Fierce Discussions

Many professional business documents are published in PDF format.  PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Many applications use PDF file size because of its file size friendly footprint. In addition, you can’t modify a pdf file without modifying certain file parameters. The PDF format is a legal file format used by many lawyers. PDF was developed by Adobe Acrobat in 1993.

Create your own PDF work environment without spending a single penny on the software

In order to create PDF files, you must have a PDF application or virtual printer driver that supports this file format.  There are several PDF applications available that won’t cost you a penny. I will share with you my favorite setup.

My favorite PDF work environment setup includes:

• PDFCreator or Bullzip PDF application
• PDF-T-Maker

PFD Creator (http://www.pdfforge.org/)

PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application. PDFCreator is very user friendly.

Key Features (as described on pdfforge.org):

• Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
• Security: Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc.
• Send generated files via eMail
• Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
• AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on Tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
• Merge multiple files into one PDF
• Easy Install: Just say what you want and everything is installed
• Terminal Server: PDFCreator also runs on Terminal Servers without problems
• And the best: PDFCreator is free, even for commercial use! It is Open Source and released under the Terms of the GNU General Public License.

Bullzip Printer (Bullzip.com)

The Bullzip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application. You can even make a programmatic link from other software applications to this virtual printer application.

Key Features (as described on bullzip.com):

• Print to PDF from almost any Windows program.
• Runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/XP x64/2003/2003 x64/Vista/Vista x64/2008.
• Supports 64-bit operating systems.
• Direct output to the same file each time or prompt for destination.
• Control if the printer should ask if you want to see the resulting PDF document.
• Control output and prompts programmatically.
• Setup can run unattended.
• Graphical user interface.
• Password protect PDF documents.
• 128/40 bit encryption.
• Quality settings (screen, printer, ebook, prepress).
• Set document properties.
• Watermark text, size, rotation, and transparency.
• Superimpose/background documents.
• Appending/prepending documents.
• User interface control.
• Command line interface to all settings.
• COM/ActiveX interface for programmatic control.
• Support for Citrix MetaFrame
• Support for Windows Terminal Server
• Multiple output types supported: BMP, JPEG, PCX, PDF, PNG, and TIFF.

PDF-T-Maker (transcom.de)

One PDF feature that is missing in almost every free pdf application is the feature to create bookmarks and hyperlinks in your PDF documents. Bookmarks and hyperlinks make PDF files very easy to navigate and much more professional looking. PDF-T-Maker can create bookmarks and hyperlinks for your Microsoft Word documents.  PDF-T-Maker will show up in Microsoft Word as an Add-In.

Combine all pdf applications together to create a complete pdf work environment solution

With PDFCreator or Bullzip plus combining PDF-T-Maker, you have a complete solution to develop professional PDF files for free!

Bookmarks and table of content in PDF files

You can create a table of content in your PDFfiles easily by using the Microsoft heading styles. If you need a tutorial about using Microsoft Styles, please visit the site of MVP Shauna Kelly.  I don’t believe there is a site that better describes how to use styles within Microsoft Word. PDF-T-Maker is using the 9 default style headings in Microsoft Word for the table of content.

Protect your produced work

You spend a lot of time to create a professional document and you want to protect your document from being copied and reproduced by others. The combination of PFDCreator and Bullzip will provide you all the protection you need. Encrypt your files, set permissions on files if readers can print or copy and paste  your information, set a strong password on your file and add a watermark for authenticity.

Adobe Acrobat Professional 9

Nitro PDF Professional

ScanSnap S510M Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner

Introduction

One blizzard day in February, I had to complete a monthly financial business report with only a few hours left before the deadline expired. Yes, I am a procrastinator. It was almost midnight and the report had to be sent to the executives before Monday, 7 a.m. My typing skills were bad so the creation of a business report took always a long time to complete.  Typing two full pages took longer than the time it took to burn a large wood log in my fireplace; an observation I made during that evening.

Countless Sunday hours have been wasted due to my lack in typing skills. My five finger type system was just not working.  I have been practicing my “system” for years but my speed and accuracy did not get better.
I will describe my self developed system. I look at the sentence on the screen from lets say a reporting application that does not allow me to copy and paste due to security reasons. I read the sentence and try to remember it. Then I start to type peck on the keyboard word for word by using only five fingers: my index and middle fingers plus my right thumb. My eyes are focused on my keyboard. When done typing the sentence, I look back at the screen to check if I didn’t make a typo. I have to search for sentence on the screen. Yes, I lost the position of the sentence on the reporting screen.  Eventually I will find the sentence. “Damn, Patrick, another mistake” and I press the backspace key  a few times to delete 80% of the sentence. Typing mistakes, somehow  starts always at the beginning of the sentence. I start pecking again on my keyboard and check the typed sentence once more and go to the next line. Yippee, one sentence of the report is done. I am sure many of you have a similar useless system.

Early in the morning when the report was finally done, I thought: “what could I have done better to save me time in the creation of these reports next time”. To be honest, my typing skills did not come up in my mind to improve.  I was more thinking in the line of standardizing the reports.  Till I read an article about Medical Transcription jobs and the money experienced medical transcript associates can make. The more transcripts they complete, the more money they can earn. Of course, they have to avoid typing and grammar errors.

Then it hits me.  How do they type transcripts fast and accurate. Do medical transcript associates have some tricks that I don’t know about? Turns out they don’t. The real secret is the fact that they all type with ten fingers blind. They type fast and accurate. This is important for them because they get paid by transcript completed or by number of sentences and/or words typed. Is it difficult to type with ten fingers and blind? No, it is not. You just have to practice. Many medical transcript associates have not a college degree but they can type with ten fingers and focus on the screen or paper at all times.
I researched how to become better skilled in typing and wrote the following article. I hope you start typing with ten fingers soon and enjoy it!

Learn typing fast and easy.

Consider some of the advantages of typing with ten fingers:

• Increase productivity by faster typing;
• No need to look at the keyboard anymore and search for characters;
• Less typing and grammar errors;
• Better focus on typing out your thoughts.

There are probably many more reasons for switching to ten finger typing. If I forgot to mention some good reasons, please leave a comment on the bottom of this article.
Learning to type with ten fingers is not as difficult as you might think. It takes only some practice and a few sweat drops in the first 2 days. After a month or two, you think to yourself: “Why haven’t I used the ten finger technique before?”
What do you need to get started?

• Get a comfortable, good working keyboard
  No keyboards with sticky keys, loose keyboard wire or keyboard with missing keys;
• Adjust your chair so you can reach the keyboard comfortably. You must be able to move your wrists comfortably;
• Download my free finger position template
  I created a large template so you can print it out. Laminate the template and keep it near your keyboard. I have mine hanging above my notebook screen although after typing blind with ten fingers for 2 months, I don’t need the template anymore;
  

  Ten Finger Typing Template for Keyboard Position

  Click on image to enlarge for print out.
  For PDF file format, click here

• Copy and paste my practice sentences into your favorite word editor application.
  The practice sentences I have chosen for you are pangrams. Pangrams are sentences that use all the letters in the alphabet. In other words: you will touch every character on your keyboard. I hate to type silly random characters that many tutorials provides you. You can do if you want after typing the practice sentences when you have still difficulties with certain characters.
• Have discipline and don’t give up so easily.
  Don’t switch back to your old typing habits! You have to bite through a few difficult hours;
• Have patience.
  You probably typed with 2, 4 or 6 fingers for years so don’t expect to change in a few hours. Again, don’t give up. I believe in you If you get frustrated, take a break and walk away from your computer. Look around you and laugh at 2 and 4 finger keyboard peckers;
• Be aware about what you are typing.
  Quality before quantity. When you start to improve your ten finger typing skills, it is much better to type slow with no typing errors than fast with a ton of typing errors. Your typing speed will increase over time.
  Also think about what you are typing. Spell the words in your head, After you practice for a few days, you type also most as fast as your mind is going so sometimes you will type words as they sound which can be different than the actual spelling of the word;

Practice pangram sentences:

Okay, it is time to practice. Start typing the following sentences. Make sure your fingers are well positioned. Your left index finger is on the F key and the right index finger is on the J key. Now you know why you can feel a bump in those keys when you rub the keys with your index fingers. You can find these keys in the dark. Position all your other fingers in one line with your index fingers and place your thumbs on the spacebar.
When capitalizing your characters, make sure that you press the shift key with your pink of the opposite hand. For example: when capitalizing the letter: A, you press the shift key with your left pinky finger. So now you know why you have two shift keys on your keyboard.

Junk MTV quiz graced by fox whelps.

Fox nymphs grab quick-jived waltz.

Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.

My girl wove six dozen plaid jackets before she quit.

Jack quietly moved up front and seized the big ball of wax.

Crazy Fredericka bought many very exquisite opal jewels.

How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts!

A quick movement of the enemy will jeopardize six gunboats.

All questions asked by five watch experts amazed the judge.

Let me know how many words per minute you can type! If you still want to buy typing software, please take a look at these top software titles:

TypingMaster 7 SpeedSkin Edition for Windows Includes PC/Desktop Keyboard Cover

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Deluxe 20

SpongeBob Squarepants Typing 2008