Our 2nd episode here at Engines of Creation.com begins with a brief discussion of Microsoft s new web browser Internet Explorer 7 and the features and benefits of upgrading from IE 6 to IE 7. In this episodes main topic we discuss what to do if you re an individual, small business owner or a web developer on a tight budget that needs a solid online document creation tool. We cover online document creation with a powerful and inexpensive online document creation application made by Adobe called FlashPaper 2. With FlashPaper 2 you can create either Adobe PDF files or Flash Documents with ease and we will not only explain the benefits of FlashPaper2 and Flash Documents, we will show you with our video tutorials found below in this episodes show notes. So sit back grab a cup of coffee and immerse yourself in our second podcast episode and as always feel free to leave us a comment or question in our show notes or drop us an email. show notes for Online Documents The FlashPaper Solution Internet Explorer 7, upgrade to a better browser what is a online document? what is a PDF? what is a Flash Document? what is FlashPaper 2? benefits of using FlashPaper 2 FlashPaper 2 video tutorials online resources back to top Internet Explorer 7, upgrade to a better browser IE7 is Microsoft’s latest and greatest browser and we wanted to touch on a few of its new features and benefits. That being said on with IE 7’s newest features that are sure to dazzle and delight. Simplified User Experience The Internet Explorer 7 frame is reorganized to make it noticeably simpler, more streamlined, and less cluttered with unnecessary items. This maximizes the area of the screen devoted to the web pages that you want to see and makes performing the most common browsing tasks easy. Advanced Printing Automatically scales a printed web page so that it s not wider than the paper it will be printed on. Internet Explorer 7 also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text. Instant Search Box Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown list or add more providers. Favorites Center Offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. Expands when needed, and can be anchored in place for even easier access. RSS Feeds (Live Bookmarks) Automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site s RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated. Read RSS feeds directly in the browser, scan for important stories, and filter your view with search terms or site-specific categories. Tabbed Browsing View multiple sites in a single browser window. Easily switch from one site to another through tabs at the top of the browser frame. Quick Tabs Provides easy tab selection and navigation by displaying thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window. Tab Groups Tabs can be grouped and saved into logical categories, allowing you to open multiple tabs with a single click. A Tab Group can easily be set as the Home Page Group so the entire Tab Group opens every time Internet Explorer is launched from the Start menu. Page Zoom Enlarge individual web pages, including both text and graphics, to either focus on specific content or to make content more accessible to those with vision limitations. Security Status Bar Enhances awareness of website security and privacy settings by displaying color-coded notifications next to the address bar. Internet Explorer 7 changes the Address Bar to green for websites bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks. Phishing Filter notifications, certificate names, and the gold padlock icon are now also adjacent to the address bar for better visibility. Certificate and privacy detail information can easily be displayed with a single click on the Security Status Bar. Parental Controls To help keep kids safer online, parents can control browsing behavior through the parental control settings built into Windows Vista. The child s safety level can be monitored and changed remotely. The safety level carries over to many PC activities, such as playing games or browsing the Internet. A child s browsing session can even be examined by a parent afterwards, and cannot be removed without the parent s permission. back to top what is a online document? Generally speaking an online document is any file that can be accessed online, viewed, printed and listened to. This definition has been stretched to include audio and video media files as well Microsoft Word Document Adobe PDF Flash Document Power Point Presentation Audio File Video File back to top what is a PDF? PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else. Portable document files are especially useful for documents such as magazine articles, product brochures, or flyers in which you want to maintain the original graphic appearance online. Portable documents maintain the look of the original document, and they can be viewed on any Macintosh, PC, or UNIX computer as long as you have the reader or plug-in application installed. back to top what is a Flash Document? FlashPaper documents are Flash SWF files that are generated with the FlashPaper 2 application from Adobe. These files are read and displayed with the Adobe Flash Player and can be embedded directly into any web page or opened in a separate browser window.(Formerly the Macromedia Flash Player) back to top what is FlashPaper 2? FlashPaper2 allows anyone to convert printable files into Macromedia Flash documents or PDF’s with one click. Instantly generate Flash documents that can be accessed by over half a billion web users. Or, transform files in to secure, compact PDF’s for mailing, archiving, and printing. Macromedia FlashPaper 2 is an affordable solution to easily create web-ready documents that can be shared across the web. FlashPaper 2 seems to be faster than Adobe Acrobat Reader, from my experience. Also Flash Paper documents can be read by more browsers than Acrobat because the Flash player has a larger install base. This is important to keep in mind when choosing a portable document format. FlashPaper 2 documents are perfectly suited to both Web professionals and non-technical users who simply need to create, share, and distribute documents in a secure, compact, universal format, FlashPaper lets users generate Web-ready documents in a single click. With FlashPaper, anyone can create SWF or PDF files directly in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) without leaving the application. back to top benefits of using FlashPaper 2 Convert any printable document into Flash documents or PDF A common practice is to use PDF s for emailing or for offline archiving. Flash Documents created with FlashPaper 2 are superior for web or online viewing. This is due to a variety of reasons. More than billion people have the Flash player installed on their computer and are able to view Flash documents. Flash documents load instantly without waiting for a separate reader to startup. This is because they stream in page by page so the user can view them instantly. Documents can even be embedded directly into a web page and viewed without having to click on a separate link. You can even embed Flash documents into your Flash movies and projects with ease. Users can easily interact with Flash Documents in a variety of ways. Users can perform full text searches Text can be selected, copied, pasted and zoomed in or out. As the author of your Flash Paper 2 Document you can even include bookmarks and hyperlinks as well as the ability to outline navigation. A wonderful feature for the accessibility conscious is a Flash documents ability to be accessible by screen readers used by visually impaired users. Flash documents created with FlashPaper are 508 compliant and cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device compatible. Microsoft Integration: Tight Microsoft Office integration allows users to create and e-mail PDFed versions of any open Microsoft Office document with a single click. Flash and PDF documents generated using FlashPaper from within Microsoft Office will automatically retain the source documents bookmarks or section navigation. Also, Flash and PDF documents generated using FlashPaper from within Microsoft Office will automatically retain the source documents bookmarks. FlashPaper 2 supports a wide range of Microsoft office applications, including: Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint You can directly convert your Microsoft documents into a Flash document or PDF with ease with simple and intuitive integrated menus and toolbars. You can also email PDF documents directly. Ease of Use: When creating or authoring a Flash Paper document or PDF with FlashPaper 2 you have a couple of authoring options. Drag and Drop your document you wish to convert onto the FlashPaper 2 application. Or right-click on the file and choose the format you wish to convert to. FlashPaper is also available as a option in the print dialog when you decide to print a document you may be viewing. Adobe (formerly macromedia) offers a free 30 day trial, there is a simple registration process, but you are not required to enter any billing information. Isn t that nice of them. back to top FlashPaper 2 video tutorials How to create a PDF or Flash Paper Document with simple drag and drop. FlashPaper 2 Drag and Drop Video Tutorial How to create a PDF or Flash Paper Document Two Clicks. FlashPaper 2 - Quick Clicks Video Tutorial back to top online resources Microsoft s IE 7 Overview and Download Links: Internet Explorer 7 Main Site Download Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 Internet Explorer 7 Developers Blog FlashPaper 2
