Posts Tagged: ‘Word Editing’

WordHippo Website Review (2024-01)

January 24, 2024 Posted by Tiny

This month I’d like to tell you about a website that I use nearly every day.  I do a lot of writing.  LibreOffice and Scribus are the two main programs I use to edit most of the written material.  The WordHippo is the site I use for tools to (hopefully) help me do a better job with my content.

WordHippo was originally launched in 2008 as a site to find rhyming words.  It has evolved to include a thesaurus, dictionary, antonyms, word finder and many other word tools.  There are many sites on the internet that do these things.  This is the only one I have found where everything is on one easy to navigate page.

A complete list of word actions include:
• Synonyms – the thesaurus is the default home page.
• Antonyms – gives an extensive list of opposite words.
• Definitions – a pretty much standard dictionary.
• Rhymes – it even almost found a rhyme for purple.
• Sentences – gives several examples of word usage.
• Translations – only translates to and from 99 languages (some that I’ve never heard of).
• Word Unscramble – there are a lot of filters in this section.
• Find Words – you can select the number of letters and find words for Words With Friends, Scrabble and Crosswords. You can specify starting or ending letters. There are many more finding functions.
• Word Forms – finds plurals, past tense, present tense and more.
• Pronunciations – reads words and sentences aloud.

For the most part, the website is easy to use.  It utilizes a tabbed layout.  Entering a word in one section usually carries over to the other functions.  I turned off my ad blocker for the site.  There was only one advertisement on the right side of my monitor.  There are apps for both iOS and Android.  I haven’t tested them.

Give Word Hippo a try.  Everything is free and there are no up‑sells for a paid version.

Thanks for reading.

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Categories: Thoughts From a Clicker

Scribus Review (2023-11)

October 29, 2023 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Do you send out an annual Christmas letter to all of your relatives?  Do you like to make personalized greeting cards and party invitations?  Do you make a lot of posters?  Are you writing the next great novel?  Would you like to make your own personal calendar?  Would you like to edit the Cajun Clickers Computer Club Newsletter?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you probably need some good desktop publishing software.  There are many programs you could buy: Microsoft Publisher, PrintMaster, The Print Shop and PagePlus, to name a few of the more well known ones.  These programs will set you back anywhere from forty to two hundred dollars or more.  Like much other software, some of them are purchased via subscription.

If you’re thrifty like me, you could download and use an open source program that does everything the paid programs do and more.  I’ve been using Scribus Open Source Desktop Publishing to edit and publish the club newsletter since I replaced Pat as the editor.  I’ve been a Scribus user for more than ten years now.  I’ve come to think of the program as a word processor on steroids.

With Scribus you can create single or multi-page documents which can be single or double sided.  You can also create three or four fold documents for making brochures.  After your document is created, you simply have to insert text or image frames.  All the frames can be re‑sized, dragged and dropped or copy and pasted, etc.  You can also enter your data directly on the page, but it is much easier to create a frame.

Although I haven’t used all of the features, you can also insert render tables, frames, tables, shapes and much more.  There is also an insert barcode option.  I might research that feature in the future.  Wouldn’t it be cool to be reading a newsletter article and scan a barcode to get more information?

A search of the internet will yield several sites where you can find free templates for everything from creating a comic book or magazine to printing your own newspaper.  You can also create and save your own templates.

I’ve done that for the newsletter.  Every month, several of the pages are nearly the same.  I just load the template, change the dates, meeting information, speaker’s biography, etc.  Then it is just a matter of inserting articles, pictures, web site charts, etc.  My template is twelve pages, but it is a simple mouse click on the menu to add, delete or rearrange pages as needed.

There are a few other things about Scribus you should know.  If you want to use the print preview, you have to install the interpreter Ghostscript.  Ghostscript is a non-harmful open source program, but it is more software on your computer.  Scribus will work without Ghostscript, but is more useful when it is installed.

Scribus has a medium difficulty learning curve.  Most items are intuitive and work much like any word processor.  Others are not.  For instance, to insert a hyperlink, you have to highlight the text and then select “Insert PDF Text Field”.  Then the inserted field has to be edited and the hyperlink inserted.  It was a pain in the you know what at first, but after about the tenth time, it became second nature.  For everything I have had difficulty with, it has been easy to find help and solutions in either the Scribus Wiki or an internet search.

Scribus is open source with versions for Windows, Mac, Linux and some other Operating Systems.  There is also a portable version.  You can download the software at Get Scribus.  If you have a need for desktop publishing software, give it a try.  The cost is zero dollars, plus tax.

Thanks for reading.

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Categories: Thoughts From a Clicker

PDF-Echange Editor (2023-04)

March 19, 2023 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Did you ever notice how the default programs in Windows often aren’t always the best?  The default PDF Editor is the Microsoft Edge browser.  It is pretty basic.  It is adequate for reading PDFs and making minor changes.

There are a lot of good alternative PDF viewers.  The one that I usually use is PDF‑Xchange Editor from Tracker Software.  Its design is clear and easy to use.  The program has different tools for working with documents including typing text and editing, drawing diagrams, creating stamps, underscoring and styles, entering commentaries, notes and more.  In fact, I haven’t personally used every free editing feature.

Here is a partial list of free features:
● Full Document Spellchecker
● Multi-Language document OCR
● Full Page Text Content Editing
● OCR image based/scanned PDF to fully text searchable PDF files
● Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings)
● Mark-up pages with text and objects
● Type directly on any PDF page
● Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats
● Extract text from a PDF page/File
● Fill and Save forms to disk, email or ‘post’
● Full Java-script engine included
● Plug-Ins for major browser
● Auto Highlight Fillable Form Fields
● Document Search
● Add/Edit Hyperlinks to pages
● Support for PDF File Attachments
● Send PDF files via email from viewer
● Undo/Redo functionality for text editor
● Add/Edit/Move Bookmarks

You can also extract or delete entire pages from a long PDF file and embed new content like text, images, blank pages or entire PDF documents.  PDF‑Xchange Editor can also convert documents between PDF and Word formats.  It even includes an OCR (optical character recognition) for converting scanned documents into editable text.  Note: I haven’t tested the OCR.

Installation is simple and fast.  When you run the program, you get every feature of the licensed program.  When clicking on various items, a pop‑up window opens and informs you if you are attempting to use an enhanced feature.  You can still use the feature, but any pages will be watermarked.  This is a subtle method of getting you to purchase a license.  If you do a lot of PDF editing, it might be a worthwhile purchase.

Like many programs, there is a “free” and licensed option.  Very few free editors will let you add new content to documents.  This alone is a good reason to make it your new default app for PDFs.  You can download PDF‑Xchange Editor from the publishers web site.  It is only available for Windows.

Thanks for reading.

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Categories: Thoughts From a Clicker

PDF-Echange Editor – Originally Published November 2018

November 4, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Did you ever notice how the default programs in Windows often aren’t always the best?  Take Adobe PDF Reader as an example.  It is a program that likes to use a lot of memory and run all the time, even when you aren’t using it.  Adobe usually installs unwanted programs when you do updates, changes your system settings and many other things that you may not want.

There are a lot of good alternative PDF viewers.  The one that I usually use is PDF‑Xchange Editor from Tracker Software.  This program is the successor to the PDF‑Xchange Viewer.  Its design has been totally overhauled, making it much clearer and easier to use.  The program is easy to use with many different tools for working with documents including typing text and editing it, drawing diagrams, creating stamps, underscoring and styles, entering commentaries, notes and more.  In fact, I haven’t personally used every free editing feature.

Here is a partial list of free features:
● Full Document Spellchecker
● Multi-Language document OCR
● Full Page Text Content Editing
● OCR image based/scanned PDF to fully text searchable PDF files
● Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings)
● Mark-up pages with text and objects
● Type directly on any PDF page
● Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats
● Extract text from a PDF page/File
● Fill and Save forms to disk, email or ‘post’
● Full Java-script engine included
● Plug-Ins for major browser
● Auto Highlight Fillable Form Fields
● Document Search
● Add/Edit Hyperlinks to pages
● Support for PDF File Attachments
● Send PDF files via email from viewer
● Undo/Redo functionality for text editor
● Add/Edit/Move Bookmarks

You can also extract or delete entire pages from a long PDF file and embed new content like text, images, blank pages or entire PDF documents.  PDF‑Xchange Editor can also convert documents between PDF and Word formats.  It even includes an OCR (optical character recognition) for converting scanned documents into editable text.  Note: I haven’t tested the OCR.

One of my favorite features is the tabbed interface.  This feature comes in handy for things like when I edit the “History” column for the club newsletter.  I can open all the PDF newsletter files for a given month and easily shift from one to another for viewing.  If I want to repeat an item from an older newsletter, the copy and past feature makes it easy for me to “cheat”.  You can also extract and/or export individual pages or the entire document.

Installation is simple and fast.  When you run the program, you get every feature of the licensed program.  When clicking on various items, a pop‑up window opens and informs you if you are attempting to use an enhanced feature.  You can still use the feature, but any pages will be watermarked.  This is a subtle method of getting you to purchase a license.  If you do a lot of PDF editing, it might be a worthwhile purchase.

Like many programs, there is a “free” and licensed option.  Very few free editors will let you add new content to documents.  This alone is a good reason to make it your new default app for PDFs.  You can download PDF‑Xchange Editor from the publishers web site.  There is only a Windows version.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Categories: Lagniappe