Open Source

How to split huge PDF documents for free

In Open Source, PDF, Software, Tip, Work on 3 July 2008 with 4 comments

At work, one of the attorneys had a humongous PDF document she needed to email a lot of other attorneys outside the office. I tried extracting pages with an old version of Adobe Acrobat (v5), but the original file still kept the same size (despite having deleted the pages).

With open source (free) software, I split the document into two separate files in a couple minutes.

Required: PDFCreator

Once you install that, open your PDF document (original_superlongdocument.pdf) in your preferred reader. Now, go to File > Print. Change your printer to PDFCreator, then change your page range so you’re only “printing” half the document. If you have a 1,000 page document, set it to 1-500.

Follow the prompts and save that new PDF file — just not over your original. (superlongdocument_a.pdf)

Now, repeat for pages 501-1000 and save that one with a different filename. (superlongdocument_b.pdf)

My recommended software list updated

In Freeware, Open Source, Software on 13 August 2007 with 3 comments

After eight months, I’ve finally updated my recommended software list. It’s bumped up to 33 applications, tools, and programs. All of ‘em are still for Windows XP.

How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity (v2)

In How-to, Open Source, Podcasts, School, iPod on 18 April 2007 with 18 comments

This is an update to the How-to article, “How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity.”

In Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta), configuring the batch script is easier. The developers moved the location, though, so you might be lost if you recently updated to this version.

First, setup the chain: File > Edit Chains

In the left pane of the window that pops up, you’ll need to add a new chain. Title it “Speedup,” or whatever you like. With it selected, the right pane should have only one parameter: END.

Select that command, then at the bottom of the window, click Insert. Another window will pop up, and you’ll want to choose Change Tempo. Change the parameter to 25.000000, then click OK. (Later, you can increase the tempo if you’re comfortable.) Again, click Insert, select the ExportMP3 command, then click OK. Finally, OK out of the Edit Chains window.

Then, if you want to run the script, go to File > Apply Chain. Select the chain you just created, click Apply to Files, then browse to the folder where the podcasts are stored. Like I mentioned in the previous How-to, I copy the MP3s to the root podcast folder, so I’m not limited to one show (folder) at a time.

Conclusion

This’ll empower you to listen to podcasts, or any other supported audio files in a shorter amount of time, and you can convert multiple files at once. In addition to podcasts, I also speed up class lectures. 80-minute classes reduced to 64 minutes — awesome!

Quick File extension

In Asides, Open Source, Software, Thunderbird on 23 January 2006 with 2 comments

I’m using Thunderbird instead of Gmail right now. (More about this later.) For now, I just had to write this out. Quick File is an awesome extension that I wish I would’ve seen before I purged and sorted 73MB-worth of emails (with lots of attachments). I’m not seeing much documentation, so basically, press Alt+Q, type the first couple letters of the folder you want to move the email message(s) to, choose it with your arrows, then press Enter. No need to use a mouse for this one – awesome.

Folder Size

In Open Source, Windows on 9 January 2006 with no comments

Folder Size for Windows adds a new column to the Details view in Windows Explorer. The new column shows not only the size of files, but also the size of folders. It keeps track of which folders you view, and scans them in the background so you can see complete size of all files within the folder.

I don’t think I have to use TreeSize anymore – yay!

(Golf clap: Lifehacker)

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