DocSyncer Unveils Public Beta

A few days back, David posted the tantalizing news about DocSyncer, which syncs your Microsoft Office documents with Google Docs. Alas, the service was in private beta testing at the time, meaning you had to request an invitation. As of today, however, DocSyncer has reached public beta status, meaning anyone with an e-mail address (and Google Docs account, natch) can have at it.

DocSyncer supports a wide variety of file types, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF, HTML, and OpenOffice. (I didn’t find out about the OpenOffice support, which isn’t mentioned anywhere on DocSyncer’s home page, until just now. Kinda kills the need for the OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension I mentioned the other day.)

Unfortunately, during this beta phase, only your Desktop and My Documents folders can be synced. I keep the bulk of my Office files elsewhere, so I can’t yet take full advantage of DocSyncer. That’s a shame, because I’m really excited about this service. In fact, I’ll be surprised if Google doesn’t buy it outright, as it has the potential to take Google Docs to the next level.

By Rick Broida – BNet

DocSyncer – https://www.docsyncer.com/

How to Add Your Signature to PDFs

Ever need to “sign” a PDF, meaning insert your signature in a document as though you’d handwritten it? Productivity501 shows how you can sign PDFs using Adobe Acrobat’s stamping feature:

It turns out you can import an image file and use it as a stamp as well. If you follow the instructions from our post about how to create a scanned signature, you’ll find it imports nicely. The transparent background lets you sign on a line without covering it up.

See the post for more complete instructions — and keep in mind that this stamping option will work only if the document in question supports commenting. Still, between this and the option to remember the last PDF page you viewed, I’m seriously considering going back to Acrobat. It may be bloated, but it offers several compelling features over Foxit Reader. Hmmm. Photo by TonivS.

By Rick Broida – BNet

Using Acrobat to Sign Documents

Acrobat is capable of doing two types of signatures. Technically the best way is using a digital signature. Not only can the signature show that you signed it, but it can also prove that the document wasn’t changed after you signed it. If you deal with a lot of people who use digital signatures, this is a great way to go.

Personally when I sign something it is usually to fax or mail. While I like the digital signature idea I just don’t interact with enough people who could actually use it.

Originally I was signing documents in Acrobat by creating my own digital signature and then attaching an image to the signature. Acrobat will use the image anywhere you place the digital signature so things look normal when you print it.

While this works, it can take a bit of effort to setup. You have to generate a public and private key and then import them into Acrobat, etc. Also when you sign something Acrobat adds an additional graphic showing that it is a digital signature. This doesn’t show up when you print it, but it can be confusing for someone who gets the PDF.

Today I discovered another feature in Acrobat called “stamps”. This is a way to stamp parts of the document with an image like “Confidential”, “Past Due”, “Top Secret”, etc. You simply select the stamp and then you can go through your document just like you would with a rubber stamp.

It turns out you can import an image file and use it as a stamp as well. If you follow the instructions from our post about how to create a scanned signature, you’ll find it imports nicely. The transparent background lets you sign on a line without covering it up.

Once you apply the stamp you can use the tool to resize it or move it around for better placement.

To import your signature as a stamp go to Tools > Commenting > Stamps > Create Custom Stamps.

I am using Acrobat 7 Standard. If you are using a different version there is probably a slightly different process.

by Mark Shead – Productivity501.com

Outsource Your Mail Room

If you’re a frequent business traveler, you know the feeling of returning to a house full of junk mail and unpaid bills. For a monthly fee (starting at $10), there’s a clever way around this: Redirect your mail to an Earth Class Mail. At their facility, they send scans of your envelopes to your email address. From there, you can have the mail destroyed, sent to your home, or opened and scanned and emailed to you.

If you’re a privacy nut (which I’m obviously not), then this service is not for you. But if you’re not—and you’re away from home a lot—it seems like a great way to 1) cut down on junk mail in the house 2) get your mail when you’re traveling and 3) hold on to important records.

Check out the TechCrunch discussion to see some feedback from people who already use the service. In general, they seem pretty pleased.

By David Goldenberg – BNet

Using the Terminal Services through Internet Information Server

Although many administrators think of the Windows Terminal Services primarily as a mechanism for hosting user sessions, it can also be used as a very effective remote management tool. For example, if you need to work on a server that is not in close geographic proximity, you can use the Terminal Services as a way of remotely accessing the server’s console. It’s true that most of Windows Administrative Tools will allow you to manage a remote server, but the Terminal Services have the advantage of allowing you to see the remote server’s desktop. This is advantageous because sometimes there may be an error message displayed on the server’s screen and you would never see the message if you were accessing the server solely through Event Viewer, or one of the many other management tools.

The problem with establishing a Terminal Service session between your machine and a remote server is connectivity. Imagine for a moment that you are at home, in bed, blissfully asleep. The phone rings and wakes you up. You groggily notice that it’s 3:30 AM as the voice on the phone starts explaining to you that there is a problem with a server that’s in an office a hundred miles away.

At this point you’ve got a few choices. You could ignore the call, go back to sleep, and get fired (not a good choice to make). You could road trip it to the remote facility (not fun at 3:30 AM), or you could establish a Terminal Service session with the ailing server. This is where the connectivity issue comes into play. Your company probably has WAN links between the various offices, but that does you no good right now because you are at home. If your company has a VPN, you could establish a VPN connection and then establish a Terminal Service session over the VPN. Another alternative that most people seem to be unaware of however, is that you can interact with the Terminal Services over the Internet.

OK, before I get into the nitty gritty details, let’s stop for a reality check. From a security standpoint, making a Terminal Service session with your servers available over the Internet is probably a bad idea. A Web Based Terminal Service session isn’t completely insecure though. SSL encryption is an absolute requirement and anyone who connects must have a valid set of credentials that are authorized not just to log on, but to log on through the Terminal Services. You can also lock down IIS so that only machines with specific IP addresses are allowed to connect. There are dozens of other things that you can do to make the server more secure, but the thought of being able to remotely control my server through the Internet still makes me a little nervous.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take advantage of the ability to use the Terminal Services over the Internet though. If you feel comfortable making your server available through the Web then go for it. If you’re like me and you don’t feel comfortable doing that, then you can use the same technique and the same security measures to make the server available across your corporate Intranet.

What good does that do? Well, let’s go back to my earlier example that involved you sitting in front of your computer at home in your pajamas in the middle of the night. Rather than driving to the office or to the remote facility, you could dial into your remote access server at the office and then use a Web browser to establish a Terminal Service session with the Remote facility.

Right now you might be wondering why you would ever go through all that trouble when the Windows Remote Desktop client is actually a Terminal Service client. True, you could dial in and use the Remote Desktop client to establish a Terminal Server session without ever having to install the remote access Web component. Still, there are at least a couple of reasons why it’s a good idea to have the Web component on hand. First of all, the Remote Desktop client comes with Windows XP. If you happen to have an old PC at home that’s still running Windows 98, then your machine won’t have a Remote Desktop client. Another reason for using the Web interface rather than the Remote Desktop client is that depending on how your network is set up, firewalls may prevent you from using the Remote Desktop client. The Remote Desktop client communicates across port 3389. If there is a firewall anywhere between you and the server that’s having the problem, that doesn’t have this port open then you are out of luck. The Web interface for the Terminal Services also uses port 3389, but you can reconfigure it to use any port number that you want.

Setting up Web Based Remote Administration

Now that I have talked about some of the philosophies behind Web based Terminal Service access, let’s take a look at the setup process. The component that does all the work is technically known as Remote Administration through HTML (formerly known as the Terminal Services Advanced Client (TSAC) in Windows 2000 Server)

Begin by selecting the Add / Remove Programs option from the Control Panel. When the Add / Remove Programs applet starts, click the Add / Remove Windows Components button. This will cause Windows to display a list of Windows components that you can install. Select the Application Server option and click the Details button. Select the Internet Information Service (IIS) option and click Details again. Now, select the World Wide Web Service from the list and click Details one more time. At this point, select the Remote Administration (HTML) check box , as shown in Figure A, and then click OK three times, followed by Next. Windows will now install the necessary files. You may be prompted to insert your Windows installation CD, so be sure to keep it handy. When installation completes, click Finish.

Figure A: Select the Remote Administration (HTML) check box

Now that you have installed the necessary files, select the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager command from Windows’ Administrative Tools menu. When the IIS Manager console opens, navigate through the console tree to Internet Information Services | your server | Web Sites | Administration. Now, right click on the Administration Web site and select the Properties command from the resulting shortcut menu to see the Administration site’s properties sheet. Now, select the Web Site tab and make note of the port numbers that are listed for the TCP and the SSL port. The default values for the TCP port and the SSL port are 8099 and 8098 respectively, as shown in Figure B. If you need to change the port numbers because of the way that your firewalls are set up, this is where you do it at. Now, select the Directory Security tab and click the Edit button found in the IP Address and Domain Name Restrictions section. If you want to restrict Terminal Service access by IP address, then this is where you would enter the addresses that you want to either allow or block. Click OK when you are done.

Figure B: The default values for the TCP port and the SSL port are 8099 and 8098 respectively

Now, let’s look at how to manage the server through a Web browser. Open Internet Explorer and enter HTTPS:// followed by the server’s IP address, a colon, and the port number. For example, https://192.168.0.1:3389 When you do, you will be prompted to log into the server. You must use an account with administrative credentials. After logging in, the Administration Web site will be displayed. To initiate a Terminal Service session, click on the Maintenance link found on the blue bar along the top, and then click the Remote Desktop button. Internet Explorer will install the necessary ActiveX component and the remote desktop will be displayed within a browser window, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C: Enter HTTPS:// followed by the server’s IP address, a colon, and the port number to access the Terminal Services over the Web

Conclusion

Setting up Web based Terminal Service access is not without risk. However, when properly secured, Web based Terminal Service access can be an extremely valuable management tool.

by Brien M. Posey – MSTerminalServices.org

Handing Out Business Cards – You Mean There’s a Guide for That, too?

Handing out business cards is one of the most annoying things that you can do to another person. Neil attended a lunch-n-learn session on Networking in his building last year. As some people entered the room they made a performance of putting their business card in front of each of the other attendees in the room and the empty seats in the room. Neil’s eyes scanned left then right to see what other people were doing with the cards as he wondered, “Should I be distributing my business cards?” Of the 12 people at the session, 6 had piled their cards in front of him. What is he going to do with those? What would you do with them?

Neil was doing the best thing by seeing that he connected with someone before exchanging cards with them.

Putting your business card in someone’s hand before you have a good reason is:

• Confusing. Why are you giving a total stranger your card?
• Useless. Without some sort of credibility there is no reason for the recipient to keep your card.
• Wasteful. Is there is a possible return on the investment of even this little inexpensive card?
• Risky. You might just be offering your contact information to someone who wants to recruit your for their multi-level marketing project and now you’re on their recruiting list.
• Good for firestarting. Most people could start a blaze with the box of ‘dead’ business cards they have around their office. But is that why you gave them your card? People just don’t throw out the cards of people who handed it to them but they don’t do anything with them either.
• Misguided. Someone along your career path said, “Get your card into as many hands as possible, you never know what will come of it.” Come on people, nothing will come of it. That’s the ‘throw it on the wall and see what sticks’ technique. You appear desperate doing this.

The key to good form when handing out your business card is the mindset of exchanging cards. You’re offering your card as a second step to connecting with another person. The first step is talking so you find that you have something in common, a follow-up action to take, or other connector. Similarly, you’re asking for someone’s business card because you have something he values to give to him. That something could be business, information, a referral, or other useful thing. Using this approach you might walk away with only one or two cards from a business gathering. However, they represent the start of real relationships not just passing of paper.

When you’ve determined that you have a reason to exchange cards with someone you could do the following:

• Initiate the exchange by saying, “May I have one of your cards? I’d like to get an article to you and this will ensure that I do.”
• If you’ve only had conversations on the phone with someone
  (the initial connection) and are seeing them face-to-face for the first
  time it is appropriate to offer your card as you’re shaking hands. This
  verifies you are who they expected and is a touch of credibility.
• State: “It sounds like I could help you by introducing you
  to my accountant. Why don’t you give me your card and I’ll write an
  email making the connection.”
• Suggest you’ll call to follow-up on your conversation so,
  “Let me give you my card and I’d like one of yours. When I have my
  calendar in front of me we’ll find a day in the next two weeks to have
  breakfast.”

Finally, it is possible that you should just skip exchanging cards. If someone interests you be thorough in getting their name and employer. Then, do a Google search, locate him, and write a thoughtful email as follow-up. Business cards are a method of communicating and exchanging information you must follow-up with cards you receive or they are valueless. But that’s the topic of a different article.

by ProductivityCafe.com

Use Color-Coding to Highlight Important E-Mail

Hot on the heels of the excellent suggestion to use rules to simplify your Outlook inbox, Productivity Cafe’s Susan Sabo serves up another valuable tip: Use color-coding to make important e-mail stand out and grab your attention.

For example, you could configure Outlook to automatically “colorize” messages that come from your boss or a client. Assign another color to mail received from team members, and so on. (Obviously you don’t want to go overboard with the color-coding, lest your inbox turn into something resembling a box of crayons. Limit yourself to two or three colors.)

See the complete post for details on setting up color coding in Outlook; it’s an extremely simple process. (Outlook Express and Thunderbird users can accomplish more or less the same thing using message rules.) For my part, all new messages I get from my beloved editors will be coded red so they get immediate action! (That’s right: I know how to suck up.)

By Rick Broida – BNet

Outlook Feature Most of Us Should Use – Color Coding

What does a red color-coded sign or folder mean to you? Many of us think ‘Urgent’ or ‘Stop’ or ‘Hot’. We know that our attention is needed for something. We can use red to mean that when an emali has arrived in your inbox from a VIP. Usually my clients make the emails from their boss and/or key customers turn red when they arrive. Then, the red-titled emails get their attention right away.

Similarly, team leaders color-code the emails from their team members so they stand out from their general correspondence.

Other times you might want to color-code are:

• Personal messages
• From financial institutions (green representing money for this group)
• Vendors & suppliers
• Particular Projects

Remembers, usually it’s best to move emails into related folders. That’s explained in this post: Moving Emails in Outlook. For those emails that still make it to your inbox color-coding will catch your eye and increase your productivity and effectiveness in handling the most important messages.

Here are the steps to color code your messages in Outlook 2002/3:

1. Click on the email message you want to use as the example for the colorizing. For example,

1. you might want all messages from Susan Mrugal (your boss) to turn red.
2. Click on tools then organize.
3. A box ‘Ways to Organize Inbox’ will open. This menu will appear like this:
   

4. Click on Using Colors along the left margin.
5. Select the from / to in the first box to the right of ‘Color message’ drop down menu.
6. Select the color (red in this example) for these messages from the drop-down menu.
7. Click Apply Color.
8. Verify that the color coding was done by looking in your Inbox.
9. You’re done!

by ProductivityCafe.com