Publish PowerPoint Presentations To the Web

Want to publish your MS Powerpoint presentation over the web so that you can share with more people rather than bombing email boxes with huge file ?

Here is what I do..

Of course, you can always upload to free site like rapidshare.

But if you want things to be more organized, rapidshare is not something to go for, since you can't create profile in rapidshare.

A better option would be Google's Docs.

Theoretically, you should be able to upload the whole powerpoint file to it and Google will help you to convert automatically and even better, you can actually make use of the web editor. However, Google Docs only accept up to 10 MB of powerpoint file for upload, more than that, you have to manually edit it online.



So, this may not be ideal if you are going to rush off schedules. A better way would be using Adobe Presenter and publish the powerpoint file into PDF format.



The good thing is that the published PDF file is not just a document, it is a flash presentation enclosed inside a single PDF file (which makes it easy for you to upload). The best thing is that the published powerpoint file will be compressed and is possible of up to 20%.

After that, upload your file to Acrobat.com, a free site for sharing PDF files and other forms of collaborations. The speed of accessing Acrobat.com and uploading PDF file is dependent on your Internet speed. And of course, it will only accept PDF file. Check out more for Acrobat.com. It is still in Beta.



Adobe Presenter is shipped alongside Adobe Acrobat 9.

Adobe Acrobat 9.0 (Data Collection Management)

Image via WikipediaAdobe Acrobat 9.0

The 'Forms' feature allows one to perform data collection by distributing data entry forms (such as registration forms) in PDF format to recipients and have the responses collected and centrally managed.

It is simple, very easy. The steps are summarized as:

1. Create new form.
   
2. Adobe LiveCycle Designer will be launched (which is the real software for this function).
   
3. Select a template
   
4. Save the form.
   
5. Distribute form to Acrobat.com
   
6. Email will be sent to recipient.
   
7. Email link will connect to Acrobat.com
   
8. But you can't fill in the form in Acrobat.com, you have to download the file and open it from local.
   
9. Track your responses. Goto 'Form/Track Forms'
   
   
   
   • Check for new responses
   • Filter responses
   • Export responses
   • Archive responses

Check out pictorial illustrations below...

Select A Template

The editor (LiveCycle Designer)

The Generated Form

Distribute Form to Acrobat.com

Recipient Access Form From Email Inbox.

Open Form from Acrobat.com

Recipient Submits Form.

Track Responses

The good thing of using 'Forms' feature in Adobe Acrobat 9 is that recipients don't need to own Acrobat software to fill up PDF forms. Or other solutions such as www.pdffiler.com

How to fill up PDF Files ?

Refinancing is the norm these days.

Go-Green is also something which we cannot avoid missing these days.

If you received an application form (in PDF format) from any sources and it would be rather silly for you to print it out, use your pen to fill up the details and scan it back to electronic format and then email it back. This is way too redundant and not environmental friendly.

Check out one sample here.

Of course, this is the primitive and it cannot fail, who doesn't have a pen, email or fax machine ?

The better way, if we are talking achieving the MSC vision, is to make use of Adobe Acrobat 9.0

1. To mark a check-box.

Make use of 'Tools/Comment & Markup/Rectangular Tools'



2. To Fill-Up Text

Make use of 'Tools/Typewrite'



3. To make a signature.

Make use of 'Tools/ Comment & Markup/Stamps'.

You can scan in your own signature and create a 'custom stamp' for it.



This is all that you need.

More about Acrobat.

How to keep files confidential ?

If you want to keep a highly confidential file, keep it as hard copy in the safe.

if you want to keep a moderately confidential file, this is what I recommend.

Convert file into PDF format and protect it with encryption. Acrobat 9 now supports 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as approved by the U.S. government.



Then keep it in a folder by applying strict Windows security (assuming you are using Windows Vista).

First of all, make sure you have a login to Windows.

Assign the login with full control.


Delete other users from being able to access the folder (including administrator and system)




So now you have a folder where only your login can be able to access, modify and delete it.

This will help to prevent the following threats.

• Other registered windows users - Will not be able to gain access to the folder.
  
• Malwares (while you logon as yourself) - By turning off access to administrator, system and other users. (Malwares would usually try to gain access to the folder using system or administrator rights)
  
• While the laptop or hard disk is stolen - all folders can be opened now. The only protection is the security for PDF file.
  
• When selling your laptop - make sure you fully clean up the hard disk or replace it with a new hard disk. Still the PDF file is protected by password.

Also, if the file is big, span it into multiple files and each with different passwords. Keep your password in a public email such as Google, Yahoo and Hotmail. I recommend hotmail because it is https.

Anything that is electronic is not 100% secured.

Adobe Acrobat 9 : 4 Major Features (Enhanced Powerful Encryption)

Image via WikipediaAdobe Acrobat 9 supports two types of document securities; digital ID and password.

Such facilities are useful for people who wanted to protect intellectual rights of electronic documents such as eBook publishers and sellers.

Encryption with password security is not suitable for eBook sellers. We need to track down smugglers using digital IDs. Because you can't track down a person by password matching; any kind of passwords must be confidential!

What we are trying to do is to prevent illegal mass distribution of pirated eBook. Means we want to prevent buyers from reselling the eBooks they had purchased through downloads (Internet).

To do this, there are two ways.

1. One way is to generate unique filenames for each users based on unique ID such as email address. --> But there is no way to prevent users from renaming the file. Unless we can assign an globally unique ID to the file which cannot be edited.
   
2. Encrypt documents with digital ID so that we can trace back to the PDF file which digital ID it belonged to. And form the digital ID, we can track down who is the smuggler.

So, use security with digital ID.

Open a PDF document.

1. Select encryption as 'Encryption Algorithm' as 256-bit AES
   
2. Create a digital ID.
   
3. Save the PDF document.
4. Export the digital ID to a file (.pfx)
   
5. Distribute the encrypted PDF file alongside the .pfx file to buyer.
   
6. The buyer will have to install the Digital ID in order to be able to open the PDF file.

This will be good for those people who want to sell eBooks online. All you need to do is to pre-create the digital IDs and allocate specific passwords.




Provide password for the digital ID.


Edit the permission options of the security.



Without the digital ID (file), one can't open encrpted PDF file.



One needs to obtain the digital ID (file) and then install it to local computer.


To install (or import) the digital ID successfully, one needs to have the proper password.


Having encrypted with digital ID, we can track down which PDF is belonged to which ID.

But then, if you have 1,000 eBook buyers, how you going to automatically generate 1000 different digital IDs and passwords and assign it to 1,000 eBooks ?

You have to make use of the SDK (software development kit).

Currently, the latest SDK for Acrobat is Acrobat SDK 8.1, which is free for download.

The SDK contains header files, type libraries, simple utilities, sample code, and documentation.

Check out the overview here.

You have to make use of the feature called 'Interapplication communication'.

You also need to have a valid license of Acrobat in order to be able to use the SDK.

If you don't want to buy a valid license of Acrobat but wanted to develop application using Acrobat technology, then you can perhaps go for the PDF Library SDK (where you need to apply for it).

Check out the comparison between Acrobat SDK and PDF Library SDK (two different but similar things).

Adobe Acrobat 9 : 4 Major Features (Enhanced: Web Capture)

In Adobe Acrobat 9, there is a feature under 'Advance' tab which is known as 'web capture.

This feature is simply an ability to download and archive all information from a http source into PDF documents.




It is good to achieve the following benefits.

• Good for bloggers to backup and archive a snapshot of the content
  
• Good for bloggers to create digital book out of the content
  
• Good for downloading data for analysis (document comparisons and etc)
  
• Good for project management of web development projects

For example, project managers can include ad-hoc comments and sticky notes in the captured web document and use it for communication with developers. This will save a lot of the time doing-away with print screen.



You can also use the plugin from web browser directly..

1. Launch Microsoft Internet Explorer, and open the website www.adobe.com. Note that if you’re using an another browser
   like Firefox or Safari, you can also create a PDF from a website by launching Acrobat and going to File > Create PDF > From
   Web Page.
   
2. Click Convert in the IE toolbar. Choose a name and location for the PDF file and click Save to save the Adobe
   home page as a PDF file. Watch the conversion status in the dialog to track its conversion progress. If you don’t see the
   Adobe PDF toolbar in IE, open it by selecting Tools > Toolbars > Adobe PDF.
   
3. When the conversion finishes, the resulting PDF file opens. Note that the layout of the PDF file looks just like the website.
   The content responds just as it would if you were viewing the web page from the web server—Flash animations automatically
   play when you mouse over them and links are live, so clicking any link takes you to the page.
   
4. NEW: New to Acrobat 9 is the ability to convert a selected region on a web page. Return to IE and www.adobe.com, and click
   on one of the News links. Choose Select in the IE toolbar. Note that when you hover over portions of the website,
   red dotted rectangles outline portions of the page. Select the title and some text and click your mouse. Any red dotted outlined
   areas turn to a solid blue outline, indicating that this content has been selected for conversion to a PDF file. If you wish to
   deselect a selection, just click again. Click Convert, choose a name and location for the resulting PDF file, and click Save.
   
5. When the resulting PDF file opens, note that you’ve retained only the areas you wanted to retain.