There are several well-regarded, free ways to take advantage of the Print function to transform just about any file to a PDF. PrimoPDF and doPDF sit at the top of the list, but what about reverse engineering that conversion? Converting in the other direction, from a PDF to a Microsoft Word-compatible format like DOC or RTF is trickier.
For one thing, there's a lot of crap out there. Many PDF-to-DOC converters have similar or even identical names, differentiated sometimes by nothing more than a cunning tap of the space bar. Many offer features that are hamstrung in various ways unless you pay for an upgrade, and just about all of them offer imperfect conversions. Even with these problems, though, you can get a reasonable conversion from the four programs and three Web-based services listed below.
Sometimes right: Some PDF to Word Converter 1.5
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Some PDF to Word Converter 1.5: A basic but uncluttered interface introduces all of the program's conversion options in a sidebar on the right. Some handles batch conversions, converts outer fonts into text and embedded fonts into images, and supports both All Pages and page-range specific conversions. It can remove graphics on demand from the output document, which is always in the RTF format, and supports encryption.
The program suffers from two big drawbacks: the conversions aren't always the cleanest, with occasional image and text overlaps, and there's noticeable image deterioration. In place of drag-and-drop to add PDFs, you can add an entire folder via the folder icon. Some of the interface's option descriptions could be better phrased, too: "delete all graphics" with an option of "false" or "true" really could be posed better as "remove all graphics" and "yes" or "no."
Free PDF to Word Doc Converter 1.1 makes you jump through hoops for a great end result.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Free PDF to Word Doc Converter 1.1 also gets a few things wrong, but eventually lands you the DOC output you want. Impressively, it offers one of the cleanest and most accurate free PDF-to-DOC conversions of the programs tested. You can change the output path and name, convert an entire document or just specific pages, and ditch images in the source PDF if need be. The final output will give you a pitch-perfect conversion.
From there, it goes a bit downhill. The option to open the output DOC in WordPad didn't function when we tested it, nor did the All Pages button. You can work around this by choosing Page Number instead of All Pages (Page Number defaults to the full page count), but it's still irritating. The other big frustration is that while the program is free, after five conversions you're asked to answer a math question a bit harder than the average Captcha. Batch conversion and encryption support are missing, too. If Free PDF to Word Doc Converter's bumpy ride didn't result in such a smooth landing, it wouldn't be worth touching.
Free PDF to Word Converter 1.3: common name, common problems.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Free PDF to Word Converter 1.3 shares many things in common with its competitors besides a similar name: there's an imperfect balance of useful features and a perfect output. What's wrong: there's no drag-and-drop support, and you should be prepared for some minor yet annoying formatting errors, with occasional and minor word and image overlap.
What's right: The program can batch convert PDFs without being restricted to specific folders, can change your output destination, and put out either RTF or DOC. There's support for high levels of security, with space to provide passwords from the PDF owner and the PDF user. You can remove graphics on conversion and micro-manage the spaces between words and text boxes. It's fine for image-free PDFs, but somewhat less than exact with others.
Advanced PDF to Word Converter Free 5.0: nearly-perfect output.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Advanced PDF to Word Converter Free 5.0 nearly crashes and burns on takeoff, but surprisingly leaves you with a nearly-perfect document. It will ask you to reboot on installation, which makes sense for programs that have deep hooks in your operating system but is a clarion warning for such a simple converter. However, as with all these converters, it's the final output that counts the most, and this program's final DOC output looks pretty good.
There's no support for encrypted PDFs, and when you convert or close the program, there's a nag screen to get you upgrade. Batch conversion, RTF and TXT output, and image deletion are restricted to the paid upgrade. The program does offer drag-and-drop additions, adding an entire folder, and user-selected output folders and output renaming. OpenOffice.org users will appreciate that this converter puts out a DOC that OpenOffice Writer can cleanly read images from--unlike many of the others. The biggest problem, of course, is that there is still some image quality degradation and minor text alignment problems.
OpenOffice users should take note that during these tests, I found that the OpenOffice Writer doesn't always play nicely with Rich Text Formatting. There are several free online conversion options as well, and they tend to have better output than the desktop programs.
You can send your PDF as an attachment to Adobe, and within a few minutes they'll send you back either a plain text TXT or HTML file. The service is basic but extremely fast. As long as you don't mind the lack of frills, you can e-mail pdf2txt@adobe.com for the plain text conversion and pdf2html@adobe.com for HTML output, although the HTML service wasn't working when I tested it. More details are here.
PDF to Word, from Nitro PDF.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Nitro PDF, the makers of PrimoPDF, offer a glossy interface for their online PDF to Word format converter. Clearly delineated instructions guide you through uploading your PDF, choosing an output format--either DOC or RTF--and entering your e-mail address. The conversion took a bit longer than Adobe's, but it's worth the wait. The conversion output is a perfect document, precisely the kind of painless process that most of the downloadable options lack. There's no support for encryption, nor for batches, but Nitro's service gets high marks for its precise and fast conversion. Apparently, there are plans to incorporate the PDF-to-Word feature in future editions of Nitro PDF.
There are two other PDF-to-Word services worth mentioning: Koolwire and Zamzar. Koolwire will convert PDFs up to 10MB, but it can also handle DOC, XLS, PPT, VSD, MPP, RTF, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and MS Office 2007 formats like DOCX. Unlike the other services, clicking on their Web site opens an e-mail to which you only need to attach your PDF and then hit Send. The PDF comes out as RTF, with very minor image degradation and no formatting problems.
Zamzar's uploading interface.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Zamzar will convert PDFs up to 100MB at a time, and in addition to converting your PDF into DOC or RTF, it can output ODT, TXT, PS, and PNG. It can handle batch conversion, as long as you don't mind uploading the files one at a time. When it finishes converting, you receive a link that stays active for 24 hours from which you can download your converted files one at a time or all at once in a ZIP. There was minor image degradation, similar to what Koolwire spit out, and one instance of a formatting error.
Overall, there is no option that can be declared 100 percent perfect. Where one service--whether it's online or desktop--fails, it also tends to offer a better interface, or more conversion options than others. The reverse also seems to hold true, where the best conversions are not always buttressed by the greatest of user experiences. Nitro PDF's PDF-to-Word Web site wins for its output and usability, but if you must go with a desktop client I'd choose Free PDF to Word Doc Converter 1.1 for the resulting document only. If you don't mind minor hiccups, but need a better user experience or more conversion options, Zamzar and Free PDF to Word Converter 1.3 are probably what you need.
Disagree with my picks? Have a better suggestion? Tell me about it in the comments.
[h/t Freeware Genius]
Vuze 4.2 offers users a drag-and-drop video conversion option.
(Credit: Vuze)Continuing to stake out a different approach to torrents, the latest version of Vuze integrates an auto-conversion feature for both portable screens and your television. Available for Windows and Mac, Vuze 4.2 offers a device drag-and-drop feature that automatically converts a video torrent from its native format to an appropriate one for iTunes, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and then pushes it to your device.
Still in beta, the new Devices tab on the left nav will ask you to install a transcoder and a plug-in. Devices then detects iTunes or any of the devices when they're connected to your computer. When you choose iTunes, Vuze will push the video without user input. From there, you can sync the video to your iPod or iPhone. Xbox and PlayStation users will see the video streamed directly from their PC or Mac to their game console.
Two weeks ago, when Vuze asked in a poll on its Web site which devices users most wanted this feature for, the iPhone and iPod won by a long shot. With more than 25,000 respondents, the only major system that wasn't included in this update was the Wii--so you shouldn't be surprised if Wii support is in the works. There's no word on automatic support for other popular portable video players.
The conversion process is not particularly speedy, so if you're more concerned with speed than convenience you might not find the update useful. However, Vuze is certainly giving users who are looking for something between the basic uTorrent and the robust Miro an interesting and feature-rich third option.
(Credit:
Brown University)
AUSTIN, Texas--Someone blogged that South by Southwest Interactive is just like the Internet itself: disjointed, decentralized, scattered, fast, aggressive, random, fragmented, and so on.
In fact, the main commonality between the two may be that the number of attributes to describe them is infinite. Like the Internet, the annual tech conference here is an echo chamber of an echo chamber, a place where original thought and commentary get mixed up and mashed up in a highly self-referential meta conversation.
That was already the case before Twitter entered the scene at SXSW two years ago, but the microblogging service has certainly amplified the effect. It was both comical and frightening to see the uber-individualistic geeksters at SXSW captivated by the invisible rules of an ostentatious behavioral uniformity: within 1 mile of the convention center, you could observe the strange ritual of groups of people standing or sitting together, chained to their iPhones, twittering instead of talking: "SXSW. Twittering about SXSW."
The real conversation was often limited to a quick "What's your name?" or "Where's the next party?" just to have some input for the next tweet. It is indeed a read-write generation that is coming of age in the wake of an all-dominant present, with no particular loyalty to the past and maybe not even an interest in the future (see Peggy Orenstein's recent piece on "Growing up on Facebook" in The New York Times Magazine).
Yet the rise of the social digerati is unstoppable. New data by Nielsen Online shows that social-networking sites (which encompass social networks and blogs, by Nielsen's definition) are experiencing growth rates of twice as much as any of the main destination sites (search, portals, PC software sites, and e-mail). The time spent on social networks and blogging sites is growing at more than three times the rate of overall Internet growth. Furthermore, social networks are gaining traction among new audiences.
... Read moreSocialmedian is a new Web 2.0 conversation service that does a decent job of repackaging concepts that users of Digg and Twitter will find familiar. I fear it's a bit too similar to other existing services to break into the mainstream, but there are some concepts and experiments on the site that make it work, at least for its devoted early beta users.
The site has been in closed alpha testing until now, but it is scheduled to open up to all tonight.
Like Digg, sort of, but with better focus.
On Socialmedian, you either join or create topics you're interested in, such as "Web 2.0," "Obama," or what have you. You can also follow particular people's updates if that's you cup of tea. It has the potential to work since the mechanics of contributing and following are good. There's a bookmarklet for grabbing URLs to share. This is something that Broong didn't get right, for example.
The challenge for this service is that, like any other social product, it's worthless without users. And given the slight bias the site has toward celebrity users (they're the ones people will probably want to follow), there's an even bigger challenge of getting people who are already Internet-famous to lock in to the system and use it regularly.
I do like Socialmedian's comment system.
One smart move: An easy way to send any item (either the page the item is about or the discussion around it on Socialmedian) to Twitter. During my testing of the service, I also found that it did a good job of auto-categorizing items into relevant topics. Users can also manually tag items they create.
As a business, Socialmedian could work. One of the project's backers is Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, an arm of the Washington Post Company that could nudge the development of the service into something that media properties might want to adopt--and pay for. Likewise, CEO Jason Goldberg says, he's getting queries from businesses who are interested in setting up private Socialmedian installations for hosting internal conversations.
I have no intention of trying to build a community of followers on Socialmedian, although if Ping.FM would let me cross-post items to the service, I would happily feed items to it. Also, I find that Friendfeed is doing a good job of keeping me updated in my field, even if the community does feel a bit more self-referential than I'd like. It looks like Socialmedian will do a better job of pulling in opinions from people they may not already be connected with.
Video and text don't always go together, but that's not stopping video and audio microblogging service Seesmic from partnering with the distributed comment tool Disqus. Starting Wednesday, users of Disqus will get the added benefit of video commenting alongside the text entry field.
The option is turned off by default in Disqus, and must be enabled by whoever is administrating the account. We've gone ahead and turned it on in the Webware 100 winner pages, where we've been using Disqus since unveiling the 100 winners late last month. I've also added it to the end of this post, where you can add your own video comment after the break.
One small hiccup I've found is that Seesmic won't pull in your Disqus account information. You've got to be registered with the currently private alpha service to have it linked up with any sort of account. Otherwise you're limited to leaving an anonymous comment that can later be reclaimed when you get Seesmic access. Disqus founder Daniel Ha tells me the two companies are working on deeper integration for user authentication, but in the meantime anonymous recording is the easiest option for people who don't yet have Seesmic accounts.
I'm still not sold on the trend of video commenting. It's a bit gimmicky, and as others have said, it makes conversations difficult to parse. Ideally I'd like to see services like Seesmic partner with Jott to add a small transcript under the comment that would save me some time, and improve the experience for search engine bots, the deaf, and others who don't feel like watching and listening to what could be a simple sentence or two of thought.
Adding video comments to your Disqus account is as simple as clicking a check box. By default video comments are turned off until a Disqus admin turns them on.
(Credit: CNET Networks)... Read more
I'm always on the lookout for simple ways to manage video on the Web. One of them, called Mux has been getting some buzz lately for taking advantage of both Amazon's EC2 and S3 Web services to store data and do the crunching at the same time. Mux uses the two services together to serves as a video ripper and converter, letting you grab videos off a small handful of popular sites and save them locally or send them to your mobile phone. It'll also take any file on your computer and convert it without the need for software or CPU cycles.
Crunch files on someone else's servers with Mux.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Apple's iPhone users also get a treat, as Mux is setup to convert Flash videos on the fly to make them playable on the device. The only caveat is that you have to enter the URL in the mobile application, which would be a whole heck of a lot easier if the iPhone had a way to copy and paste. I tried it out on a few videos from around the Web and had mixed results. A surprising amount of video sites have done as much as possible to support mobile phones without Flash, including CollegeHumor, Break, and Dailymotion. However, those that don't work without Flash on cell phones, such as Vimeo and MySpace, simply crashed the converter.
Another reason Mux is useful is for the folks who don't want to have to plug in their phones to a computer to sync their media. You can simply send entire Web clips over to your phone using SMS. As long as you've got a data plan you can access the link anytime you want to watch or download the full video. It's very handy.
Mux was created by the same team who did Cruxy, a media distributing service that debuted at the Under the Radar Media conference last summer.
See also: ZamZar and iDesktop.tv
If you're away from your home computer and need to open a file on a foreign computer that doesn't have the program installed, there are a few options. For one, Gmail converts several file types so they can be viewed right in the browser, including PDF, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office documents. However, it's not nearly as helpful for music files, as its only able to make a few listenable. Enter Koolwire, a simple no-frills service that converts several popular file formats under 10MB through e-mail.
Besides taking any Word, PowerPoint, or Excel document and turning it into a PDF, it'll also convert any PDF file to a Word document. Likewise, WAV files will be converted to MP3s and visa versa.
Here are the addresses for the different conversions. Add them to an e-mail address book to keep them handy, or create a group in Gmail (kind of counterintuitive since Gmail converts some files):
From word, ppt, excel to PDF: pdf@koolwire.com
From PDF to Word: doc@koolwire.com
From WAV to MP3: mp3@koolwire.com
From MP3 to WAV: wav@koolwire.com
The process takes a few minutes to convert the e-mailed files. Recipients will get the file attached to an e-mail message, along with some sponsored links in the message body that keeps the service afloat.
While Koolwire is handy, a far more powerful solution is Zamzar. It will take nearly every file thrown at it (up to 100MB), and churn it out into nearly 70 different formats for pictures, music, video, and Office files.
Those of us who are artistically challenged need all the help we can get when it comes to design software. A new tool called Vector Magic--the result of Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory research project by James Diebel and Jacob Norda--seems to be a valuable addition to the arsenal of free apps available for creating and editing images online.
Basically, Vector Magic takes rasterized images (composed of pixels) and converts them to vector (or scalable) images. The result is an image that can be easily resized with no blur or pixelation--an ideal format for logos or other images that need to appear both large and small. Vector Magic supports the uploading of JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and TIFF formats, and can export its final products as EPS, SVG, or PNG files. A warning on the Vector Magic blog today warns users to be patient because of a recent upswing in the load on its servers, but I had no problem at all converting JPEG images of various sizes into vector images in no time at all. ... Read more
Movavi is a company that provides a variety of software solutions for video editing and conversion. Today they've launched a free, Web-based video conversion service that lets people change the format on video clips without installing any sort of conversion software on their computer. Users can upload up to five different video files, up to 100MB in total space, and choose from 11 popular formats for output. The main use for services like these is compatibility with portable devices, or Web services that require video clips to fall under a certain spec for playback--the iPod and upcoming iPhone included.
Movavi is also giving bloggers and site owners a fairly simple way to add the new video conversion service to their site. Users can embed a line of code, to add a simple one-file-at-a-time converter widget. This widget lets users convert up to one file at a time, and choose from 11 popular video formats. All the system needs is your e-mail address, where it will send a link for downloading. One neat thing about the embed is that it shows you how far it is on the conversion while you wait. There are six different widgets to choose from; I've embedded one of them at the bottom of the post.
There are quite a few of these online video converters around, and many are tied to paid software solutions that don't have length or size requirements. At 10 minutes and up to 100MB, Movavi's file limitations are fairly generous, although I've got to be honest--I'm really not a fan of filling up my e-mail in-box with download links. I much prefer HeyWatch's system, which lets you watch the entire process right in your browser and even grab download links to share with others.
See also: Zamzar, MediaConverter, and HeyWatch [review]
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