Gerrybot

I’m sure there are a million DOC-2-PDF converters available today. I downloaded PrimoPDF a while back to convert some Word documents to PDF for a client’s website. I didn’t have (or need) a full version of Adobe Acrobat, and wasn’t prepared to pay a £250.00 premium just to convert a couple of Word documents.

So, anyway, I downloaded Primo. Basically, the PrimoPDF installs a new printer in Windows. You print your documents through that and it converts them to a PDF file on your computer. Just like that.

The installation is a doddle. No need to go into that. Run the installer click next a few times and you’re done. Instead, I’m going to look at creating a new PDF file using PrimoPDF.

Converting A Word Doc To PDF

1. Open the document in Word (this actually applies to virtually any program).
2. Select File, Print. Select the PrimoPDF driver from the list of printers and click OK.
   
3. The PrimoPDF options window will appear after the job has been spooled. You can use the Document Properties button to embed Author, Title and Subject information into the file, and you can specify Security options like requiring passwords to open the file and denying readers the ability to copy text or print the file.
   
4. Also in the options screen, you can specify where you want the PDF to be saved to and you can optimize your PDF for screen, print, e-book or prepress.
   
5. Set your options as required and click OK. Your file will be created in the location you specified and by default should open up in Acrobat Reader.

The great thing about this is that you can print anything to PDF - even web pages. I tested it with this site, and got a perfectly servicable PDF. Be aware though that unless there is a specific print stylesheet for the webpage, the styles are likely to be stripped out of the document. Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s readable.

I got an iPod a few months ago, and have spent my time largely listening to music on it, which has been great. Recently

So anyway, I heard about Audacity (the free sound editor program) and decided to download a copy and give it a go. I also got a Logitech headset (I’m planning on messing about with Skype too, so this’ll be useful for both).

I’ve downloaded the 1.2.4b version of Audacity for Windows XP, so let’s try a quick install:

1. Run the executable after downloading. If you’re security conscious, you’ll probably virus scan it first.
2. Click Next to move past the Welcome screen.
3. Read (ha ha) the license agreement, accept it and click Next. You’ll get a bit of an information screen next - read it and move on.
4. Installation Location: Unless you’ve got any peculiar requirements, accept the default and click Next.
5. On the next screen, you’ll want to Create a desktop icon and also to associate Audacity project files with the Audacity program. Goes without saying, really. Click Next for another exciting installation summary screen, then click Install.
6. Installation took nano seconds on my PC, then the final screen with an option to Launch Audacity. Click Finish, we’re done.

Not Quite Finished: Audacity First Run

Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. As I launched Audacity for the first time, I got a screen asking me to choose which language to use. I answered English, in case you’re interested. Once that’s done, the program should launch.

Was quite surprised at how quickly the whole thing started up, actually.

Yesterday my Windows XP Pro PC had a hissy fit and crashed. Rebooted and got the Blue Screen Of Death. Rebooted successfully to safe mode, then into normal functionality. Or so I thought…

So, I was immediately able to connect to the network, log on and access the internet and work with my exchange mailbox. The first indication of problems was when I tried to access my documents on a network share. I started getting messages about the Network Service not being started.

I started troubleshooting basic functionality: pinged a few local servers, checked out DNS resolution, etc and it was all fine. Tried a net use to connect a network drive, but this failed. I checked the various network services and all were running normally, so I tried to simply browse the network through the childishly-named My Network Places, but got a similar “Unable to browse the network” error, along with “The network is not present or not started”. Shit! Enter Google…

Turns out whatever happened screwed up a registry value which bizarrely allowed other network access, but not UNC-type stuff. I found a thread at CryptoOnline that pointed me through to the official fix at Microsoft. Follow this fix and you should be able to browse the network again immediately without a reboot.

Hope this helps anyone who has suffered the same problem.

I’m writing this post with the new Performancing Plugin for FireFox.

Now, unless I’m being a complete numpty (always possible), there were no clear instructions for how to access this plugin. We (the blogging public) were left to our own devices to find out how to even access the Performancing plugin. After scouring the FireFox interface (I expected some kind of toolbar, to be honest), I found a new right-click option for Performancing with a sub-menu which allowed me to “Blog this page”. And yes, I did check the Performancing website for a getting started guide. I couldn’t find one.

Getting Started

When you eventually gain access to the plugin features, the interface is quite straightforward. The first thing you need to do is add a blog. This again is very straightforward and I added this WP.com blog, as it’s one of my less-critical blogs. Select the blogging platform you use, enter your username and password and that’s about it.

Performancing gives you access to your blog categories and previous post history (this is a new-ish blog, so I’m not sure how far the history goes back). On the down side, there doesn’t seem to be a way to add new categories to your blog from the plugin. That’s not a major problem, though.

I’ve not tried this with multiple blogs yet, but if I warm to Performancing, I might just add a few more….

Blogging With The Performancing Plugin

Was pissed off from the outset with Performancing. The input seemed to be working well, until I formatted some text in bold and italic. Instead of using strong and em, the plugin inserted inline CSS via span tags. Disaster!

I discovered an option in the settings to disable the use of inline CSS, so I did this and tried again. Instead of

strong

and

em

, it gives us <b> and <i>! Can someone remind me what century it is? Why, in the name of XHTML, would someone use those antiquated tags?Final gripe (before I post this) is the lack of features in the toolbar. Now, Performancing isn’t alone in this - even WordPress is currently missing what I consider vital elements. We don’t have options to insert various levels of

hx

. Coming from a bunch of guys who are promoting the idea of professional blogging, I’m surprised they can release a product that ignores the value of semantic XHTML, particularly in terms of Search Engine Optimisation! Where is the support for heading tags, strong and emphatic text? Also, enabling and advertising keyboard shortcuts for common commands would have been a big thing for me.

After The Rain…

All gripes aside, Performancing is not a bad wee plugin. It gives you what you need to blog straight from your browser, which is a definite bonus compared with flicking between tabs/windows! Oops, noticed that the plugin grabs the focus of tabs, so that CTRL+Tab cycles through the various post views. When you click into a web page it returns to normal though.

I’m not sure what the long-term future for browser-based blog editors is, though. I downloaded and tried Flock for a while, but a bookmark away was my WordPress dashboard and all the stats plugins and stuff that will never make it into a stand-alone program. And missing the ability to maintain the blog means you’ll always end up back at your dashboard.

I s’pose I’m maybe not totally sold on the idea in the first place. Which means that Performancing, like many other blogging products, has a long way to go before it tempts me away from my WordPress admin screens…..