Use Your Email to Convert Documents and Images to PDF Format

Yes, you read that right!

KoolWire is a new and wonderful email based file conversion service to help you convert your Microsoft Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel Spreadsheets (.xls) or even pictures into Adobe PDF documents.

Just compose a new email message, attach document(s) that have to be converted into PDF and send the email to pdf@koolwire.com. The PDF file(s) should arrive in your inbox the next moment.

Best of all, you can attach multiple documents / images to the same email message and Koolwire will batch convert them into PDF.

Formats supported: Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Jpeg, GIF, Rich Text Format (.rtf), TXT

Limitations – No support for Office 2007 format documents, cannot convert password-protected documents to PDF.

And hey Gmail users, its time to make good use of your 20 MB attachment limit.

Go to KoolWIRE.com 

Google Docs and Spreadsheets gets new looks

Google updated their Docs and Spreadsheets service with a new start page, one that turns the old list view into a two-pane workspace. Users can now see a larger listing of their documents and spreadsheets, as well as organize them in folders. Yes, you read that right–Google is letting users create and manage their stuff in folders. Users can even drag and drop files. Any pre-existing tags today have been turned into their own folders.

There have also been a few other changes under the hood. Besides the bluer, smoother exterior, Google Suggest is now built into the file search bar. This means that when you’re looking for a certain file, you can just begin typing and the engine will start to bring up search results before you’ve even hit the search button.

Microsoft announces new Windows Live products

Microsoft has just announced two new Windows Live products, Windows Live Folders and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Windows Live Folders is Microsoft’s online storage solution, which features a 500 MB storage limit, with a 50mb individual file size cap. Unlike some of the other competing services, Windows Live Folders is more geared towards storing and sharing documents as opposed to storing music and videos. Microsoft’s take is that 500 MB is a sufficient amount of storage for documents.

Windows Live Folders

Windows Live Photo Gallery is an upgrade to Vista’s Photo Gallery, replacing it on install. It can also be installed on Windows XP SP2.

Speed up social bookmarking with Social Poster

Social bookmarking can be a tiring ordeal. Submitting links to services one at a time might be a little overwhelming if you’re using more than two or three at a time. What if there was a way to post that link to 34 services from one place? Wonder no more–Social Poster gives you a relatively quick way to accomplish that.

Social Poster provides users with a bookmarklet they can click from any site that will grab the link, title, description, and any tags it finds. Users can put a check by any services they want to post to, which will create a listing of customized links that users can click to go straight to the submission form for each site. Alternately, if you’re logged in to one of these sites already, you can click the “post” button which will post the link instantly on several of the services. Assuming you’re registered with the site, you might save a click or two.

Go to SocialPoster.com

Search is Good

It is possible to make real dollar donations to a favorite charity without dropping a dime, just by surfing the Web. A handful of online services will route some of their profits from Internet advertising to the tree-saving, cancer-curing, kitten-rescuing, or other group of your choice.

The most popular search-for-a-cause service is GoodSearch. Powered by Yahoo, it will send half its ad earnings–about a penny for each Internet lookup you make–to your pick of 37,000 nonprofit groups and schools. You can also add its toolbar to your browser. Nearly 100 new recipients are added each day, said co-founder Ken Ramberg, who hopes GoodSearch will become one of the top 10 search engines by next year. The service sent several hundred thousand dollars to various charities in 2006. Each nonprofit group receives a check at the end of the year once users have rung up at least $20 in its name.

On a related note, Microsoft’s “I’m making a difference” program will send ad funds amassed through your use of its instant messaging app to one of 10 nonprofits of your choice. Each charity can receive a minimum of $100,000. To sign up, visit this Windows Live Messenger site.

Go to GoodSearch.com

Spice up your Google Calender

Is your Google Calendar looking lonely? Is it filled with boring things like work, family obligations, or vacation plans that loom far, far away? Worse yet, is it sitting there, empty and useless? To spice things up, Google has launched a fairly extensive listing of calendars you can subscribe to. They range from important schedules–like national holidays and Presidential candidates’ 2008 touring dates–to things that are bound to fill up your days, like TV listings and DVD releases.

The service is launching with schedules from several large brands like Netflix, Disney, and the NBA. Alternately, you can search through publicly available calendars that other people have published to find anything that hasn’t been “featured.”

This isn’t the first venture into shared calendar directories. One of my personal favorites, and a good resource for Mac users who use iCal, is iCalShare.com. I will give Google credit, though, the one-button click to subscribe is a very nice touch, and very handy for the novice user.

Go to Google Calender Directory