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"PDF" is Adobe's "Portable Document Format" (surely you've seen it plenty; "everybody" uses it). Everyone probably has the PDF reader, since it's free. You may even have a program or two that will "print" PDF documents. But if you want to be able to create PDFs from "any" program, you have to buy the capability. That's how Adobe "gets you" I guess. Ah, but not with PDF995. It's a suite of PDF utilities that lets you create PDFs, edit existing PDFs, even encrypt or add validation "signatures" to PDFs. All for free (with ads, or $9.95 to register and omit the ads). From This is True for 25 September 2005 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Doug Sahlin List Price: $24.99 Amazon Price: $16.49 Editorial Review: Get more out of the latest version of Adobe Acrobat than ever! Create and share sophisticated electronic documents easily using Adobe Acrobat 8 and the helpful tips in this hands-on guide. How to Do Everything with Adobe Acrobat 8 shows you how to generate Adobe PDF files that retain the look and feel of the original documents, edit PDFs, collaborate with other users, and optimize PDFs for print or the web. You'll also learn to secure your PDFs and maintain document integrity. Covering both Adobe Acrobat Standard and Professional editions, this book makes it easy for you to take full advantage of all the new and improved features of this powerful program. Open, view, and search PDFsConvert virtually any document to PDF Capture PDFs from a scanner or web page Create navigation devices, including bookmarks, thumbnails, and linksAdd interactivity with actionsReview, edit, and annotate PDFs Add digital signatures and apply document securityOptimize documents for print, CD/DVD applications, the web, and other usesAdd multimedia elementsCreate a searchable index By: Ted Padova List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $29.69 Editorial Review: "The Adobe Acrobat 8 PDF Bible is the comprehensive guide to Acrobat for novices and power users alike. With a concise, easy-to-read format, you will be creating interactive XML forms, enabling streamlined document review processes, and publishing high-impact electronic documents in no time." —Rick Brown, director of product management, Adobe Acrobat The book you need to succeed with Adobe Acrobat! Why do readers turn to the Adobe Acrobat Bible again and again? Because whether you're already experienced with Adobe Acrobat or you're learning to use this powerful tool for the first time, you'll find exactly what you need to know in these well-organized pages. Packed with helpful tips and step-by-step instructions, this latest edition will guide you through both basic and advanced features, enabling you to take full advantage of everything Acrobat 8 has to offer. Create, collect, and distribute forms with LiveCycle® Designer Work seamlessly with Microsoft® Office applications Convert AutoCAD® and Visio® files to PDF Discover new ways to edit PDFs and remove sensitive data Explore enhanced Shared Reviews tools with easy-to-use Wizard Collect form data by exporting it directly to Microsoft Excel® Combine files and create PDF Packages using new Acrobat 8 tools What's on the CD-ROM? You'll find valuable, author-developed sample files including PDF documents, Adobe Designer forms, and Acrobat PDF forms with JavaScripts—all arranged in folders according to chapters in the book, so you use them along with the book's tutorials. The CD also includes: Adobe Reader software Entire book in searchable PDF with embedded index Windows demonstration plug-ins  By: Bruno Lowagie List Price: $49.99 Amazon Price: $31.49 Editorial Review: Imagine a publisher who wants to "stamp" his ebooks on the fly with the name of the buyer (to discourage sharing). Such a publisher would (and we know one who does) use iText for the task. Developers looking to enhance web- and other applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation will find this book unique in content and readability. Based on ongoing examples that encourage learning "in action," they will finally understand PDF and learn how to build applications that produce professional, high-quality PDF documents. While the basic functionality of iText is easy to acquire, this book lowers the learning curve for more advanced functionality. It explains how to use iText to create/manipulate PDF documents on-the-fly 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. All the examples are written in Java, but they can be easily adapted to .NET by developers using one of the .NET ports: iTextSharp (C#) or iText.NET (#J). While iText is a free Java library and the examples are written from the point of view of the Java developer, nine out of ten examples can be run by .NET developers with only minimal changes.  By: Editors of BrownHerron List Price: $3.95 Amazon Price: $3.95 Editorial Review: Given the enormous success of Built To Last, which Jim Collins wrote with Jerry Porras, there has been intense interest in Jim's follow-up work, Good To Great. Collins led a team of people to investigate how companies successfully moved a good organization into a great one. This SuccessTools discussion guide was developed to share a number of critical lessons from the new book, including: 1) why it's important to pick the right people, 2) why you have to face brutal facts, 3) why you need a simple concept to drive your entire business, 4) why it's crucial to become rigorously disciplined, and 5) why technology is best used to accelerate, not steer, a business. SuccessTools is a BH SmartDoc which provides a way to think about and start a key element on a management to-do list. BH SmartDocs are published by BrownHerron Publishing and are sold exclusively by Amazon.com.Given the enormous success of Built To Last, which Jim Collins wrote with Jerry Porras, there has been intense interest in Jim's follow-up work, Good To Great. Collins led a team of people to investigate how companies successfully moved a good organization into a great one. This SuccessTools discussion guide was developed to share a number of critical lessons from the new book, including: 1) why it's important to pick the right people, 2) why you have to face brutal facts, 3) why you need a simple concept to drive your entire business, 4) why it's crucial to become rigorously disciplined, and 5) why technology is best used to accelerate, not steer, a business. SuccessTools is a BH SmartDoc which provides a way to think about and start a key element on a management to-do list. BH SmartDocs are published by BrownHerron Publishing and are sold exclusively by Amazon.com.  By: Jim Collins List Price: $6.50 Amazon Price: $6.50 Editorial Review: Boards of directors typically believe that transforming a company from merely good to truly great requires a larger-than-life personality--an egocentric chief to lead the corporate charge. Think "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap or Lee Iacocca. In fact, that's not the case, says author and leadership expert Jim Collins. The essential ingredient for taking a company to greatness is having a "Level 5" leader at the helm--an executive in whom extreme personal humility blends paradoxically with intense professional will. Collins paints a compelling and counterintuitive portrait of the skills and personality traits necessary for effective leadership. He identifies the characteristics common to Level 5 leaders: humility, will, ferocious resolve, and the tendency to give credit to others while assigning blame to themselves. Collins fleshes out his Level 5 theory by telling colorful tales about 11 such leaders from recent business history. He contrasts the turnaround successes of outwardly humble, even shy, executives like Gillette's Colman M. Mockler and Kimberly-Clark's Darwin E. Smith with those of larger-than-life business leaders like Dunlap and Iacocca, who courted personal celebrity. The jury is still out on how to cultivate Level 5 leaders and whether it's even possible to do so, Collins admits. Some leaders have the Level 5 seed within; some don't. But Collins suggests using the findings from his research to strive for Level 5--for instance, getting the right people on board and creating a culture of discipline. "Our own lives and all that we touch will be better for the effort," he concludes.This is an enhanced edition of the HBR article R0101D, originally published in January 2001. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Boards of directors typically believe that transforming a company from merely good to truly great requires a larger-than-life personality--an egocentric chief to lead the corporate charge. Think "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap or Lee Iacocca. In fact, that's not the case, says author and leadership expert Jim Collins. The essential ingredient for taking a company to greatness is having a "Level 5" leader at the helm--an executive in whom extreme personal humility blends paradoxically with intense professional will. Collins paints a compelling and counterintuitive portrait of the skills and personality traits necessary for effective leadership. He identifies the characteristics common to Level 5 leaders: humility, will, ferocious resolve, and the tendency to give credit to others while assigning blame to themselves. Collins fleshes out his Level 5 theory by telling colorful tales about 11 such leaders from recent business history. He contrasts the turnaround successes of outwardly humble, even shy, executives like Gillette's Colman M. Mockler and Kimberly-Clark's Darwin E. Smith with those of larger-than-life business leaders like Dunlap and Iacocca, who courted personal celebrity. The jury is still out on how to cultivate Level 5 leaders and whether it's even possible to do so, Collins admits. Some leaders have the Level 5 seed within; some don't. But Collins suggests using the findings from his research to strive for Level 5--for instance, getting the right people on board and creating a culture of discipline. "Our own lives and all that we touch will be better for the effort," he concludes. |
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