Scrolling Window Capture in Firefox using Solid Capture

Solid Capture Screen Capture has a wonderful feature called Scrolling Window Capture. It allows you to capture an entire web page as a single image. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in Internet Explorer and not Firefox.

So what are our customers who prefer using Firefox over IE left to do (besides use IE)? One good workaround we've found is using IE Tab to view Internet Explorer inside of a tab in Firefox. You can then use Solid Capture to take a screen shot of the IE tab in Firefox. When you're done taking the screen shot you can change the tab back to Firefox and keep working.

At the time of this writing the latest version of the add-on that works with Firefox 2 is 1.3.3.20070528 (try saying that five times fast). You can download it from here.

The product is a little short on instructions, but it isn't hard to use. When you're at a page that you want to view in IE, click the IE Tab button on your toolbar to switch to IE. When you want to switch the tab back, click the IE Tab button again.


(The IE Tab button in Firefox)

It may install itself automatically for people, but when we tested it we didn't see any extra buttons appear on our navigation toolbar like it does in the above image.

We were able to add it by going into Firefox | View | Toolbars | Customize. Click and drag the IE Tab button to your toolbar of choice to place the button. You can click the IE Tab button whenever you need to open a page in Firefox in Internet Explorer.

Capturing Screen Shots of Video using VLC Media Player

Occasionally customers will contact us asking how to take screen shots from moments in their favorite DVDs.

Although Solid Capture Screen Capture is very good for capturing screen shots of most Windows applications, one thing it doesn't do well is capture still images of video. This is due to the fact that it does not capture DirectX output.

We've found that using VLC media player works well for this application. Instructions on how to take screen shots of video in the program can be found here.

Convert a folder of PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF

Our last post focused on quickly converting multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF to Word. But what if you have dozens or even hundreds of PDF files in a folder that you need to convert to DOC? This kind of situation may call for a batch file.

What is a batch file? Simply put, a batch file is a script that can control programs on your computer. Solid Converter PDF has several options that can be controlled via batch files, including converting PDF files to DOC.

Convert all of the PDF files in a folder to DOC

To see this in action open up Notepad (Start | All Programs | Accessories | Notepad) and copy the two lines below into a blank page:

set scpdf="c:\Program Files\SolidDocuments\SolidConverterPDF\SCPDF\SolidConverterPDF.exe"
for %%p in (*.pdf) do %scpdf% /i ./%%p /n

Next, save the file in a folder that contains PDF files that you want to convert to DOC. We recommend using a name ending in .bat such as bulk_pdf_converter.bat.

You can then open My Computer, browse to the batch file you just made and double click it. A command prompt will appear and Solid Converter PDF will attempt to convert all of the PDF files that are in the same folder at the batch file to DOC.

More Information

If you want to learn about the command line options of Solid Converter PDF please visit the documentation page for it. You can learn more about batch files at http://www.computerhope.com/batch.htm.

PDF Timesavers: Convert Multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF

Normally in Solid Converter PDF you'll use a wizard menu to convert PDF files to DOC. As you progress through this wizard many conversion options will be made available to you. This is useful if you convert PDF files infrequently, as it reminds you what options are available and provides an idea of what they do.

The downside to this is that if you have to convert several files (5, 10 or even more) you have to click through the wizard for each and every PDF file. This obviously isn't optimal.

A better solution is to disable the wizard in Solid Converter PDF to Word when you need to convert several PDF files to DOC. You can then select a range of PDF files in a folder and convert them all at once.

Convert Multiple PDF files to DOC using Solid Converter PDF:

1. Open Solid Converter PDF and go into Options General Uncheck "Use Wizard" and "Launch Editor", then click OK.

2. Browse to a folder with several PDF files, use ctrl+click to select the PDF files you wish to convert and click the Convert button:



3. Select the folder you wish to place the converted Word DOCs and click OK. Your PDF files will be automatically converted to DOC.

If you're happy with the conversion you may wish to go back into the Options menu and re-enable the options you disabled in step 1.

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Password Protect an Existing PDF File

This comparison focuses on encrypting and password protecting an existing PDF file using Solid PDF Creator Plus and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.

Both applications are more than up to the task. However, using the default settings of Adobe Acrobat require that you click through many popup windows to accomplish your goal.

Solid PDF Creator Plus is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes to accomplish a task, while at the same time protecting the end user from doing something that they may regret (overwriting an existing PDF file, making a typo in a password, providing undo wherever practical, etc.).

Please note that there are ways to crack password protection in PDF files. Although there is no perfect way to protect a PDF file, following the instructions below should protect your PDF file from most end users.


Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open the PDF file you wish to protect in Solid PDF Creator Plus.

2. Go into Document | Document Properties | Security:



3. Check "Require user password to open the document":



4. Type in the password you want to secure the document with twice and click OK.

5. Save the file.

Your file will now require that you supply the password you entered in order to open it.


Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open the PDF file you wish to protect in Adobe Acrobat.

2. Go into Advanced | Security | Password Encrypt:



3. Click Yes:



4. Check "require a password to open the document".

5. Type in the password you want to secure the document with and click OK:



6. In the popup window that appears, type in the password again and click OK.

7. Click OK:



8. Save the file.

Your file will now require that you supply the password you entered in order to open it.

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Extracting Pages from a PDF File

This comparison focuses on extracting pages 1-10 and 20-30 from a PDF file and placing it in a new PDF file.

Why would you want to do this? You might have a price list or catalog that you want to customize for a customer. Or you might have some documentation that is rather large and you only need to refer to certain sections of it. Whatever your reason you can use both Solid PDF Creator Plus and Adobe Acrobat to accomplish this goal.

Adobe Acrobat allows you to do this with some effort. You need to extract each set of pages as PDF files, save them and then use a wizard to combine them into a single PDF file. In Solid PDF Creator Plus you simply select the page range you want to extract and in one easy step the pages are extracted into one PDF file ready to be saved. As a result performing this task in Solid PDF Creator Plus is both simpler and faster than in Adobe Acrobat.

Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open the original PDF file in Solid PDF Creator Plus:



2. Go into Document | Extract Pages:



3. Select the page range (1-10,20-30) and click OK:



4. Your new PDF file will open in Solid PDF Creator Plus:



5. Save it if you are happy with it.


Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open the original PDF file in Adobe Acrobat:



2. Go into Document | Extract Pages:



3. Select a page range of 1-10 and click OK:



4. A new PDF file will appear in a new Adobe Acrobat Window. Save the file and close it:



5. Back in the original PDF file go into Document | Extract Pages.

6. Select a page range of 20-30 and click OK:



7. Save the second new file and close it:



8. Click Combine Files:



9. Click Add Files, select the files you extracted in the window that appears and click Add Files:



10. Select your compression options and click Next:



11. Select Merge files into a single PDF and click Create:



12. Review your new PDF file. Assuming that you're happy with it click Save:



13. Name your file and click Save:

Adobe Acrobat vs. Solid PDF Creator Plus: Combining Two PDF Files

This comparison focuses on combining two PDF files using either Adobe Acrobat or Solid PDF Creator Plus. The steps below could just as easily apply to combining five or ten PDF files, as the process is the same for both products.

Adobe Acrobat uses a wizard to perform the task, while Solid PDF Creator Plus uses a docked menu. With Solid PDF Creator Plus you can either set your preferred settings or accept the default ones and then quickly create PDF files. Adobe Acrobat requires you to go through the entire wizard each time you need to combine a PDF file.


Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional:

1. Open Adobe Acrobat and click Combine Files:



2. Click Add files and add the files you wish to combine:





3. Select the compression options you wish to use and click Next:



4. Select Merge files into a single PDF and click Create:



5. Click Save:



6. Select the name and location of the PDF file and click Save:



The new PDF file will be saved and opened in Adobe Acrobat:



Solid PDF Creator Plus:

1. Open Solid PDF Creator Plus and click Create or Combine PDF files:



2. Browse to the files you wish to combine, select them and click Open:



3. Ensure that Combine is checked, then click Create:



4. The new PDF file will be created and opened in Solid PDF Creator Plus:



Assuming that you're happy with it, save it.