Daily Archives: September 13, 2011

Sep 13 2011

Need To Translate? Use Google Docs

Google Translate is pretty cool, but it works on web pages, not PDFs. What if you uncover a priceless PDF in, say, German, and you don’t sprechen sie Deutsch? Use Google Docs, of course. Lifehacker has this great tip – save and upload the foreign doc into Google Docs, click on Tools and then Translate and you will get a copy of the doc in your language of choice. It works with HTML, ODT, RTF, and DOC files. And, as Lifehacker reminds, you can always convert document formats within Google Docs – simply load the doc, open the File/Save menu, then Click Save As and choose RTF, PDF, HTML Word, or Open Office. Simple and effective. And, of course, Free. Doesn’t get any better.

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Sep 13 2011

Need To Fax? Use Google Docs

Google Docs is ubiquitous and getting moreso with extensions and applications that leverage its cloud-based storage goodness. Take, for example, InterFAX – a fax service that lets you hook up your Google Docs account and use it as a browser-based fax machine! Create an InterFAX account, select external apps and then Google Docs. Click on Activate and the Google Docs page will appear. Grant access to InterFAX (you can select the option to grant access without credentials to keep username private). Enable the “Fax This” bookmarklet, and you are pretty much ready to go. You can send and receive faxes via your Google Docs account, just as you would a fax machine. Received faxes are saved as PDF into a dedicated folder in your Docs account. There is a small cost involved –  as low as $.07 per page and you have to buy credits in minimum installments of $10. But the convenience factor (as well as a cost that is far lower than a dedicated fax line) are very compelling.

Hat tip to Digital Inspiration Technology Blog.

Sep 13 2011

Click.to: The Express Train To Searching & Posting

It’s the little things in life. Five steps to get from words, pics or vids on the screen to search or post on the web, for example. Multiply that over the course of the day and you have spent a considerable amount of time simply getting from point a to point b, over and over and over again. If you could drop that process down to two steps, well then, you are talking some serious time and repetitive stress injury savings.

If you are rocking Windows 7, XP, or Vista, then you are in luck. Click.to, a Windows add-on, will let you do just that. After you load it up, simply select what you want to search or share, hit Control+C and hit the desired destination in the pop-up box. Search by hitting the Google icon, or share on Facebook with the Facebook icon. There are way more options than that, including insertion into Outlook, Word or Excel, or click to convert to PDF.

If you Mac users are feeling left out, never fear. Click.to’s developer says that a Mac version is in the works and hopefully will be coming soon.

I just love little time savers like this. After using Click.to, you may never go back to the old select, copy, open, insert, and go/post  process ever again.