Search For The Manual You Need With Manuals Online

I used to keep all my owner manuals for everything. Starting with my original Nintendo Entertainment System way back when. Now I just mail in my warranty card and chuck the manual.
No I am not a mad man or a lunatic – it is simply a different time we live in than back then. Now almost anything can be found on the internet – and Manuals Online has you covered when it comes to owner manuals and user guides.
When you arrive at the site you will see something that looks like this:

To search for a product enter its name or model number into the search field. A generic search will give you LOTS of results and a model number will usually result in one or two items. I decided to search for a DustBuster. I typed in Dustbuster and hit Search.

I got back 4 items for four different models. You can download the manual as a PDF, save it to your folder on their website (requires registration), you can also view forum discussions about your item as well.

I got a little more specific and typed in Sony Play Station 2. I got a few results and chose the model I was looking for. I was then able to preview the owner manual and eventually downloaded it.  I could also ask members for help or share information about the product.
You can see below the item’s additional product literature. In this case it looks like the quick start guide but it can vary from product to product.

Upon opening the document it will display the PDF in your browser. You can also save the file by right clicking on the link and choosing “save target as”.

Alright so who’s ready to go clean out their attic/filing cabinet?  Do you have another slick trick when it comes to dealing with owners manuals? If so we would love to hear about it in the comments! Now I have to get back to some old school gaming

Merge lots of PDFs into a single file with PDFMerge

Overview:

PdfMerge was written to fill the need for producing large PDF documents from multiple sources in an automated way.


Features:

• Allows the split and merge process to be driven from a list file
• Allows the creation of bookmark trees by specifying bookmarks to be added (bookmarks are also called outlines)
• Allows the import of bookmarks from the merged documents.
• Supports merging of large documents quickly
• Allows population of document title fields

Review:

If for some reason you need to be able to merge several PDFs together then PDFMerge is just what you are looking for. like the name says you can take any number of PDF documents and merge them into a single file. you can select the pages and bookmarks that will be merged which is very useful in keeping control of the output. Unfortunately it appears that this program can't merge password protected files which is a shame but i guess its understandable. PDFMerge is a great program for the merging of PDF files that just works. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.


Get it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfmerge/

Create a PDF with only images using Graphics2PDF

Overview:

Free PDF file creator. Convert your images to PDF document. Supported formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF.

Drag'n'drop your image files into Graphics2PDF, then click "Save as PDF". That's it.

Review:

If for some reason you need to put only images into a PDF then Graphics2PDF is just the program for the task at hand. Simply drag and drop the images that you desire inside Graphics2PDF's window and rearrange them using the arrows located below them. Then simply click" save as pdf" to get your PDF document with the images you selected. Graphics2PDF is very easy to use and just works as it should so if you are ever in the need for making a PDF full of images then Graphics2PDF is what you are looking for.

Get it at http://www.imposant.com/products/image2pdf.htm

Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 for Windows now works with Firefox

While Adobe may have been the driving force behind the PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader has grown to be a bloated application which can take an excruciatingly long time to load. One of my favorite alternatives is Foxit Reader, which can open most PDF files in just a second or two, while providing many of the same features you'd expect from Adobe Acrobat Reader, like the ability to fill in text boxes or open password protected documents.

Last week the Foxit team released version 3.0, with a ton of updates. Possibly the most exiciting is a plugin for Firefox that lets you open documents in your web browser. Adobe has offered this feature for ages, but again, it often takes forever to load. To be honest, the Foxit plugin isn't exactly a speed demon. You may find it faster to download some files and open them in the desktop version of Foxit Reader. But it's nice to have the option of opening them in your browser.

Here are a few other new features:

• Thumbnail previews of each page
• Attachment panel shows list of files attached to a PDF and allows you to open, delete, or perform other actions on them
• The text select tool now also lets you add annotations like highlights, strikeout, or underline
• You can transfer your preference settings by copying an INI file
• New Foxit OnDemand Content Management add-on allows users to share and collaborate on documents online

You can find a complete list of updates in the Foxit 3.0 release notes.

PDFMeNot Offers Flash-based Online Viewing

When people think about the most irritating apps on their computer, Adobe Reader usually shows up on the list. Our readers tend to think the alternatives (like Foxit) are the way to go, and I couldn't agree more.

That's why I decided to give PDFMeNot's web app a try. I'm a Foxit user, but I really don't use PDF files that often. If PDFMeNot works well, that's one more app I can leave off my flash drive. Also, I enjoy the irony of thinking that I'm getting away from Adobe, when really I'm just choosing Flash over Reader.

Damn it. You win again, Adobe.

I did a quick Google search and located an unclassified Air Force finance report, and dropped in the URL. It took a little bit (about three minutes or so, but it was a 728-page report) for the document to be displayed, but once it was up it worked nicely.

The developers are nice enough to offer a tools page, where you'll find a bookmarklet, Firefox extension, and even code to embed the viewer on your own page.

Since it only functions as a viewer and I can't print from it, I'll be sticking with Foxit portable. I will, however, keep PDFMeNot filed away for days when I forget my flash drive somewhere.