documents

Box.net gets a slick wiki-style document editor

Online storage service Box.net has a new tool for internal collaboration. Multiple Box users can now work on a shared Web document, using a built-in editor the company has made from scratch.

While there is no option to work on a single document at the same time, like you can with Google Docs and Zoho Writer, it features all the things you'd want for putting together a sturdy document. You can pick from various fonts, format to your heart's content, and drop in photos--either from your hard drive or a URL. All the while it saves what … Read more

Docstoc releases Docshots: A pop-up document viewer

Docstoc has a new service for site owners that makes Web documents more readily accessible. Called Docshots, it presents any linked document in a pop-up viewer that site visitors can read without leaving the page.

If you've ever seen the pop-up thumbnail previews from Snap.com, the idea behind Docshots is the same. You simply hover your mouse over the link and the viewer pops up. Presumably the people visiting your page won't leave and forget to come back if they can read it right there. It also cuts down on any embedded Docstoc Flash viewers that can … Read more

Lives up to its EZ claim

In a nutshell, EZ Document Safe lets you group important files into one safe, encrypted location. The program worked well with the exception of one feature that we weren't able to access.

The program's user interface is very easy to navigate. A tutorial is included to help you along the way. Menu options and a toolbar run across the top of the window. A tree menu displays the database list and files. We really liked the wizard-like approach it takes for creating new databases. We were able to add new files to the database by dragging and dropping … Read more

Docuter hosts documents big and small

Docuter is a free online document host that launched in early January. Like Scribd, Docstoc (which is currently down), and others, it lets you upload documents from your hard drive or a URL. These can be viewed on the site or embedded in Web pages like what I've done below.

Docuter's claim to fame is that it supports "over 200" different types of documents (here's a list). This includes image files, and soon it will include audio and video files. Like Scribd, it lets you upload files of any size, which is nice for uncompressed, … Read more

Scribd chalks up another $9 million

Document-sharing service Scribd has pulled in $9 million in a Series B funding round, the company announced Friday. The round was led by Charles River Ventures with participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Kinsey Hills Group.

With the new cash, Scribd plans to speed up its product development and hire new employees.

And the first of those hires was announced in conjunction with the funding announcement: George Consagra, who most recently served as chief operating officer of AOL's Bebo, has been hired as president. (Co-founder Trip Adler has the CEO post.)

Scribd's monthly user count is now … Read more

Gmail gets one-button dump option

Turning your Gmail into an editable document used to be as simple as one, two, three clicks. Thanks to a new Gmail feature, however, it's now as simple as, well, one click.

Created by Jeremie LE and David K, the new feature, when activated, lets you turn the contents of an e-mail into a Google document with the click of a button.

To activate this feature, from your Gmail account click on Settings, then click on the Labs link. Scroll down to the Create a Document section. Check Enable and click Save changes. Now, you'll see a Create … Read more

Gmail gets a proper PDF viewer

Gmail's integrated software-free PDF viewer has received a nice upgrade courtesy of Google Docs. Now opening up a PDF in Gmail won't fire up your native PDF viewer (like the slow-to-load Adobe Acrobat), and instead will send you to the document reader built into Google Docs.

There are two other benefits to this, the first being the updated page view which lets you hop around the document a whole lot faster. The other is the built-in zoom, which scales the text to fit your monitor with a higher degree of detail than the text resizer found in your … Read more

Super-search your documents

Rider 8 Tools may have been written by a lawyer with other lawyers in mind, but the well-designed text-searching application is versatile enough for anyone who frequently authors or refers back to long or technical documents--business professionals, academics, researchers, and so on.

The application bundles four search tools into one to search one or more documents for specific words and characters within a number of parameters, and within one document or many. Fast. You can limit the search for a whole word, case, or root (wild card); a dates bracket, even part of the file name.Rider 8 Tools will … Read more

Light and easy

To put it gently, Adobe Reader is a real pain in the hindquarters. It's monstrously large, slow to load, and includes many features most users will hardly ever need. Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the bloat and throws in some useful features, such as multimedia support and content-sharing options, while still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.

The interface mimics Adobe's, so you won't have to change your reading habits. In our test, the text readability was similar. The small program starts surprisingly fast compared with Adobe. You might need to fiddle a bit to … Read more