Pages

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Scan your Paper Documents to Google Docs


The upcoming HP Printers will have a unique “Send to Google Docs” app that will connect your printer directly to the Google cloud.
You can scan paper documents and the app will upload them as PDFs to your Google Docs account without requiring a computer.
The app is expected to become available later this year and will only work with the new HP all-in-ones. If you would however like to add a similar feature to your existing brand of scanner or all-in-one, here’s something that should make you excited.
Scan Drop is a free document scanning utility that will help you scan and upload paper documents directly to Google Docs.
Google Docs LoginIt works something like this. You download and install the app and then sign-in using your Google Account.
Assuming that the scanner /multifunction printer is connected to your computer, you press the scan button inside Scan Drop and it will scan the papers in the queue and will convert then all into one PDF.
You can make some basic changes to this scanned PDF like you can re-order pages or even rotate them in case the orientation was wrong at the time of scanning. Now press upload and this PDF will be copied from the computer to any of the selected folders in your Google account.
Scan Documents to Google
ScanDrop is compatible with almost all types of scanners and you can use it on any Windows 7, XP or Vista computer.
The only downside is that your paper documents are uploaded as scanned images (no OCR) and therefore they won’t be searchable inside Google Docs.
Here’s a video that describes Scan Drop in detail. Thanks @bgmahesh for the tip.

How to Permanently Delete Files from Dropbox


One of the big advantages of using Dropbox is that it lets you easily recover files that you may have accidentally deleted from your computer’s hard drive. Should you wish to restore a file that is no longer available on your computer, just go to the “Deleted files” section of the Dropbox website and select the file that you want to recover.
When you delete a file from a local folder, Dropbox will not remove that file from their own servers, instead they will simply move it to another folder from where you may restore it later. This is much like the Recycle bin of Windows – deleting a file will only move it to the Recycle bin and you have to manually empty* the bin to permanently remove that file.
Coming back to Dropbox, if you would like to get rid of a file permanently so that it also gets deleted from Dropbox servers, first delete that file from your computer.
Next, log in to Dropbox website, choose the “Show Deleted Files” option, select the file that you just deleted and then click More –> Permanently Delete to trash it forever. The screencast above explains the steps in greater details.
[*] In fact, it is a bit complex at the OS level. You should securely delete your Windows files else they can be recovered even after you have emptied the Recycle bin.

Print Files from any Mobile Phone using Dropbox


Here’s a tip that will let you print documents, emails, photos, PDF files, etc. from a mobile phone to your existing printer.
All you need is a printer connected to the computer and a mobile device for sending print jobs – it could be a BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Android or any other web-enabled phone.
Wirelessly Print Anything from Anywhere, Anytime
While mobile phones have become a lot more capable in the past few years, the connection between the printer and your phone is still very weak.
For instance, if you are using a BlackBerry or an iPhone, how do you print any of the presentations or spreadsheets that you have as email attachments? Or if you are viewing driving directions on Google Maps using an iPad, how do you send that map to the printer?
Your phone’s app store will have a few printing apps to let you wirelessly print files but if you want to save a few bucks, you can simply use Dropbox to print documents from your phone to any printer without requiring any additional software.
Some upcoming printers will have built-in support for mobile printing via email but with Dropbox, you get the same feature without requiring any new hardware.
Before we get into the details, watch the video above as it shows how printing from a mobile phone actually works through Dropbox (apologies for the bad audio quality).
Print Files from any Mobile Phone through Dropbox
The workflow is like this. You download a small utility on your computer that runs in the background and constantly monitors one of your Dropbox folders for any new printing jobs.
You can send files for printing from your mobile phone through email or using any of the Dropbox mobile apps. As soon as Dropbox downloads the file locally, the utility will send it to the default printer. Once the file is printed, it gets archived to the logs folder.
mobile phone printing
To get this thing running on your computer, please follow these easy steps:
Step 1: Make sure that you have Dropbox on the computer that is connected to the printer.
Step 2: To send print jobs from your mobile device to the printer, you have two options.
  • You can download a Dropbox app on your mobile phone – they have apps forBlackBerryiPhoneiPadNokiawebOS (Palm), and Android based phones.
  • Alternatively, you can send files from your mobile phone to Dropbox using email. Just connect your Dropbox account with Habilis and they’ll give you a unique email address – any files or attachments sent to this address will automatically appear in your Dropbox folder.
Step 3: Download this zip file* and double-click the eprint.vbs file (see the source code). The script will create a sub-folder inside your main Dropbox folder called PrintQueue where all the mobile print jobs will queue up and another sub-folder called logs where all the completed jobs will be archived.
[*] VBS scripts are Windows-only but there are workarounds for Mac OS X and Linux as well.
Step 4: You are now all set to print files from our mobile phone. Just send a test file from your mobile phone to that secret email address, or upload it through the Dropbox mobile app, and your printer will turn it into a hard copy almost instantly.
The utility can also handle multiple files in one go and it should print almost all file formats for which you have an associated application on the computer. If you would like to shut down the eprint utility, launch Windows task manager and end the “wscript.exe” process from the list.
If you have trouble running the above script on your computer, there’s a chance that you may have associated the file with Notepad or some other text editor. Press shift and right click the file in Windows Explore and choose “Windows Based Script Host” under Open With. Alternatively, open the command prompt, type “cscript eprint.vbs” and hit enter.

Print Documents and Web Pages from Mobile Phones SMS


HP Cloudprint is a free online printing service that lets you print documents and spreadsheets from your cell phone anywhere in the world. As long as you have the document in your mobile phone, you can print a hard copy on any printer.
HP Cloudprint works like this – you save the document as PDF to HP servers via the internet. The system then assigns them a document code, and transmits that code to a cellphone, making it possible to retrieve and print the documents from any location.
Later, using the SMS message the service has sent to the user’s cellphone, it is possible to retrieve the documents by entering the user’s phone number and a document code on the Cloudprint Web site. The documents can then be retrieved as a PDF, ready to be printed at a nearby printer. Link.

Send Documents, Web Pages To Mobile Phones via SMS: Cloud Print


HP CloudPrint is a unique desktop + web based service for sending documents via cellphones as SMS codes instead of the standard email route. You don't have to manually convert documents to PDF, upload them anywhere or send email attachments - CloudPrint takes care of everything.
You send the document(s) to your friends, colleagues or mobile workforce from your desktop as an SMS message and they can download or print the file as PDF on any computer worldwide. Sounds confusing? Let's look at real-world example:
Step 1: I opened this Google Alerts Tutorial page in IE and printed it using CloudPrint. The software asked asked my cell number and also the phone numbers of intended recipients.
print pdf mobile phone
Step 2: HP CloudPrint converted the web page to a PDF file in the background and automatically uploaded it to some HP server - the conversion and upload part is totally transparent to the end user. All you get is a message with the secret document code that was sent as an SMS to the recipients.
print document mobile phone
Step 3: Your friends and team members will receive the document code as an SMS. They can type their mobile phone number and the document code on HP website and can immediately download the file as PDF. Here's the Google Alerts PDF created by CloudPrint.
[Retrieve it yourself - Recipient: 6505551212, Document Code: 945146]
Even if a document is CloudPrinted to multiple recipients, each person gets their own document code, so your document code is only known by you and the person who sent you that document.
telephone pdf
HP CloudPrint - The documents never expire and will not be deleted by HP. Currently you can use CloudPrint to send and receive documents in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Europe.

Google Alerts Tutorial To Help You Stay Ahead of the Curve

Google Alerts is probably one the most powerful Google service for people (especially bloggers) who want to stay ahead of their competition. With Google Alerts, you get an instant email notification whenever something happens in your niche or topics that matter to you.

But are you aware of all the wonderful features packed inside Google Alerts ? If not, here's a short guide (illustrated with examples) to help you harness the complete power of Google Alerts:

Case A: Track news about new software releases or version upgrades

Say you are eagerly waiting for news about Norton Antivirus 2008. The chances are that the manufacturer [Symantec in this case] will either publish a press release that will appear in Google News or one of the company employees will blog about the release. So we need to setup a comprehensive Google alert in this case that will track blogs, web, Google groups as well as Google News.

"Norton Antivirus 2008" [Type: Comprehensive, How Often: as it happens]

Case B: Most websites like Forbes, CNet or CNN let you setup free email alerts for tracking any topic on their websites. When a story contains your selected topic or your keyword, you will receive e-mail alerts straight to your inbox.

Unfortunately, most of these sites require you to register before sending emails plus the alerts are not customizable - so just replace them with single Google Alerts and save yourself from the frustration of managing multiple email messages.

» Send me an alert whenever there's a new story published on Forbes covering either Google or Yahoo:

google OR yahoo source:forbes

Case C: Track the activity of Googlebot with Google Web alerts.

» Google Alerts can help you track whenever Google indexes new webpages. For instance, if you like to track the mention of "Windows Vista Service Pack 1" on Microsoft website, just setup the following web alert.

"Windows Vista SP1" OR "Windows Vista Service Pack 1" site:microsoft.com [type: web]

Try all the possible permutations and combinations in quotes separated by OR boolean operator.

Case D Track news stories published in local newspapers and magazines. For example:

» Inform me whenever an Indian publication writes about blogging:

blogs OR blogger OR blogging OR weblogs location:India [type: news]

» I want to track the Rocketboom team in New York:

rocketboom OR "andrew baron" OR "joanne colan" location:ny

Google News lets you track US states by their two letter codes.

Case E: Ego Surfing: Track your influence in the blogosphere instantly

» Let me know whenever a new website links to my blog:

link:myblogname.com [type: blog, Frequency: as it happens] 

» I want to track news publications in US that are quoting me:

"John Smith" OR "Smith John" location:US [type:news]

You should mention your name in both the styles for better results.

Case F: Track your favorite authors in the blogosphere.

» Say you are a big fan of "John Public" and like to be notified whenever John writes a new story on his blog(s). You can either subscribe to his blog feed but if email suits you more, here's how to track Mr John. [may fail in certain cases]

inpostauthor:"John Public" [type: blog Frequency: as-it-happens]

Tips for reducing Inbox clutter created from email alert messages - Now that you are tempted to setup Google alerts for every topic of your interest, here's some advice - always enclose alert queries inside quotes else you may get irrelevant results. Use a single alert for related topics and separate queries using OR operator. Make sure all words are spelled correctly.

You will sometimes have to experiment with Google alerts for a few days before choosing one that delivers the most meaningful results for you. Google lets you create up to 1000 alerts.

How to Share your Printer on the Internet [Video]


If you have a printer attached to your computer, you can turn on the printer sharing option and anyone on the home network would then be able to send print jobs to that local printer. All you need to ensure is that your (host) computer is always turned on and also connected to the local network.
Now imagine a slightly different scenario where your local printer is connected to the computer as before but here you want to share that printer with people outside your home network. For instance, your friends could be in a different city and they would still be able to send print jobs to your printer over the Internet.
One option is that you upgrade to an ePrint printer that supports printing via email but you can also do this for your existing printing that is not Internet enabled?
The answer is very much yes! Google, as you know, offers a web based printing technology called Cloud Print that lets you access your existing printer from any browser or mobile phone over the Internet. The same service can now be used to share your printer with anyone else on the web without them being part of your home network.

Step by Step – Sharing your Printer on the Internet

Assuming that the printer to connected to your Windows or Mac computer, here’s how you may share it friends and family anywhere:

A: Connect your printer to Cloud Print

Step 1. Open Google Chrome, choose Tools –> Options (or Preferences) –> Under the Hood and sign-in to Google Cloud Print.
Step 2. Choose “Finish printer registration” and all printers attached to your computer can then be accessed over the Internet through Google Cloud Print.

B: Share your printer with friends

Step 3. Click “Manage your Printers”, select the Printers option and then highlight the Printer name that you would like to share with the outside world.
Step 4. Click the Share button, type the email addresses of your friends and Share. It is as easy as sharing a Google Docs document with someone in read-only mode.

C: How others can send print jobs?

Step 5: Your friend, with whom you have shared the print, should log on togoogle.com/cloudprint using their Google Account and accept the “shared printer.”
Step 6. Next they hit the big “Print” button on the Cloud Print website, upload a file and print using the shared printer. That’s it.
Once they print a file, you should see a new print job on your computer in the next ten seconds or so. Your friend can send files for printing from the mobile phone as well.
This method doesn’t require any complicated networking and since everything works inside the browser, it doesn’t matter whether they are sending print jobs from a Windows, Mac or Linux machine. It just works!

Print Google Maps without a Computer



The new HP Printers are web-enabled and therefore let you print stuff from the Internet directly without requiring a computer.
This video show you can print driving directions from Google Maps on the printer and this will work even if there’s no PC at your place.
Not only street maps, you can also print the terrain or satellite view of Google Maps if you are going hiking.

How to Use Google Cloud Print from the Desktop


Google Cloud Print is a new service that will help you print emails, documents and other files from any mobile phone or computer that’s connected to the Internet.  You don’t need anyspecial hardware or print drivers – just a regular printer and a Windows computer that is running the latest version of Google Chrome browser.
cloud print enabled printers
It takes no more than a minute to setup Google Cloud Print.
Launch Google Chrome on your computer that’s connected to the printer and enable Cloud Print under the settings of Chrome (troubleshooting tips). Now open the Gmail mobile website on your phone, pick an email message and choose Print. You may also print individual file attachments that are attached to that message.
Use Google Cloud Print from the Desktop
Google Cloud Print, in its current form, has one major limitation – you can only send print jobs from an iPhone or an Android based mobile phone.
Won’t it be useful if you could also send print jobs to your printer from any other remote desktop or laptop computer over the Internet using Google Cloud Print itself?
One option is that you create your own email based printing setup using Dropbox – it will work with printers that are attached to WindowsMac or Linux machines and secondly, you can send print commands from any desktop or mobile device as long as it can send regular email.
Alternatively, you may change* the default user-agent string of your desktop browser to Android and enjoy all the features of Google Cloud Print from the desktop itself.
Step 1. Copy-paste the following command in the Windows Run box to launch Chrome disguised as an Android phone (replace <username> with your Windows username). If you are a Firefox user, simply use the User Agent Switcher extension to change the agent of your browser to Android.
Step 2. Now go to m.gmail.com in your browser, open any email message and choose Print as shown in the following screenshot. If you want to print documents, just send them to your Gmail inbox first and then to Cloud Print.
desktop - cloud print
[*] The steps listed about should be performed on the computer from where you wish to send print jobs to your Cloud Print enabled printer. It will work on all platforms as long as you can change the user-agent of your browser.

Export all your Google Docs Files with One Click



export google docs
Do you want to put all your Google Docs files on a USB drive before you take that road trip? The Google Docs website does offer an easy option to help you download all your documents in one zip file but there’s another simpler alterative that you may want to give a try– it’s called Google Takeout.
Once you have logged in to Google Takeout with your Google Account, select the Google Docs service and hit the “Create Archive” button. It will create a zip file with all your Google Docs files and you can either keep the browser window open while the archive is being readied or download that file later from the Google Takeout website.
Google Takeout will export your Google Documents in standard Office file formats by default – Excel for spreadsheets or PowerPoint for Presentations – but you also have an option to export files in either PDF or OpenOffice formats.
Google Takeout is part of dataliberation.org, a Google project that wants to make it easy for you to import and export data out of various Google products. The same tool may also be used to export your Picasa photos and Contacts data out of Google Servers though, surprisingly, it doesn’t offer Gmail export yet.
Coming back to Google Docs, here’s a quick video that shows how easy it is to export your Google Docs files using Google Takeout.

Stay Connected To Your Computer While on the Move


Q: All your documents, photos, MP3 music, and other files are on the home computer and you need a simple solution to help you access these files and folders from any other computer.
A. Leaf could be the ultimate solution – it’s a small software that you can install on the home computer as well as on other machines from where you want access content stored on the home computer. You can also invite friends to view (and even modify) your file folders.
share file foldersFiles are simply shared by selecting the folder then selecting the members of your network you wish to give access. The Leaf client looks like any other messenger software and you can even chat with friends in real-time with whom you are sharing your files.
And not just folders, Leaf can also be used for sharing network drives and printers – that means you can send print jobs to the home computer even while you are miles away. The only condition is that the host computer must be on and connected to the Internet.
Download Leaf Client at leafnetworks.net