Mister Nifty » Software

My Favorite PDF Tools

Brian Fegter — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:30:12 +0000

Here are a few of the tools that I use to manage and create PDF files since Windows doesn’t have native PDF support. If you’re on a Mac, you can use the built in PDF functions via your print menu.

Printers

PrimoPDF (Windows Only)
OpenOffice – Native PDF capabilities (File -> Save As)

Converters

Neevia PDF Converter (File to PDF) – Includes password protection and multiple output formats.
PDFmyURL (URL to PDF) – Convert any website to a PDF

Viewers

Google Docs - Lightning fast PDF viewer that integrates right into Gmail. You can also upload your PDF files to Google Docs for safe keeping and collaboration.

Editors

PDFescape – Great for creating PDF files with form fields.

Tools

PDFCrack – Recover forgotten PDF passwords. (Linux only)

Let me know what PDF tools you like that I have forgotten or overlooked.

My Favorite PDF Tools is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Full Screen Flash Video On Multiple Monitors

Brian Fegter — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:25:07 +0000

If you run a Windows based projection system with one or two extra monitors/screens, this hack might be useful for you. Whenever you play a Flash video full screen, any keystroke or mouse click on another monitor will cause the full screen view to minimize. This could be irritating if you are trying to play an internet video on one screen and push other media to another screen at the same time. Here’s how to safely hack the Flash player.

Download the replacement DLL (zip container) here.
Open an explorer window and go to C:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\
Rename the NPSWF32.dll file to NPSWF32.dll.txt to save as a backup in case the hack doesn’t work
Copy the new NPSWF32.dll from the zip container to the folder.
Restart your browser and viola! It should work beautifully.
If for some reason your Flash player breaks, go back to the directory and delete NPSWF32.dll, then rename NPSWF32.dll.txt back to its original file name.

Pressing escape will minimize the Flash player once it’s been hacked.

(via Lifehacker)

Full Screen Flash Video On Multiple Monitors is a post from: Mister Nifty

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More Awesome Free Fonts

Brian Fegter — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:40:21 +0000

This is a great resource for web designers who want to embed nice fonts in their web designs without infringing on the EULA agreements of popular fonts. Font Squirrel provides a list of dozens of free fonts to use on commercial websites. There is a nifty generator that helps you embed the fonts in your site as well. If you’re not a web designer, you can obviously use these fonts on print collateral as well. Enjoy!

Go To Font Squirrel

More Awesome Free Fonts is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Awesome PC Diagnostic Tool

Brian Fegter — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:27:47 +0000

If you’re an IT person, Look In My PC is a software you need to add to your toolbox. It gives a complete profile of all software, hardware, network connections, windows processes, and much more in one report. You can check out a sample report on their site. Before you start troubleshooting PC problems again, use Look In My PC first. It’s absolutely free.

Go To Look In My PC

via Lifehacker

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Photoshop Alternatives

Brian Fegter — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:40:28 +0000

I love Photoshop. I’ve been using Photoshop for 14 years now. I admit it, I’m a Photoshopaholic.

Photoshop is a funny thing in churches. First of all is the cardiac exercise when pastors and and administrators fall out on the floor twitching when they see the price tag of $699.00. Next, it seems to be a craved badge of honor to say you have Photoshop on your computer especially when the bragger has no clue how to use it. And of course there are those who think a happy cloud will fly over their head and all their design dreams will come try by installing Photoshop. It’s um funny, hilarious, entertaining to see a person who has never touched the program, ready to conquer the world, take one look of defeat at the interface and immediately quit. Ok, so I’m just having fun here, but Photoshop really is a quirky subject in churches.

The raging event engines of churches have to have design fuel and we need the latest and greatest version of Photoshop to design, or do we? This crazy preconception that in order to make great art you have to have a full-blown version of Photoshop is rampant. I get asked so many times by church workers how to get a copy of Photoshop thinking that it’s the magic tool that will cause creativity to flow. Driven by this silly notion that you have to have a $700 program to accomplish the task, volunteers and support staff are usually left to their own devices to pirate a copy of Photoshop if the finance ministry says there is no budget.

I am against pirated software. That’s why I am a firm believer in open source software. It’s free, you get free upgrades, and there usually is a support community built around a good software. There is no need to steal Photoshop these days. You can do everything you need to do using a few cheaper and free alternatives.

Photoshop Elements - If you are dying to have Photoshop, pick up a copy of PSE. The cost is 10-15% of what the full-fledged version costs. PSE sports many of the awesome features of Photoshop like layers, filters, masking, and much more. It is much more user friendly than the full version. So, if you aren’t familiar with design, this is the product for you. It has a huge community out there. You can search for PSE tutorials and a ton will come up. Grab a copy here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/
Gimp – This is an open source version of Photoshop. If you run on a Mac, you probably will be annoyed (like my friend Ryan Loyd who voiced this over lunch last week) at Gimps gimpy window interface. It’s not so bad on a Windows machine. There are tons of tutorials out there to learn Gimp, and the best part is it is free. http://gimp.org/
Pixelator – MAC ONLY – This is a great full-featured photo editing/design program for $59.00. I checked out their beta version last year and I loved using the program. Their sleek design will make you feel like a design ninja the moment you click File>New http://www.pixelmator.com/
Photoshop Online - This is a simple version of Photoshop that can be accessed online. It’s completely free to use and has some basic features. http://photoshop.com
Piknik – Another free online photo editing application with some awesome effects, fonts, and many more great features. You can purchase a year’s premium subscription for a mere $25 bucks. http://www.picnik.com
Aviary – This is a great suite of online photo editing applications. The Phoenix image editor is amazing and sports layers, filters, layer blending modes, and much more. This is about as close to the basic Photoshop functions as you can get. The best part is it’s FREE! http://aviary.com/
Paint.NET - This is a free Windows based software that sports Photoshop-like features. I’ve never personally used this, but it appears to be liked on the net. You can check out screen shots and download a free copy at: http://www.getpaint.net/features.html
Educational Discounts – If your church has a private school, take advantage of deep discounts provided by Adobe. You can ask for these discounts at local retailers, however the best way is through the internet. I personally have used JourneyEd for all my software needs at church. Since I designed for our school, it fell under the usage agreement. Check out all the software at: http://www.journeyed.com You can also view Adobe’s educational price list here: http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html
Ebay – When people upgrade to newer versions, they sell their older versions on eBay. Do a search for CS3 or CS2 to find a good price for the whole creative suite. Be careful to only bid on items that have actual photos of the product. There are unscrupulous sellers that will sell you a pirated copy. Make sure the deal is legit. I saw a copy of the entire CS3 suite for $250.00 today.

Well, that about wraps it up for now. There are great ways to get around dropping $700 buckaroos on PSCS4. The creativity is in you, not the program. If you don’t have the budget for a legal copy, let your creativity ooze through these cheaper tools and make some awesome stuff for your church.

Photoshop Alternatives is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Easy Screencasts

Brian Fegter — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:07:01 +0000

I’m sure you’ve watched a screen cast before. It’s where someone records a video of their desktop to teach others how to do something in a specific program. In its infant stages it was a bit technical to get those screen casts published to the web. Now, even a child could do screen casts with Wink. Wink is a freeware software that allows you to capture your screen and your voice and export into flash video to display on the web. For the less web savvy, you can create a pdf of the frames you captured (beware of large file sizes).

This is a great tool if you are trying to explain something to someone who is not at your location. For web developers, you can create a help section for technical parts of your website to show users where to go and what to do. And yes, the greatest part of all of this is that it is free for the taking!

Easy Screencasts is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Free Camtasia Download

Brian Fegter — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:28:10 +0000

UPDATE – This giveaway is no longer available.

TechSmith is giving away an older version of Camtasia Studio. Camtasia is a screen recording software that they make the cool screencasts with. This is a pretty spendy tool but you can get it free. All you have to do is register for a software key. This is as legit as it comes. It’s directly from the manufacturers website, so no worries mate with pirated software. You can download the software HERE. Thanks to Jen Miller for the great tip!

Free Camtasia Download is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Print to your office remotely

Brian Fegter — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:54:52 +0000

This tool has been a long time coming for anyone wanting to print from remote locations. Printer Anywhere connects to your printers on another machine and allows you to use your regular print button in your documents to print remotely. In other words, if you are home, you can print at the office by selecting the office printer from your normal printer drop down and clicking print. That simple! You must have a host machine at the office running. The coolest part about this is it’s free!!!

-via Life Hacker-

Print to your office remotely is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Record your services with Audacity.

Brian Fegter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:42:36 +0000

Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy audio editing program to record your services. Audacity is a free software that allows you to record directly, edit with massive amounts of features, and even create tracks like expensive brand name software. You can use Audacity for video production, simple audio tasks, or even as a recording studio. This is a great software for radio stations on a budget. Audacity converts your files to mp3, wma, wav and virtually any other audio format available. There are plenty of tutorials for this software, it’s easy to use and it’s FREE!!

Record your services with Audacity. is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Work on someone’s computer remotely!

Brian Fegter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:06:36 +0000

If you are the “Computer Guy” for your church, you will understand the value of this tool. There have been many times people have called me to come and fix their computer problems. Being spread so thin as it is, it is hard for me to drive across town to take spyware off a clogged machine. I use Cross Loop on a weekly basis. Basically, each party downloads and installs this free software. One person will host a session and give the invitee their special session code. When you connect, the invitee will see a screen appear with the hosts screen in view. The invitee will be able to nagivate the computer just as if they are sitting in front of the hosts computer. This tool has saved me so much time and gasoline. I recommend every IT department to have this nifty tool.

You can even install it on your office computers if you are really lazy and then login and fix the receptionists problem two doors down. If you want to do a great prank, host a session on your coworker’s computer while while they are at lunch, go to your office and when they return start opening windows and typing things in the word processor. It’s great fun when they think a hacker has taken over their computer. Just don’t get too carried away.

Work on someone’s computer remotely! is a post from: Mister Nifty