF file as long as they have the reader (it is free!) and it displays and prints out exactly like how you intended it to be.

Good news is, you don’t have to spend RM 1,800 simply to create a pdf file. In fact, you don’t have to spend a single cent to create a PDF file. Here is how…

1. Download PDFCreator. Current version is 0.9.5.
2. Install it. PDFCreator will install as a printer driver in your Windows. That means, you will find a new printer call PDFCreator in the printer selection window whenever you want to print your document (refer to below image).
   
3. To create your PDF file, just open the file with any Windows application that has print function. Go to File > Print or press CTRL+P. A window similar to above will appear.
4. Select PDFCreator from the printer selection list. Click on Properties if you need to adjust the output setting. Click OK when you are ready. This window will appear.
   
5. You can ignore it and click Save and this window will appear…
   
6. Firstly, select a location in your PC to save the PDF file. Then, enter the filename of the PDF file. Finally click Save.

That is it. You just created your first PDF file using PDFCreator. Hope this will help you save some expenses on your company IT budget.

Firefox 3 is here at last! If you haven’t already upgraded to Firefox 3, you can get it here.

Remember that Mozilla is trying to set a new Guinness World Record on Firefox 3 Download Day, so please do your bit.

Top New Features:

• Password Manager - Remember site passwords without ever seeing a pop-up.
• One-Click Bookmarking - Bookmark, search and organize Web sites quickly and easily.
• Improved Performance - View Web pages faster, using less of your computer’s memory.
• Smart Location Bar - Find the sites you love in seconds—enter a term for instant matches that make sense.
• Instant Web Site ID - Avoid online scams, unsafe transactions and forgeries with simple site identity.
• Full Zoom - See any part of a Web page, up close and readable, in seconds.
• Platform-Native Look & Feel - Browse with a Firefox that’s integrated into your computer’s operating system.

Read more about it here.

In Must have free softwares for your company, I have highlighted portable applications (portable apps) for many reasons.

Before I go any further, a portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Personally, portable application has help me in a lot of ways. For instance, my web browser behaves exactly like it always do when I was away on vacation, I have all the required softwares ready for my presentation on that big meeting, the passwords to my online banks are with me while traveling and I have all the utilities with me to troubleshoot family or friends PC problems.

Here are more reasons why you should use portable apps…

Easy to install (and uninstall)
I personally don’t like software that anchored itself heavily on the Windows system files. It leaves a massive trial in the registry even after you supposedly uninstall it and it may slow down your computer. However, installing a portable apps is as easy as extract and use. If you don’t like the portable apps after some time, just delete it from your computer.

Easy to backup
If you do a clean reinstall of your Windows or buy a new computer, most probably you have to reinstall all your favorite applications and reconfigure them all over again. I have experienced this dreadful process until I used portable apps. Because portable apps never anchored itself to host computer, I can easily backup the applications by simply copy and paste the applications to another storage device such as my thumb drive. Once I complete reinstall my Windows, I can copy the applications from my thumb drive back to my host computer and all my applications are as good as it used to be.

It follows you!
OK, maybe I missed the main point here. Of course portable apps are meant to be portable. Like the namesake, you can carry your applications with you (just your applications without the computer!). This is particularly useful when you are on vacation. No more extra luggage for your notebook. Just a thumb drive in your pocket. When you want to go online, check your mail or chat with family members, all you need to do is find a cyber cafe and plug the thumb drive into the computer and start using your very own applications. No more worries about missing softwares on the host computer. Also, all of your data and settings are always stored on your thumb drive so when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

You can’t online over a cuppa in Starbucks with your thumb drive though. But hey, you are on vacation, remember? Another thing I would like to stress here. Since thumb drives are extremely portable (meaning small), they can be easily misplaced. You must install some kind of password protection on the thumb drive to protect your personal data. Some thumb drives come with this feature. If not, you can try out Folder Lock.

Freewares
Almost all of the portables apps in the market today are freewares. A great place to start is PortableApps.com. You can find almost all kind of free portable apps you ever need there. However, all of the applications are Windows based.

Don’t waste your company IT budget on softwares you can get for free from the Internet. Some of these softwares are better than the “standard” commercial ones. Here is the list of all the highly recommended free softwares. You are advised to use the portable version. Since you don’t have to install it and it doesn’t write anything to your Windows registry, you can just delete it if you don’t like it.

What is portable version?
According to Wikipedia: A portable application, or portable app for short, is a software program that does not require any kind of formal installation onto a computer’s permanent storage device to be executed, and can be stored on a removable storage device such as a CD-ROM, USB flash drive, flash card, or even a floppy disk, enabling it to be used on multiple computers.

Web Development

1. Text editor - Notepad++ (Portable version)
2. Web page editor - KompoZer (Portable version)
3. Testing servers - XAMPP (Portable version)
4. File comparison - WinMerge (Portable version)

Graphics & Pictures

1. Image viewer - IrfanView
2. Photo and image editor - GIMP (Portable version)

Internet

1. Web browser - Mozilla Firefox (Portable version)
2. Free PC to PC call - Skype
3. Email client - Mozilla Thunderbird (Portable version)
4. FTP client - FireFTP (Firefox extension)
5. FTP client - FileZilla (Portable version)
6. Telnet & SSH - PuTTY (Portable version)
7. RSS feed reader - Sage (Firefox extension)

Music & Video

1. Audio editor & recorder - Audacity (Portable version)
2. Media player - VLC (Portable version)

Office

1. PDF viewer - Sumatra PDF (Portable version)
2. PDF creator - PDFCreator
3. Office Suites (alternative to MS Office) - OpenOffice.org (Portable version)

Utilities

1. Antivirus - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
2. CD/DVD burner - InfraRecorder (Portable version)
3. File compression and archiver - 7-Zip (Portable version)
4. Backup tools - Syncback Freeware
5. Password managers - KeePass Password Safe (Portable version)
6. PC Auditor - Belarc
7. Disk usage statistic - WinDirStat (Portable version)