Converting data from PDF files to Excel spreadsheets
John Haworth wants to reliably convert a lot of data from PDF files to Excel for spreadsheet analysis. I receive a lot of data in PDF format and it would be very useful to reliably convert it for spreadsheet analysis. Currently I print files then OCR scan and save them in Excel. It needs time-consuming scrutiny to ensure reliability. John Haworth There are lots of ways to get data from Adobe PDF files into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and several of them should work better than the one you are using. However, I'm not sure any of them will avoid the need for "time-consuming scrutiny to ensure reliability". The best way to do that is to get whoever publishes the data in PDF to send it to you in Excel format, or in another common format such as csv (comma-separated values). Any process that involves a conversion will generally involve some level of checking, though you should be able to decrease the level as the system proves itself. Since PDF-to-Excel conversions are economically significant (possibly saving hours of re-keying and checking), there are commercial solutions such as Cogniview's PDF2XL -- which might be your best bet -- and Blue Label Soft's PDF to Excel Converter 2.4 . A search will find more. However, before buying anything, you should try some of the free online solutions, such as Nitro's PDF to Excel Online . Zamzar, a site that offers a very wide range of conversions , has recently added PDF to Excel. Before that, you could have used it to convert PDF to text and then loaded it into Excel using the Text Import Wizard -- a process that could well be more accurate than your OCR. Incidentally, if the files are commercially sensitive, you should consult your IT department first
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Converting data from PDF files to Excel spreadsheets
How laptops took over the world
The rise of portable computing has forced companies to rethink how they let staff work – and is shifting the balance of power in the IT industry In January 2003, Steve Jobs announced to a slightly surprised Macworld audience that " this is going to be the year of the notebook for Apple ". There was a clear ambition to push up the sales of portables – on which margins tend to be better than on desktops. Jobs was right in spotting an unstoppable trend: the rise of the laptop. This is a category that now includes not just "notebooks", as Apple always refers to them, but also, since 2008, the smaller "netbooks". As Moore's Law – a halving of cost for the same spec – has applied to processors, RAM and even disk storage, laptops have become not just an interesting option for a second computer, but the primary machine for a lot of people. Apple didn't quite manage to make 2003 the year in which sales of laptops exceeded those of desktop; it was July 2005 before that happened, and April 2006 before it began to happen consistently. But now laptop sales always exceed desktop sales for the company; in the past quarter, when it sold a record 3m computers, nearly three out of every four was a laptop. And though Apple is the leader in this trend, laptops are taking over computing, especially with the rise of netbooks. Looking at the trends in computer sales, you may wonder when laptop sales will overtake those of desktops worldwide. The answer is simple: they already have. For 2009, 159m portable machines (a segment that includes both notebooks and netbooks) will be sold, compared with 124m desktop machines, according to the research company IDC. Gartner says that in the first quarter of 2009, desktop sales declined 16% year on year; laptop sales fell by 3%, but netbook sales leapt sixfold, so that they now make up 20% of all laptops sold. Leaving your desk behind For computer makers, the shift to laptops offers a chance to increase profit margins – although all but Apple still struggle in what has become a commodity market. (Apple is estimated to have around 75% of the share of laptops sold in the US priced over $999.) Netbooks have once again eroded those margins, but the fact that you can't build your own laptop, while it is comparatively easy for anyone to take a chassis and build a desktop machine, leaves more margin in that sector. Those are the bald numbers – but they hide a much more subtle and far-reaching shift in the way we now live our lives, says Richard Holway, the veteran analyst who is chairman of TechMarketView.
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How laptops took over the world
Technophile: the Cool-er and BeBook
Two more e-readers on the market – the Cool-er and BeBook – are not really any threat to Sony The Cool-er and the BeBook are a pair of e-readers with much in common beyond the eccentric formatting of their names. Each is built around an e-paper screen, which gives you text comfortably readable at odd angles and in direct sunlight, without the glare that can tire you out reading a normal screen, but with a noticeable blink every time it updates
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Technophile: the Cool-er and BeBook
Adobe will be raising prices on its software by around 10% from 1 July
UK customers set for a greater disparity than ever before as the software giant pushes through increases Adobe has surprised and angered UK users by announcing it will be raising prices on its software by around 10% from 1 July - pushing the price differential based on the exchange rate between its UK and US products even further apart. The announcement, which does not appear on Adobe's UK website, may prompt a rush to buy programs in the coming month - but could also drive would-be purchasers to lower-cost alternatives, or to pirated versions. At the same time it is reducing prices by around 13% in continental Europe, citing changes in the dollar to euro exchange rate. The company said that the price hikes in the UK are "a difficult decision for us" but that they had been forced upon it because "the global economy has entered a state of unprecedented turmoil, and one of the side effects of this has been sharp fluctuations between GBP/EUR exchange rates". That has created problems for its desire to harmonise prices between the UK and continental Europe, it said. The source of the problem Existing users and would-be buyers reacted with anger. "Why can't I buy from a US store? I'm sure Adobe sources cheap labour/components, but apparently its customers are not allowed to do the same," commented "freshwebservices" on the Guardian Technology blog. Others pointed out that it is cheaper to buy the boxed copy than a downloaded version. Adobe is in good financial health: in its last quarter, though profits fell by 29% compared to the year-ago quarter, it had a net income of $156m on revenues of $786m - a net profit margin of just under 20%. It has $2.38bn in the bank and $350m in borrowings, giving it substantial assets. But for years UK users have noted a significant disparity between US and UK price.
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Adobe will be raising prices on its software by around 10% from 1 July
Stormy seas for software pirates: Arcane anti-piracy measures are not doing enough to stop them
Casual users should beware the many dangers associated with cracked programmes, yet arcane anti-piracy measures are not doing enough to stop them What "LLL", the adopted screen name of a US freelance media worker, really wanted was the latest master collection of Adobe's design and publishing package, Creative Suite 4 (CS4). What he didn't want was to pay the full $2,499 retail price (£2,264 in the UK) for it. But, equally, he also didn't want what was included in the latest pirated version of CS4: malicious software added by pirates that would try to silently take over his computer if he installed it. Having been a "casual" software pirate (for his own use) for almost 30 years, LLL knows that, whichever channel pirated software is distributed through, by the time it reaches the broad base of casual pirates it is often riddled with malware designed to turn the victim's computer into a bot controlled by a remote user. The cracked version of CS4 was no exception. Generation game As with much modern software, Adobe's contacts an "activation server" online to check that the licence key isn't already in use, and then activates the software, tying that specific key to that computer (Windows uses a similar system.) To fool the activation system, cracked software often comes with a key generator program - or "keygen" - written by the professional pirates. It generates a new licence key the software will accept, allowing casual software copiers to continue using the application as a fully licensed version. In keeping with many pirated applications, it wasn't the CS4 rip-off that was infected, but the key generator. So LLL avoided the keygen by taking his computer offline and using someone else's existing key, which he says persuaded the software to install as a fully licensed version. The trouble was that, as soon as the software tried to activate itself online, Adobe's servers would tell it that the licence key was already in use. To stop the software from activating, he found a list of the activation servers that CS4 visits, compiled by someone who had watched the software at work on their own computer.
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Stormy seas for software pirates: Arcane anti-piracy measures are not doing enough to stop them
Celebrity Squares: ‘I’d like a pen display the size of my drawing board’
Garfield creator Jim Davis is in love with technology, from his interactive pen display to his $1m mainframe What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? My favourite piece of tech is my Wacom Cintiq [interactive pen display] – I have my 21in [screen] next to my computer. The beauty of it is that I can draw on the screen as easily as I can on paper. It's helped me enormously because I can save the drawing and then send it off to anyone who needs it. I don't have to worry about filling a filing drawer full of sketches. When was the last time you used it, and what for?
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Celebrity Squares: 'I'd like a pen display the size of my drawing board'
Meet Second Life’s new ruler, Mark Kingdon
Despite a backlash against its virtual world, the makers have not lost faith - and brought in fresh leadership to rejuvenate the business Two years ago, the virtual world Second Life was everywhere, as pundits and press alike rushed to proclaim it as the Next Big Digital Thing. Inevitably, the backlash began soon afterwards. The company behind it, Linden Lab, lost focus and fans; key staff left. Finally, last March, Second Life's CEO, creator and visionary, Philip Rosedale, announced that he was taking on the role of chairman of the board , and bringing in fresh leadership. But against an increasingly dismal background, who would want to step into his shoes? Mark Kingdon, apparently. For seven years he had been chief executive of the leading interactive marketing company Organic, founded in 1993, but was attracted to the job for two very different reasons. "From the time I was six, I wanted to be a fine artist, and I only decided to get into business when I figured I'd be a starving artist. So I look at it through the lens of the designer, and I see [Second Life] as just an incredible platform for creativity." More pragmatically, he adds: "I see what a phenomenally brilliant business model Second Life has. If you're a social media property today, your biggest challenge is figuring out how to monetise it. Because the experience and the economy are so closely linked, Second Life doesn't have the problem that other social media properties have." As a result, Linden Lab "is a company with an extraordinary balance sheet, a great and profitable revenue stream." Engineer a solution As well as Kingdon's general experience in running a large company, Rosedale was interested in one aspect in particular: "I come from a user experience background," Kingdon says. "In order to make Second Life a more broadly accepted experience, we have to make it a lot easier to use." Kingdon is addressing this problem by bringing in top engineers from companies such as Adobe, Intuit and Pixar. Altogether, he's hired 100 people since joining Linden Lab last May. He claims that the results are already showing. "We reduced the hours lost to downtime by 50%, and I think we'll do the same again," he says, an important issue when many users were frustrated by the frequent non-availability of the service. Engineering improvements have also led to a growth in the number of concurrent users. When Kingdon joined last May, the maximum was 60,000. "It's 86,000 now," he says, "and we're projecting that it will be 100,000 concurrent by the end of the year." He also has ambitious plans for the total number of active users - defined as those who spend more than an hour a month using the service: "I'd like to see a Second Life that, instead of 640,000 active users" - today's figure - "has 6 million active users." Alongside these expansion plans, Kingdon is also reshaping the in-world experience, perhaps most dramatically with a plan to fence off "adult" content. He explains: "Our residents were asking for a more predictable experience." Or, as the official announcement put it: "Some residents are interested in pursuing certain 'adult' activities in Second Life that others would rather not casually encounter." One increasingly important group of users looking for more "predictable" experiences are companies, and it is here that perhaps the biggest turnaround in Second Life's fortunes has taken place
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Meet Second Life's new ruler, Mark Kingdon
Ask Jack: March 19 2009
A tale of two PCs I have a desktop PC in one location and a laptop in another and am having problems keeping the two in phase. GoToMyPC sounds useful, but the price is high . Vicki Eves JS: The simplest solution would be to keep "master copies" of your files on a portable hard drive, then copy the contents to your local PCs for backup. There are lots of USB hard drives designed for portable use, including Western Digital's My Passport series, Seagate's FreeAgent Go drives, Freecom's ToughDrives and Iomega's eGo models. You can use Google's Gmail or similar to keep email in sync. Programs such as GoToMyPC and LogMeIn are useful if you need to access files remotely, and the basic level of LogMeIn is free. (If you want File Sync, you have to pay for LogMeIn Pro.) In the longer term, Microsoft Live Mesh could be the answer for automated synchronisation across multiple devices, including PCs, Macs and mobile phones. However, at the moment it is still in beta. Work safe I have all my PhD research on an external hard drive. Is there some kind of password-protection program that I could use to protect it? David B Roberts JS: The most obvious answer is to encrypt the data with True Crypt ), which is free, open-source software. You could encrypt the whole drive or a partition and access it transparently. You could also look at commercial alternatives CD-Lock , which works on most removable storage devices, and Folder Lock . You should also burn your data to CD-R and consider uploading it to an online storage site such as ADrive or Mozy. Floppy rescue I have an archive stored on dozens of floppy disks created on an old Mac circa late 80s/early 90s. I remember that the Mac's floppy drive ran at variable speeds. How would I read these files on to my current PC running Windows XP
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Ask Jack: March 19 2009
Zero-day hole in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat
"A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this issue is being exploited," says Adobe
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Zero-day hole in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat
Technophile: Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe's latest Creative Suite offers lots of new functionality, but why is it so difficult to install?
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Technophile: Adobe Creative Suite