Windows only: Lightweight application PDFMerge combines and splits PDF files. Specify page ranges from each document you're merging and manipulate bookmarks, too. Preserve existing document bookmarks in a new bookmark tree or omit them altogether. Run PDFMerge from the command line or from the included GUI. PDFMerge is no-frills merging program so if you are looking to do more than merge files check out previously mentioned PDFill; Mac users want Combine PDFs. PDFMerge is a free download for Windows only.

At some point, anyone who's interested in personal growth and productivity has to ask him or herself: What the heck am I doing with my life, anyway? It's a big scary question, one that's easily avoided by checking out the coolest new Firefox extension instead. But if you've decided to tackle the beast, reader William Mize recommends a free ebook entitled What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?. The 136 page PDF is a workbook for creating your life plan. Mize says:

Read More »

The go-to Vista fix-it guy, The How-To Geek, offers a much-needed tutorial and walk-through on installing print-to-PDF functionality in Windows Vista. To start saving paper and creating PDFs, you'll need to install a copy of previously mentioned PDFCreator, but with the trick of turning off User Account Control while you install to enable its direct PDF-creating capabilities. For a simpler but much more restricted and feature-lacking solution, you could also try installing doPDF. Hit the link for some how-to wisdom. (Original doPDF post).

Read More »

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): The makers of the previously-posted PDF Download extension have released a 2.0 beta that adds some key features, including a full web-to-PDF converter that retains CSS styling, web links, and layout details. The extension has also beefed up its PDF-to-HTML rendering, and works in Firefox 2 & 3, Flock, and other Mozilla-based projects. The developers have made 10,000 beta sign-ups available, with more to come. Hit the link below for more details on what's new in PDF Download 2.0.

Read More »

Windows only: Freeware PDF Unlocker, a free Windows utility, doesn't do everything that commerical packages like those from Elcomsoft do, but it will help if you just need to unlock copy/paste and editing restrictions on a PDF. Simply drag a copy-protected PDF onto PDF Unlocker's icon, and a new, non-protected copy will be created. You can also strip PDF files of passwords needed to open and read them, but you, uh, need the password to do so. For simple restrictions, however, it does the job. Freeware PDF Unlocker is a free download for Windows systems.

Read More »

Mac OS X only: Firefox extension Quartz PDF enables inline viewing of PDFs in Firefox 3 for the Mac. Just install, and next time you follow a link to a PDF, it quickly loads the PDF directly inline. Quartz PDF is lightning fast, and works exactly like you're viewing the PDF in Preview. It'd be great to see the thumbnail navigation sidebar in a future release, but as is this extension works like a charm. Quartz PDF is free, requires Firefox 3 and OS X 10.4 or higher.

Read More »

Need some fresh e-reading material for your commute, but all out of e-books? Feedbook, a free RSS aggregator, takes in RSS feeds and spits out compiled PDFs in formats for pretty much any e-reader under the sun, including the Kindle, or you can create custom PDFs (with a free registration) for standard screens. The PDFs even come with a table of contents, and the site offers up a few free e-books of its own. Not every feed works all the time, including this here site's full feed this morning, but those that do come out looking surprisingly nice. Feedbook is free to use, but a free registration gives you a few more conversion options.

Read More »

You can't edit them yet, but Google Docs users can now upload PDF documents and view, copy text from, print, and share them. Nice solution when you don't have a reader handy, or when PDFs are part of a larger project—but note that competitor Zoho already offers PDF viewing for even non-registered users. [via]

Read More »

Windows/Mac/Linux: Free, open source application KeyJnote transforms any simple PDF into a powerful interactive presentation similar to PowerPoint or Keynote. After you plug your PDF into KeyJnote, you get a slate of powerful presentation tools, with everything from simple forward and back navigation with your left and right mouse buttons, mouse highlighting, rectangle highlighting, slide zooming, and more. KeyJnote doesn't yet have a graphical interface for starting a PDF presentation, but using it is simple.

Read More »

It's not surprising that Google decided to make a submission to the ACCC over eBay's controversial plan to make PayPal the sole payment method available on the site. It's not surprising that Google asked that its name was kept off the public version of its submission. And sadly, it's not surprising that -- as a great story at AuctionBytes reveals -- an Australian eBay user, David Bromage, managed to deduce Google's involvement by looking at metadata attached to the PDF file. But is it possible to avoid those kinds of problems?

Read More »