FREE - Online Marketing - Websites - Small Business

Convert Any Document To A PDF For FREE

There are actually a COUPLE of ways to do this and I have been using these methods for YEARS with no complication and great success. These methods just work.

Plain. Simple. Easy. (and FREE) – Just the way I like it! Just the way it SHOULD be.

METHOD 1 – Open Office -> Just use the Convert To PDF Feature found in Open Office. It’s as simple as you can get: Just Press the PDF button toward the top of your screen!

If you’re not familiar with Open Office, I have another post here which describes it. For those of you who want the abridged version – it’ll do just about anything that Microsoft Office will. It even reads and writes in Microsoft compatible formats.

METHOD 2 – Cute PDF -> Once installed, Cute PDF makes your computer think that you have attached another printer to it. But, when you “print” to THIS printer, the end result is a PDF file instead of a printed page. Pretty neat, huh? Also, FREE! Just check it out here: http://CutePDF.com You’ll want to look for and download the CutePDF Writer.

KeePass Password Keeper

KeePass Logo

Do you have little sheets of paper and post-it notes hanging around with all your passwords to the various sites you manage? Then this little gem of software will help you keep them all in order, in one place, safe and secure from prying eyes.

Plus, it’ll even help you automatically log in to those sites once you get there.

Yes, I can hear you saying “But I already have that built into my web browser.” Sort of. But what you have built into your browser is nowhere near as secure as this! In fact, if you store your passwords in your browser, even a guy like me, with almost no ‘hacking’ experience, can have access to all your passwords with just a little effort.

If you have to keep a LOT of password and login information around, I’ve found this tool to be quite useful. I like the way I can categorize things, store additional information and comments, color code my listing, give each listing it’s own icon (I use the favicon from the site itself) and quickly copy and paste login information.

KeePass Main Screen

To get you started, KeePass will import your existing password information from your browser. In my case, it took a little extra effort. I first had to export my password information from Firefox and then use an add-on tool to KeePass to import the data in. It was a slight inconvenience for someone with my experience.

But if you don’t feel like ANY hassle, you can just start by entering all those little scraps of paper into KeePass and just enter the new information for existing sites as you visit them. Before long, KeePass will have everything it needs to make your life easier and it will become a trusted friend. As a web developer and someone who manages many websites for clients as well, having this little tool around is nothing short of outstanding!

Clicking on the screen image above will take you to the site. It will open in a new window.

UPDATE: 12-25-2009 There is a new Plugin available which lets you automatically grab the favicon for a site. I suggest you download it to make things a lot easier for you. Up until this morning, I had been collecting my icons manually. You can download my icons here.