iText lets developers enhance web applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation. iText is not an end-user tool. Typically you won’t use it on your Desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you’ll build iText into your own applications so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process.

How to create PDFs Dynamically with iText?

For instance in one or more of the following situations:

• Due to time or size, the PDF documents can’t be produced manually.
• The content of the document must be calculated or based on user input.
• The content needs to be customized or personalized.
• The PDF content needs to be served in a web environment.
• Documents are to be created in "batch process" mode.

Key Features of iText

You can use iText to:

• Serve PDF to a browser
• Generate dynamic documents from XML files or databases
• Use PDF’s many interactive features
• Add bookmarks, page numbers, watermarks, etc.
• Split, concatenate, and manipulate PDF pages
• Automate filling out of PDF forms
• Add digital signatures to a PDF file

iText classes are very useful for web developers who need to generate read-only, platform independent documents containing text, lists, tables and images; or who want to perform specific manipulations on existing PDF documents.

The library is very useful in combination with Java technology-based Servlets; there’s also a .NET port available: iTextSharp (written in C#).

iText requires JDK 1.4. It’s available for free under a multiple license: MPL and LGPL.

Technical Requirements

If you want to use the iText classes you should be acquainted with JAVA (TM) programming.
You’ll also need the following Software:

• The Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.4
• The BouncyCastle: bcprov and bcmail
• Adobe Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems Incorporated:

Getting started with iText

There are five places that are extremely important if you want to work with iText.

1. The first is the book page. If you own the book, you get access to hundreds of examples, and you’ll save a lot of time finding your way in the library by using the book as your tutorial.
2. There’s also a free tutorial that was written before the book. Not all functionality available in iText is explained, but it’s a good place to start. If you click on one of the features in the overview, you get some explanation and some examples on how to use these features.
3. Some special examples were compiled in the iText Wiki.
4. If the examples don’t work or you experience some typical newbie problems, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions page.

The Zoho Plug-in for Microsoft Office lets you work offline on your documents and spreadsheets with Microsoft Word/Excel and then have these changes reflected directly in your Zoho account when back online online. The plugin bridges the gap between online and offline office productivity.

Which Zoho Services are available with this Plugin?

1. Zoho Writer for documents (.doc/.docx)
2. Zoho Sheet for spreadsheets (.xls)
3. Zoho Share for publishing your local .doc/.xls files.

Use this plug-in to

1. Create, edit and save documents & spreadsheets directly to Zoho Writer/Sheet from within Microsoft Word/Excel.

2. Open and edit Zoho documents & spreadsheets in Microsoft Word/Excel and

3. Save it back to Zoho services (Writer/Sheet).

4. Publish local offline documents/spreadsheets for the Internet using Zoho Share.

How do I publish my offline documents using Zoho Plugin?

MS Office users who wanted to publish their documents/spreadsheets, residing in their local drive & offline, can do so now with this version of Zoho Plugin.

When you open a document or spreadsheet in Word/Excel, it will display "Publish in Zoho Share" in the drop-down menu when you click on Add-Ins followed by Zoho Writer or Zoho Sheet tab.

Here’s how publish in Zoho share works:

1. Open a new or an existing offline document/spreadsheet residing in your local drive or desktop in MS Word/Excel.

2. Click on "Publish in Zoho Share" option from Add-Ins >> Zoho Writer/Zoho Sheet menu. You will be prompted to save the document in case they are publishing a new un-saved one.

3. A pop-up box will come up asking the user to accept the declaration and Terms of Service for publishing local documents.

4. Once You are done with agreeing to Terms of Service, they will be asked to choose the license type for the publishing document. Default is "All Rights Reserved"

5. Click Upload to publish the document in Zoho Share. The document will be public and can be viewed by anyone.

6. Once the document is successfully uploaded to Zoho Share, user will get a status message that says "Document Published Successfully".

How to install Zoho Plugin?

Download it from Zoho.com. The file name ‘zohoplugin.exe’ will be saved to your preferred location on your local machine.

TIP: Close all your MS Office applications before you install this plug-in. After the initial check is over, double click on the ‘zohoplugin.exe’ file to begin the installation process.

How do I use Zoho Plugin with MS Office?

Once the installation process is over, the Zoho Buttons will show up within the Add-Ins tab on the Office (Microsoft Office 2007) toolbar.

You need to have a Zoho account to make use of the plug-in.

Currently you can sign in to any of the Zoho services – Sheet (http://sheet.zoho.com) or Writer (http://writer.zoho.com) and start using the plug-in.

There is also an option to create a new Zoho account from the Zoho Plugin credentials page. Click on the “New Zoho User? Sign Up” link to set up an account with us. This is for the users who have downloaded the plugin but are yet to sign up for Zoho Services.

Overview of Zoho Plugin:

1. Option to keep a local copy

Keep a local copy of the existing document/workbook that is available in Zoho Writer & Sheet. To achieve this, just need to enable the check box “Keep a local copy” when logging in to access their documents from within Microsoft Word/Excel.

2. Added a new tab – Local Documents

Now that the You can have a copy of the online document/workbook in their local drive, there is a new tab “Local Documents” added to the “Add-Ins” option in Word/Excel.

You can access the local copy by clicking on this particular tab. Locally downloaded documents/spreadsheets are password protected now. You are asked to provide Zoho account password when opening a local copy of the document/spreadsheet.

The enhanced security is to prevent unauthorised access. You also have the option to delete the local copy. Click on local documents tab from Add-Ins, select the document & choose delete button to perform the above operation.

3. Offline editing of documents/workbooks

User can now edit their documents/workbooks offline using the local copy and can sync up the updated offline version with the online version of the document/workbook in Zoho Writer/Sheet by connecting to the internet, signing in to their Zoho account from the Add-ins tabs in Word/Excel and then choosing the option “Save in Zoho Writer/Sheet”.

4. Multi-user Support

Our earlier version of Office Plugin did not allow the guest user of Windows to access the documents/workbooks. Now guest You (as opposed to only allowing You with Administrator privileges previously) who have an account with Zoho can access & edit their documents/workbooks in MS Word/Excel.

Tip: If you are working on an offline version of the document/sheet in MS Word/Excel and that is the most updated version, you can sync up the updated offline version with the online version of the document in Zoho Writer by connecting to the internet, signing in to your Zoho account from the Add-ins tabs in Word/Excel and then save the document once by clicking "Save" or "Ctrl+S" from your keyboard. Once you do the above process, both the offline & online version of the document/sheet will be in sync.

Specs

Zoho Plugin is compatible for Microsoft Office version 2000 & above and currently supports English Language versions of Office only.

Link: http://www.zoho.com/zohoplugin/home.html

CNET Asia has given a glowing review to WordPipe. Technical writers and those involved in communications will appreciate its ability to automatically search and Replace multiple Microsoft Word documents.

Key features allow you to:

• Change hyperlinks and UNC paths when servers get renamed
• Update names, addresses and phone numbers
• Translate documents with find/replace lists
• Automatically handles read-only files, passwords and other protection.
• No user interaction required.
• Replace hyperlinks, bookmarks, text boxes, shapes, drop down fields, and document properties.
• Updates ISO version numbers. Unicode compliant.
• Version 5.9.3 has added ability to update OLE and DDE links.

Download WordPipe 5.9.3 free download

This free download lets you export and save to PDF and XPS in 8 different 2007 Microsoft Office programs (includes Word and Excel). You can also send as an e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs. Download from here.

The Zoho Plug-in for Microsoft Office lets you work offline on your documents and spreadsheets with Microsoft Word/Excel and then have these changes reflected directly in your Zoho account when back online online. The plugin bridges the gap between online and offline office productivity.

Which Zoho Services are available with this Plugin?

1. Zoho Writer for documents (.doc/.docx)
2. Zoho Sheet for spreadsheets (.xls)
3. Zoho Share for publishing your local .doc/.xls files.

Key Features

1. Create, edit and save documents & spreadsheets directly to Zoho Writer/Sheet from within Microsoft Word/Excel.

2. Open and edit Zoho documents & spreadsheets in Microsoft Word/Excel and save it back to Zoho services (Writer/Sheet).

3. Publish local offline documents/spreadsheets for the external world to see using Zoho Share.

How do I publish my offline documents using Zoho Plugin?

MS Office users who wanted to publish their documents/spreadsheets, residing in their local drive & offline, can do so now with this version of Zoho Plugin.

When you open a document or spreadsheet in Word/Excel, it will display "Publish in Zoho Share" in the drop-down menu when you click on Add-Ins followed by Zoho Writer or Zoho Sheet tab.

Here’s how publish in Zoho share works:

1. Open a new or an existing offline document/spreadsheet residing in your local drive or desktop in MS Word/Excel.

2. Click on "Publish in Zoho Share" option from Add-Ins >> Zoho Writer/Zoho Sheet menu. You will be prompted to save the document in case they are publishing a new un-saved one.

3. A pop-up box will come up asking the user to accept the declaration and Terms of Service for publishing local documents.

4. Once You are done with agreeing to Terms of Service, they will be asked to choose the license type for the publishing document. Default is "All Rights Reserved"

5. Click Upload to publish the document in Zoho Share. The document will be public and can be viewed by anyone.

6. Once the document is successfully uploaded to Zoho Share, user will get a status message that says "Document Published Successfully".

How to install Zoho Plugin?

Download it from Zoho.com. The file name ‘zohoplugin.exe’ will be saved to your preferred location on your local machine.

TIP: Close all your MS Office applications before you install this plug-in. After the initial check is over, double click on the ‘zohoplugin.exe’ file to begin the installation process.

How do I use Zoho Plugin with MS Office?

Once the installation process is over, the Zoho Buttons will show up within the Add-Ins tab on the Office (Microsoft Office 2007) toolbar.

You need to have a Zoho account to make use of the plug-in.

Currently you can sign in to any of the Zoho services – Sheet (http://sheet.zoho.com) or Writer (http://writer.zoho.com) and start using the plug-in.

There is also an option to create a new Zoho account from the Zoho Plugin credentials page. Click on the “New Zoho User? Sign Up” link to set up an account with us. This is for the users who have downloaded the plugin but are yet to sign up for Zoho Services.

Overview of Zoho Plugin:

1. Option to keep a local copy

Keep a local copy of the existing document/workbook that is available in Zoho Writer & Sheet. To achieve this, just need to enable the check box “Keep a local copy” when logging in to access their documents from within Microsoft Word/Excel.

2. Added a new tab – Local Documents

Now that the You can have a copy of the online document/workbook in their local drive, there is a new tab “Local Documents” added to the “Add-Ins” option in Word/Excel.

You can access the local copy by clicking on this particular tab. Locally downloaded documents/spreadsheets are password protected now. You are asked to provide Zoho account password when opening a local copy of the document/spreadsheet.

The enhanced security is to prevent unauthorised access. You also have the option to delete the local copy. Click on local documents tab from Add-Ins, select the document & choose delete button to perform the above operation.

3. Offline editing of documents/workbooks

User can now edit their documents/workbooks offline using the local copy and can sync up the updated offline version with the online version of the document/workbook in Zoho Writer/Sheet by connecting to the internet, signing in to their Zoho account from the Add-ins tabs in Word/Excel and then choosing the option “Save in Zoho Writer/Sheet”.

4. Multi-user Support

Our earlier version of Office Plugin did not allow the guest user of Windows to access the documents/workbooks. Now guest You (as opposed to only allowing You with Administrator privileges previously) who have an account with Zoho can access & edit their documents/workbooks in MS Word/Excel.

Tip: If you are working on an offline version of the document/sheet in MS Word/Excel and that is the most updated version, you can sync up the updated offline version with the online version of the document in Zoho Writer by connecting to the internet, signing in to your Zoho account from the Add-ins tabs in Word/Excel and then save the document once by clicking "Save" or "Ctrl+S" from your keyboard. Once you do the above process, both the offline & online version of the document/sheet will be in sync.

Specs

Zoho Plugin is compatible for Microsoft Office version 2000 & above and currently supports English Language versions of Office only.

Link: http://www.zoho.com/zohoplugin/home.html

Adobe has responded to technical request’s for an easy migration from MadCap Flare to Adobe RoboHelp . Adobe’s tech writing blog says that some of the reasons for migration were:

• "I started using Flare under the impression that RoboHelp is dead, now that Adobe has released a new version I want to come back to RoboHelp",
• "I am the lone writer using Flare, other writers in my team are using Adobe Tech CommSuite, I need to convert my Flare project to RoboHelp"
• "RoboHelp is so easy to use. Give me one reason to move to RoboHelp, I want to come back"
• "I love Adobe AIR, can I publishing to Adobe AIR using RoboHelp 7 – if I could just import my Flare project in RoboHelp"
• "I want end user commenting in my Online Help"

To help migrating MadCap Flare projects to Adobe RoboHelp, John Daigle, RoboHelp expert and consultant, offers a free converter to migrate projects from Flare to RoboHelp. The converter is a free download from John’s site and source code is also available under Common Public License.

Now you can Microsoft Excel to read your Twitter Tweets and your own updates from within Excel. All that’s required to set it the feed and link it to the Excel spreadsheet. No other downloads are required.

To view your Twitter messages sent to you:

1.    Login to Twitter

2.    In the right-hand column look for the ‘RSS feed’ link

3.    Copy the link, e.g. http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/123456.rss

4.    Open a blank worksheet in Excel

5.    Open the Data tab and click on the ‘from Web’ button.

6.    Paste the link into the web address field.

Excel recognizes the RSS feed as an XML file. Let Excel choose the feed.

7.    Click Import. Next.

Excel will tell you that “the XML source does not refer to a schema”.

8.    Click OK.

9.    Place the results where you wish, for example, in a new worksheet.

10.    Choose ‘Wrap Text’ so you can see an entire tweet.

This plug-in from ClickBook lets you print customized day planner pages, wallet booklets, church bulletins, brochures, greeting cards, posters, business cards, flipbooks, catalogs, banners, microfiche, CD covers and more from Internet, Windows, or CD-Rom files! It also lets you scale and rotate digital photos, e-mails, documents, favorite on-line content, or other critical information into convenient layouts.

How does it work?

ClickBook works much like a print driver. It intercepts pages going to laser or inkjet printers and automatically rotates, reduces and realigns pages into the correct order to create double-sided booklets and brochures. ClickBook even prints an instruction sheet showing exactly how to reinsert paper for double-sided printing.

Tip: You can now print multi-page Banners and Posters (Windows XP, 2000, 2003, Vista only)

ClickBook works with most Windows application, such as Word, Internet Explorer, and FireFox, CompuServe, AOL, Excel, Access, WordPerfect, and Encarta.

Link: http://www.clickbook.com/

Bloggers can put 14 popular WordPress plugins to work on blogs they manage or frequent, to get the most out of the blog experience, says MarketNet.

We’ve compiled a list of must-have WordPress plugins for bloggers, along with some insights into each one,” said Jill Bach, founder and principal of MarketNet. “Here they are.”

1. Akismet recognizes spam comments with 80-90 percent accuracy and automatically puts them into a spam comment folder. This helps you better serve your readers who have legitimate comments.

2. Mobilepress makes reading blog content via smartphone easy. When looking for content via mobile, you want fast, simple, and uncomplicated. Mobilepress delivers.

3. EasyTube makes posting YouTube videos simple. Post this into your blog post: [youtube:URL]. Replace URL with the video’s URL and click “publish”, or write the rest of your article above or beneath it. Readers can watch the video right there on your blog post page without leaving your site.

4. Sociable is a favorite plugin for social bookmarking and submission buttons.You want people to share your content with their friends, and this plugin makes it easy. Your percentage of viral content promotion will increase simply by making the process simple.

5. Twittar – More and more of your commentors will use Twitter. Twittar takes the email address of the commentor and checks Twitter for an avatar.This plugin increases the number of faces you’ll see when people comment.

6. WordPress Thread Comment — Threaded comments let you reply directly to someone who has left a comment, and your response is indented and placed directly beneath the comment you’re responding to. You avoid scrolling all over to try to find every response to a particular comment.

7. Get Recent Comments is especially helpful for websites that receive a steady flow of comments. Whenever you have comments coming in regularly, you can paste a code into your sidebar to let visitors easily see the most recent comments.

8. WP-Polls adds polls to any post, page, or sidebar. A well-placed poll will always get more responses than your number of comments. Clicking a multiple choice button and “Enter” is much easier than sharing a well-thought out opinion in the comments section, and there’s anonymity.

9. Seesmic-WP lets you record and add video to your post straight from the “Add New” post page. Your visitors can make comments to any post using video. Look for a big increase in video commentors on blogs as people get more comfortable with social multimedia.

10. WordPress Related Posts lists links to a few older articles on similar topics to the post on the current page. It makes it easy to see other articles of the same vein, an enticement to venture deeper into the site.

11. Woopra gives you live streaming stats, so you can see exactly how many people are on your site at any given moment, where they’re from, and how they got there. Go to Woopra.com now and register your blog. In a few weeks you’ll receive acceptance into the Woopra program. Then add the plugin,log in to Woopra.com and view your stats.

12. Twitter Tools integrates your blog and your Twitter account so you can post links to your latest posts on Twitter, post your most recent tweets on your blog sidebar, or turn your tweets into blog posts without extra effort.

13. Notify On Draft Post sends you an email every time someone adds a new post into the queue. This prevents accidentally sweeping quality posts under the rug and forgetting to publish them. A must for a blog manager.

14. Subscribe to Comments is the best way to keep track of what’s been said in the comments section of a particular post once you’ve left the site. You may come across some blogs through Google searches or shared links from friends. It gives the blog permission to email you whenever someone else comments on the same page you commented on.

This is the best script I’ve come across for embedding Flickr slideshows into webpages or blogs.

Place this on your website or within a blog post.

<iframe align=center src=http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?user_id=12345678@N00&tags=foo frameBorder=0 width=500 scrolling=no height=500></iframe>

1. Change user_id from 12345678@N00 to your flickr id

2. Replace foo with the tags of the photos you wish to display.

In this example, the tags were JadeGarden.

You can get your Flickr Id over at: http://idgettr.com/

Credit goes to Paul Stamiatiou over at:

http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/11/19/how-to-quickie-embedded-flickr-slideshows

This slideshow is of the Jade Garden in Shanghai, where we’re currently living.