CDPUG BlogSphere

“Take Control of PDFpen 6″ explains PDFpen for Mac and iOS

Have you ever had wanted to fill out and sign a PDF-based form without printing it and faxing it back? Or wanted to change the date on a PDF-based flyer? Needed to give feedback on a PDF, but stumbled around trying to insert comments and proofreading marks? Wished you could perform optical character recognition on a scanned document so you could revise the text right in the PDF? For such tasks, we generally turn to Smile’s PDFpen, which can perform most common PDF manipulations more easily than Adobe Acrobat Pro, and at a fraction of the price. (You can learn more about PDFpen at http://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/ and read on to learn how to save 20% on its purchase).

As massively useful as PDFpen is, working with PDFs – regardless of the app – can be complex, which is why we’re happy to throw a clarifying light on the topic with our latest title, “Take Control of PDFpen 6.” Written by Michael E. Cohen, who was first briefed by Adobe about the technology before it was even called PDF, the 177-page ebook explains precisely what you can do with PDFpen 6 and its big brother, PDFpenPro 6, plus Smile’s mobile versions, PDFpen for iPad and PDFpen for iPhone. “Take Control of PDFpen 6″ normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-pdfpen6-mug-discount

After a whirlwind history and overview of the PDF format sets you on the right track, Michael walks you through PDFpen’s tools and navigation, along with the many ways you can create a PDF from within the program. You’ll learn how to take notes on a PDF, copyedit and comment on a PDF, fill out PDF forms (complete with your signature!), add and remove pages, and edit text and graphics in a PDF. You’ll even find out how export a PDF to a formatted Microsoft Word document. For PDFpenPro users, Michael explains how to create an interactive PDF form and get the user-submitted data back via email or the Web, plus how to control whether a PDF can be printed, modified, annotated, and more. An appendix describes the many useful AppleScripts that ship with PDFpen.

Specific things you’ll learn include how to:

* Figure out whether to buy PDFpen or PDFpenPro, and what features you do (or do not) get depending on if you buy from Smile or from the Mac App Store.

* Scan a document to PDF and make the text editable with OCR.

* Use professional editing marks and add comments.

* Combine pages from multiple files into a single PDF.

* Fill out a PDF form with ease.

* Remove sensitive or confidential text from a PDF.

* Add a signature to a PDF – and store it in PDFpen’s Library for future use.

* Add page and URL links to a PDF.

* Use (or turn off) OS X’s Auto Save and Version features.

* Turn a Web site into a multi-page PDF (PDFpenPro only).

* Make a clickable table of contents for a PDF (PDFpenPro only).

* Store PDFs in iCloud for access from any of your Apple devices (Mac App Store versions only).

* Go mobile with PDFpen for iPad and PDFpen for iPhone, with a special focus on moving PDFs in and out of PDFpen—Michael describes several approaches, including iCloud, iTunes, Dropbox, and Open In.

We created this ebook in collaboration with Smile and worked with PDFpen’s developers during the tech edit process to ensure that the book is accurate.

Note that members of Take Control’s sister publication, TidBITS, can save 20% on all Smile products purchased through the Smile cart. To learn about joining TidBITS, visit http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html. To access the coupon code, make sure you’ve logged in and visit http://tidbits.com/your_benefits.html.

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Dropbox” helps you learn and teach Dropbox

Good day!

Here at Take Control, we’ve long been huge fans of the Dropbox file-sharing service, relying on it every day to collaborate on manuscripts with our authors and editors. Now we’re pleased to share our expertise with you in the form of Joe Kissell’s latest ebook, “Take Control of Dropbox.” The book normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-dropbox-mug-discount

Whether you’re already among the millions of people who sync and share files with Dropbox or you plan to join their ranks soon, Joe Kissell has the real-world advice you need to go beyond the basics. He shares the best practices for using Dropbox effectively and securely on your own or with a group, explains how to avoid common mistakes and irreversible settings, describes what’s involved with mobile devices and Dropbox-savvy apps, and tips you off to unusual uses of Dropbox.

Did you know you could use Dropbox to control your Mac, publish a blog, automate Web activities, sync with other cloud services, and even publish a book like this one?

Perhaps you do know all that, but since Dropbox shines brightest when sharing files with friends and colleagues, we’ve included a “Teach This Book” chapter with links to a downloadable single-page PDF handout and an 18-slide PDF presentation that you can employ to help your collaborators use Dropbox correctly (and thus make your life easier).

Other useful advice in “Take Control of Dropbox” includes how to:

* Recover an accidentally deleted or revised file. You’ll find help with a few non-obvious controls and a discussion of the Packrat option for Dropbox Pro users.

* Work with photos and videos in your Dropbox folder and learn how to share collections with Dropbox’s new photo album feature.

* Use Dropbox to store and automatically sync data used by Dropbox-savvy apps on all of your devices, whether they’re running Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Windows, or Linux. You’ll get a better idea of what’s going on behind the scenes and how to manage app authorizations.

* Check a few important account-related details to make sure you’re set up optimally. These include security settings and methods of getting more storage space.

Be sure to check out Joe’s short intro video on the book’s page!

http://tid.bl.it/tco-dropbox-mug-discount

Two final notes, since we like to give you peeks behind the curtain here at Take Control. First, you’ll notice that “Take Control of Dropbox” sports an elegant new cover design and logo, both created especially for us. You’ll be seeing more of these covers in the future, in a variety of colors.

Second, if you like reading on a Kindle, the Mobipocket version of this book will be available in your Take Control library immediately after you purchase, thanks to a new (Dropbox-based!) publishing system that we used. The book looks great on a Kindle Fire or Paperwhite and is entirely acceptable on older and less-capable Kindle models. Between this new publishing system and a new technique we’ve developed for our existing publishing approach, we hope to make Mobipocket files available simultaneously with other formats going forward.

Thank you for your support of the Take Control series – we couldn’t do it without you!

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Introducing “Take Control Live: Working with Your iPad”

Adam Engst here. You know all those iPads that you and 100 million other people have bought? Lots of people want to use an iPad to go beyond browsing Web pages, watching videos, and reading books, to replace a laptop and get real work done. We’ve been helping people do just that for years, with several editions of Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Working with Your iPad.” But we’ll be honest – the field is exploding, and a new ebook would be out-of-date the week it was released.

So we’re embarking on an experiment to bring you the same meticulously researched, real-world information that you’re accustomed to getting from Joe, but in a different way. Instead of publishing hundreds of pages of text accompanied by static screenshots, we’re going to give you Joe himself, live and in person. Or rather, he’ll be live and in your Web browser, doing show-and-tell with his trusty iPad over the next four months.

That’s the premise behind “Take Control Live: Working with Your iPad.” In each of four live online video presentations – the first of which is coming soon, on December 6th! – Joe will convey the same details he would have put in a book, but he’ll supplement them with live demos, answers to your questions, and updates on previously covered topics. You can read more about what Joe will be covering at the page linked below, plus see a trailer video and purchase your season pass.

http://tid.bl.it/tcl-working-with-your-ipad-mug-discount

Those who buy the season pass can watch upcoming presentations live and ask questions, or tune in any time afterward. There’s no need to take notes, since we’ll update the season pass PDF after each show with concise notes and links to everything that Joe covers. So you’ll end up with not only four hours of video, but also the distilled essence of a Take Control ebook.

We’re approaching this experiment with some trepidation, since Joe, Tonya, and I have been learning new skills en route to what is essentially a public performance. We’re accustomed to putting our effort in up front and presenting you with the polished product, but with Take Control Live, we’re stepping out on a high wire.

So if you’re interested in learning how to get work done on an iPad, please come watch Joe and me juggle iPads on our metaphorical tightrope. We may not be Cirque du Soleil, but I can promise a good show exceeding anything we’d do at a conference costing hundreds of dollars, all in the comfort of your own home. For “Take Control Live: Working with Your iPad,” we’re charging $49.99, but through the end of December 5th, 2012, we’re offering the season pass for half price: only $24.99. And, to sweeten the deal even further, the 30% MUG discount drops the price to only $17.49, again, through December 5th, after which it will be $34.99.

http://tid.bl.it/tcl-working-with-your-ipad-mug-discount

As always, if you’re unsatisfied at any time, we’ll happily refund your money, though I won’t promise “no questions asked” because I can never restrain myself from trying to learn more about what we could have done better.

Thank you for your support of Take Control, and we hope to see you in the audience for our first Take Control Live presentation on Thursday, December 6th!

cheers… -Adam Engst, Take Control publisher

I am old enough to remember when the Apple IIGS came out along with the Tandy TSR80 and young enough to catch the evolution of today’s migration to Cloud computing. What an amazing time we live in! Along the way, I’ve had the benefit of using PCs on both computing platforms and then some, including many of the mobile platforms: GEOS, Palm, Win CE (wince as it was derisively referred to), Windows Mobile, iOS and finally Android. I’ve watched many other computing platforms and OS’s come and go too as their relevance grew and faded.

This brings me to PC users groups. In the pre-internet days, it was the only way to meet up, network and learn from other like minded individuals who shared the same passion and desire to learn about the dizzying tide of hardware and the software that went with it. They packed these groups’ meetings, anxious and excited to absorb every morsel of information being presented. Companies discovered that these groups were a great source of feedback as well as potential customers and showered attendees with samples, demos and free products. I remembered those days well. it was the reason I joined one. I learned so much over the years and made life-long friends and met many industry captains along the way.

Then the internet came along and matured, allowing many of us to discover so much more than what our local PC users groups could ever hope to offer in terms of the breadth of information and audience-all from the convenience of our homes and at any hour of the day. I admittedly joined several “on-line communities” for this reason, as no local PC users groups existed to fill this vacuum of new ideas, techniques and disciplines. I had slowly outgrown my own group’s ability to teach, share and showcase my increasing interest in 3D image creation, digital printing, mobile computing and other exploding areas of technologies. The recession did not help either as it became an important factor in driving my decisions as to where I spent my hard earned money including memberships and subscriptions.

Yet, I stubbornly kept my membership in my local PC user group. Whether out of a sense of loyalty to friends or a misguided sense of giving back to an institution that had given me so much in my adult professional life. My little local PC users group still remains an important part of my monthly routine. It was there when I needed it the most and to abandon it now would be of such a disservice to the ranks of a new generation of users who seek the same knowledge I did when I was at their point in the beginning of my career.

I believe that local PC users groups like mine are still relevant despite all the on-line communities and information sources on the internet. There is still a role they play in our ever evolving computing universe. Many urban and rural communities lack the access to internet which makes the education of technologies prohibitive and daunting. For the thousands of us who have benefited from these users groups in the past, its time to repay the knowledge we reaped by returning and showing a new generation and others who lacked the opportunity, what we have learned. There is also an immediacy to feedback when one attends a meeting and is able to ask questions of a speaker.

The local PC users group is also more attuned to the needs of their community than their internet counterpart and can offer job banks, news and education tailored for their area. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is room for both to coexist. While the message and meeting topics must adapt to the times and technology for many of the older groups, they can survive and continue to play an important role. It is the cornerstone of what makes computing so unique, amazing and so unforgiving. Relevancy is so fleeting. Just ask Palm and its WebOS.

: ) Henry Lee, proud CDPUG eZine Editor/@nativeArtzCLE

Take Control of iBooks Author with a new ebook by Michael E. Cohen

Intrigued by Apple’s new, free iBooks Author ebook publishing software? If you want to create a visually attractive ebook on your Mac and have your layout preserved for readers in iBooks on the iPad, you’ll find a lot to like in iBooks Author. Beyond the obvious text formatting, you can insert slideshows and interactive illustrations, add audio and video, create quiz questions, and much more. iBooks Author is designed for creating textbooks, but with a little creativity, you can use it to make many other types of interactive multimedia iPad publications as well, including catalogs, journals, brochures, and more.

Our curiosity about iBooks Author has taken form as “Take Control of iBooks Author,” a new ebook by Michael E. Cohen. You couldn’t imagine a more appropriate author than Michael, who helped create some of the first digital textbooks as part of the Voyager Expanded Books series in the 1990s and wrote the user guide for the original Voyager Expanded Book Toolkit. We’ve also contributed what we can from our hard-won experience publishing in the iBookstore. The 150-page book normally costs $15, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $10.50. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below, and if you know any educators with iPads, we’d really appreciate it if you could pass this message to them – we’re happy to extend this discount to your teacher friends.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-ibooks-author-mug-discount

Briefly, “Take Control of iBooks Author” kicks off by explaining how to plan your Multi-Touch book project to fit the capabilities and assumptions made by iBooks Author. Next up, you’ll find comprehensive step-by-step instructions for producing your ebook by customizing the many available layouts and arranging your text and media. Finally, you’ll learn how to publish your ebook, whether for distribution on Apple’s iBookstore or through some other means. The topics that discuss production are extremely detailed – click the link above this paragraph to learn more about what’s covered.

We chose to publish “Take Control of iBooks Author” in our usual PDF and EPUB formats (Mobipocket coming soon), so you could be read it on many different devices and so it would be a regular Take Control ebook. However, we also wanted to publish an actual Multi-Touch book, so we put several chapters (about 40 pages) from “Take Control of iBooks Author” into a free Multi-Touch book called “Take Control of Getting Ready for iBooks Author.” When viewing “Take Control of Getting Ready for iBooks Author” on your iPad, the media examples are fully operational – you can play a video file, view an image gallery, tap an interactive illustration, take a visual quiz, see the Keynote widget, rotate a 3D image, and even make a Cheshire cat fade away.

To read “Take Control of Getting Ready for iBooks Author,” you can download it on your iPad and then tap the “Open in” controls to move it into iBooks, or you can download it to your Mac (or Windows PC) and sync it to iBooks via iTunes. We hope that this free ebook will be shared widely and that it will encourage people – especially educators – who may have never bought a Take Control title before to check out “Take Control of iBooks Author.”

http://tid.bl.it/tco-getting-ready-for-ibooks-author

As always, thank you for your support of the Take Control series!

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Marvin Sable
Print4you@gmail.com