At https://officialandreascy.blogspot.com, the editorial team likes to keep tabs on the software they review, to keep giving you the latest and the best out of the tools we showcase. It’s about helping you work digitally and more productively.
In this case, it’s all about working efficiently with PDF documents and for that, we’ve got an update on Able2Extract Professional, the PDF suite we’ve reviewed before that lets you fill and edit PDF forms, and complete a range of other PDF tasks.
The new advanced features in this latest version, are opening users up to working better than ever with PDF files. Here’s a look at the newest major features.
Sign PDFs With Electronic And Digital Signatures
Nowadays, when your workload is completely done by computer, the hard copy tasks you normally performed physically, like signing documents, are now done digitally. The new Able2Extract Professional 14 now includes the ability to add electronic and digital signatures to PDF files with a few clicks.
Electronic image signatures are easily inserted by typing them in, drawing them out or importing a signature image. Digital cryptographic signatures are added by signing a PDF, and then attaching a digital certificate to it. All of this is done through a convenient side panel, no other application needed.
This feature, fills the growing demand for highly secured documents. It’s a valuable addition to the file permissions, encryption, and protection passwords, Able2Extract Professional can already add to PDF documents.
Instantly Verify Digital Signatures
To complement the ability to sign PDFs, you can now also verify digital signatures. Able2Extract Professional does this in an extremely user-friendly way, allowing you to first visually confirm the status of a digital signature, with a quick glance at a padlock icon in the tab of an opened PDF file. Secondly, you can click on the digital signature in the side panel, to view the signature’s information. This lets you know if the PDF was altered after being signed.
Needless to say, knowing that the PDF you have, hasn’t been altered is a must in this day and age of data breaches and electronic documents exchanges. If your work is based on a lot of confidential and important files, you’ll be glad to have this feature.
AI-Powered PDF to Excel: Smart and Master Templates
Known for its Custom PDF to Excel conversion, Able2Extract Professional has long since given users the ability to manually adjust rows, columns and table structure selections to produce accurate conversion results in to Excel. Believe it or not, the developers have improved upon the feature with artificial intelligence technology.
This AI technology, lets you train custom Excel templates with a sampling of 5-10 PDF files that contain the selected table structures you want out of a PDF document. These trained Smart templates can then be used by Able2Extract, to automatically select all the similar tables in a PDF file on its own. After you load it, a click on the Convert button will convert all those same tables into a single spreadsheet.
AI-powered Master (Batch conversion) templates are similar in that you train them on PDF samples, but the difference is that you can also harness the power of a batch conversion with them. Just train an Excel template in Batch mode and then afterwards, you can apply that Master template to the applicable PDFs you line up for a batch conversion. The result is, an automatic and customized PDF to Excel batch conversion job.
Our Verdict
We were more than impressed with the capabilities of the software’s last version, and have to admit that this version is miles ahead of that. This tool is excellent at innovating and improving upon the PDF features it already has to offer.
If you liked everything we covered about Able2Extract Professional before, you’ll love this latest version. Again, you can test out the above features for yourself with a 7-day free trial.
For many years now, we’ve been seeing a gradual, but important shift in the way that people are educated. Gone are the days of notepads, pens and paper notes. Today, students are creating the content on their tablets, they are sending it across intranets, and they are engaging with the class, 24/7 through social media. This is referred to as asynchronous learning.
Far from being the distraction they were originally intended to be, though, digital devices are helping to re-shape the traditional dynamics of education as we know it — they are actually amplifying it.
So, what latest trends and changes can we expect to make a compelling difference to the market in the years to come?
Smart Tech
One of the most obvious innovations we have seen in recent years comes from the rather wonderful Smart technology industry. For example, one tool we might see used in academic study soon is IBM’s Watson device. Watson offers a high-end education tool that addresses and improves the way that people study. This is going to be very important for the long-term growth of the industry, as Watson is known to change the way that people collate data from masses of unmanaged data using artificial intelligence and sophisticated means of analysis.
This is very useful for making sure that the next generations can use technology to find answers that they would have otherwise never received. Even in more limited education functions, new AI toys could be used to manage the growth of younger children and make them more aware of certain interactions.
From making children more aware of their actions and the way they portray themselves, to full on educational aids, smart tech will ensure that the next generation always has a helping hand waiting for them.
The IoT and IoE
A significant element of the web is going to be the Internet of Things. We’re already changing the way we all link together and operate as one today, and the IoT will ensure that this continues. For example, the IoT will enable the rapid growth of virtual classroom learning. IoT will ultimately be a defining factor in shaping the future of the industry. Device interaction will improve and before long it will be easy to take the information garnered in the classroom right to our PCs back at home. The future of learning will involve possessing the means to transmit data as freely and as accurately as possible across the whole group.
Education will benefit from an added layer of depth to the IoT, in which people will be able to make the most of a learning system that brings together various aspects of their day-to-day lives.
More recently, another somewhat synonymous to IoT concept, introduced by CISCO is the Internet of Everything, defined as "the intelligent connection of people, process, data and things." This philosophy can inform a globalized, expanded notion of internet connections beyond machines. The latter can be meaningful for developing tools such as Educational Management Systems (EMS), which refer to managing the massive data of school records and other administrative functions across the globe, perhaps in a unified way.
VR and AR
Virtual reality and Augmented Reality took a very important step in 2018, with the mainstream release of many headsets by the likes of Sony and HTC leading the way, as well as more research-driven industry applications. Indeed, another option — the Google Cardboard— is expected to deliver exciting new ways of learning. It’s going to change the way that students investigate future careers, which is vital to shaping dreams.
For instance, a profession might sound amazing, but the reality could be very different. VR will re-shape how we evaluate the suitability of a student to take up such a profession. with simulations to estimate the performance of the person under a specific role. It will also help students to determine how suitable they are just by trying it out. Was it everything they thought it was going to be?
Such possibilities are explored in pilot studies and research experiments across the world. This type of VR and AR applications, will help students to avoid making the wrong choice early in life and failing to come back from it. Many students wind up in major debt, just trying to get into a career path that, when they “make it” resembles the opposite of what they had intended in the first place.
3D Printing
Another major element of education that is likely to change heavily in the near future is the power of 3D Printing. As one of the most powerful industries out there at the moment, it’s beginning to become a very popular way to learn for kids. Nowadays, children can get their hands on the kind of objects and instruments that previously they could only look at in books and dream of holding for real.
From the crown of a king, to the layout of a medieval weapon (blunted, obviously!) children could get a much more authentic appreciation of the world that they read about on the pages of book. This is dangerous, though, as it prevents children from appreciating the true gravity of what they are reading about. The day that 3D printing stops being so prohibitively expensive, will be a good day as it should help people to finally become involved in the industry, thus empowering and educating the next generation.
In Summary...
Whilst understanding the various challenges that the Internet and similar devices present to the education industry, the trends are already here. People are becoming more appreciative of the integration of technology into various forms of education, as most believe it will quickly help to make people more comfortable with technology, as well as working and living in a multimodal and digitally mediated society.
All of the above technological outputs, have been working their way into education for some time — it’s just a matter of time before they are more systematically implemented in classrooms worldwide. Each will play their part in determining a new dawn for education, which can only be a good thing, ensuring that future generations, receive the best and most relevant learning possible.
One of the most poignant discussions in the museum world, has been on issues of inclusion and access. Prolific museum figures like Nina Simon presenting in the recent Museum Next Conference in London, shared the vision behind OFBYFOR ALL, a new global initiative to help civic and cultural organisations become OF, BY, and FOR their communities. However, what is it that can help take the next step in terms of inclusion and learning within and out of museum grounds?
This article draws on a doctoral research study to investigate museum’s democratic potential, through transformative approaches to pedagogy aimed at meaningful cultural participation.
The ‘meaningful’, stands for a degree of competence in reading, interpreting and constructing meaning from the existing multiple forms of language (Stapp, 1984: 112; Mitchell, 2007: 3). ‘Participation’ involves an ability to negotiate the complex dialogic relationship that exists between the written word, the spoken word, images, objects, time and space (Mathewson-Mitchell, 2007: 3).
Consideration of issues of access in relation to the significant literacy requirements of museums, suggests that increasing focus on the explicit teaching of museum-based literacies, could be the way through which to expand museum visiting opportunities for the less 'conventional' audience.
It is actually proposed that museum-based literacies could act as the means to the development of cultural competence in museum environments. This evolution in theory and practice of, and about museums, has been notably part of radical changes in the museum world since the 1970s, mostly known as new museology.
Museums as Agents of Change
The development of a “new museology” (Mayrand, 1985: 201), is a concept used to describe the focus on the potential of museums as a positive social force. Golding (2009) suggests the museums should act as frontiers, places where learning and identity are produced and developed for all, while new ‘bridges’ are raised between non-dominant communities and their own histories (Philip, 1992 in Golding 2009).
It became profound that if museums accept their educational role, “they must also accept their social responsibility to work towards supporting a participatory democratic society” (Hein, 2005: 50). We need to “take advantage of the current context, as ‘opening new educational and social possibilities’ (Cope and Kalantzis, 2000: 18), to promote democratic education and human needs...” (Early, 2007: 67).
Changing Times, Changing Literacy
Ever since the 1960s, the nature of literacy practice and needs is changing; Hall (1989) suggests this is thought of as a consequence of New Times. New Times is an era of internalization, characterised by the breaking down of borders between local and global contexts resulting from rapid change in communicative practices (Gee, 2000: 183; Luke and Elkins, 1998).
One common element that has changed is that literacy has become inherently plural; thus researchers have problematized the very notion of literacy as a discrete set of skills. Luke and Freebody (2000) provide one of the more recent and useful definitions of literacy:
"Literacy is the flexible and sustainable mastery of a repertoire of practices with the texts of traditional and new communications technologies via spoken, print, and multimedia".
(Luke and Freebody, 2000: 9)
In such a perspective of literacy, the literate person is one who develops capacity to respond to emerging and communicative needs, a literate person who is a sophisticated user of texts. The individual engages with literacy practices as a decoder of text, as a maker of meanings, as a purposeful user of information and as a text analyst who employs critical thinking skills in the literate work (Luke and Freebody, 2000; Liddicoat, 2007: 20).
Figure 1: Evolution of the concept of literacy over fifty decades
Although acknowledging contemporary, 21st century demands of ‘literacy’ and education, this definition does not incorporate the social context of literacy. Literacy is, as Gee (1996: 22) has aptly described, “a socially contested term”. To this respect, literacy is a social practice rather than merely a means to an end.
Such a consideration draws on the paradigm of New Literacy Studies (NLS) and recognises literacy as a set of socially and culturally constituted practices enacted across and within social and institutional spaces. It acknowledges literacy as a social and historical construction that evolves dynamically (Giampapa, 2010: 4; Potvin, 2009; Garcia, Bartlett and Kleifgen, 2006).
Literacy is seen as a social responsibility including a critical or transformative emphasis in which literacy is a tool to understanding social structure in which we live so we can transform it in meaningful ways (Gee, 1996: 58; Street, 1995). The social perspective of literacy, implies more than superficial contacts with print; it icorporates an understanding of how to manipulate words and concepts through complex daily social interactions in an accepted manner (Giampapa, 2010; Potvin, 2009; Reid, 1998; Kern, 2000) through cultural apprenticeship (Rogoff, 1990).
The ‘New’ in Literacies: Multiliteracies
Following the NLS paradigm, ‘multiliteracies’ have emerged. The term “Multiliteracies” immediately shifts us from the dominant written print text to acknowledge the complexities of practices, modes, technologies and languages with which literate people need to engage in the contemporary world.
The “New London Group” (a team of ten academics including James Gee and Allan Luke) came together in 1996 concerned about how literacy pedagogy might address the rapid change in literacy due to globalisation, technology and increasing cultural and social diversity. They employed the term ‘multiliteracies’ to address these issues (The New London Group, 1996).
Since then, The Ontario Ministry of Education has come up with a number of literacy initiatives, some of which are characterized by a critical and social view of literacy, where literacy is conceived of as "the ability to use language and images in rich and varied forms to read, write, listen, speak, view, represent, and think critically about ideas" (Expert Panel on Literacy Report, 2004: 5).
Figure 2: Multiliteracies and their design elements (Adapted from The New London Group, 2000)
Luke and Luke (2001: 92-94) echo this idea, and argue that new technologies have facilitated the emergence of new kinds of artefacts, such as digital storytelling, requiring new levels of engagement and development of higher and different mental faculties (i.e. new multiliteracies). Luke (2000) also talks about the critical multiliteracies - being able to understand, debate, and act upon the material, political, and social consequences of technological change.
An alternative view of literacy calls for a reconceptualization of literacy as reading and writing the world (Freire, 1970). This conceptualization foregrounds critical thinking in both teachers and students, and looks beyond functional literacy (reading and writing skills), to the knowledge and power relations in literacy discourses.
Agnello (2001) refers to this approach as postmodern literacy, and argues that through this approach “reading and writing become enhanced methods for exploring the democratic self and its formation through ideological exposure to knowledge and power relations formulated by educational policy texts. Through such exploration, literacy becomes a tool for self-, student, and social advocacy rather than commodity to determine whether one measures up satisfactorily on test scores” (Agnello, 2001: 24-25).
Museum Learning as a Multiliteracy Practice
Museum-based literacies or museum literacy, refers to the competence in drawing upon the museum, its space and collections using certain skills and practices. In 1984, Carol B. Stapp observed that “museum literacy” was then a newly emerging phrase that articulated the older idea of a philosophy of museum accessibility.
Museum literacy goes beyond ‘reading’ objects; which may be understood as visual literacy; it requires a deeper level of process and understanding of the multiple and interacting languages and modes of communication found in the museum.
By broadening the view of museum literacy, it is acknowledged that the language that is involved in the museum is diverse and incorporates multimodal literacies including: linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial patterns, technological and print-based (see for instance, Cope and Kalantzis, 2000: 160,203; Giroux, 1992; Hooper-Greenhill, 1999).
Figure 3: The multimodal literacies in museum-based pedagogy (Savva, 2016)
This view of museum learning redefines the goals and strategies of educators and the museum curricula. The idea of education in museums is seen as exploratory, broad, experiential, complex and multi-layered; museum strategies are now audience driven (Russo et al., 2007, Hein, 1998; Falk and Dierking, 2000).
To this discussion fits the incorporation of museum learning into the multiliteracies concept; this is facilitated by the realization that a display of material culture conveys messages about the people who created them and the times in which they were used (Pearce, 2003).
The act of creating an exhibit is parallel to the act of producing knowledge. Exhibits are not simply displays, but systems of signs that express messages about culture. Museums and their exhibits reflect the ideology of those who create them.
In the same vein that “There is no such thing as ‘reading’ or ‘writing,’ only reading or writing something . . .” (Gee, 1999: 93), the same would hold true for creating exhibits. There is no such thing as displaying an artifact without displaying something about that artefact. Also, the interpretation of messages is similar to the deciphering of text, using the signs, symbols, objects, etc., of a museum exhibit as part of the process of creating meaning (Roberts, 1997).
Griffin (1999: 8) identifies the unique learning opportunities offered by museums as: opportunities to closely examine objects or specimens; opportunities for comparison that allow trends and patterns to be deciphered; natural learning processes that incorporate the sharing and communication of ideas and the raising of questions; and opportunities to develop perceptual skills that teach how to gather information from objects and experiences.
Because museum exhibits make meaning through multiple media, multiple modes, and multiple symbol systems, the literacy practice of museum visiting is a multiliteracy.
An interesting project exploring the latter, is the ‘Museum Literacy Project’ in 2008-2010, involving nine different museums, administrations and training institutions based in five European countries, supported by the EU programme Lifelong Learning - Grundtvig Learning Partnerships, 2008. The project focus was on museums and audiences with low schooling level, and how museum literacy can be reached and maximize the museum experience for these audience.
Dimensions of a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies for Museum Learning - The Research Framework
Taking into consideration the unique characteristics of the museum environment, I undertook an empirically-based doctoral study involving the design, enactment and evaluation of the Living Museum Partnership (LMP), a museum-school partnership that unfolded in 13 weeks for the construction of a student-generated virtual museum to support environmental education curriculum (Savva, 2016).
Specific focus was on developing virtual learning environments and applying augmented reality to enhance culturally and linguistically diverse students' repertoires of literacy practices. This design-based research, draws from the field of New Literacy Studies, the proposed Museum Multiliteracies Practice (MMP) framework derived from the multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group, the Learning by Design Model adapted from Cope and Kalantzis and Schwartz’s museum based pedagogy.
Figure 4: The pedagogies interacting in the Museum Multiliteracies Practice framework (Savva, 2016)
It is proposed that museum educators and learning professionals undertake an approach for teaching and learning in the museum setting which incorporates multiliteracies pedagogy. Identification of museum literacies requires thorough examination into the interaction of modes that are evident, the incorporation of multiliteracies implicated, the various sign systems that are employed, and the unique nature of the museum learning environment (Mathewson-Mitchell, 2007: 7-8).
The focus should be not only on literacies as communication (meaning for others, as supports for social interaction). My doctoral research for instance also emphasized on literacies as a form of representation (or meanings for ourselves, as supports for thinking).
Cope and Kalatzis (1996, refined 2000, 2009) elaborate on the potentials of a ‘Pedagogy of Multiliteracies’ in fulfilling these aspirations. Two important ideas brought in a multiliteracies pedagogy are Learning by Design and Multimodality.
Learning by Design, is building into curriculum the idea that not every learner will bring the same lifeworld experiences and interests to learning, as well as acknowledging that every learner is not on the same page at the same time; pedagogies of learning are re-configured to construct learning as “a dialogue of difference” (Cope and Kalantzis, 2005: 31). The idea of Multimodality discusses learners’ movement between written, oral, visual, audio, tactile, gestural and spatial modes of meaning-making (Cope and Kalantzis 2005, 2009).
On this basis, the New London Group (1996) has proposed a multiliteracies pedagogy consisting of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice.
•Situated practice includes learners’ prior and present experiences in a community of learners (composed of experts and novices).
•Overt instruction involves the teacher’s or expert’s interventions to scaffold (Bruner, 1983) or support learning and increase the learner’s consciousness about learning. Scaffolding is a metaphorical concept that refers to the visible or audible assistance that a more expert member of a culture can give to an apprentice (Bruner, 1983, 1986). You might also note Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), that relates to Bruner’s notion of the scaffold here.
•Critical framing refers to learners interpreting the historical, cultural, political and ideological contexts of learning.
•Transformed practice includes implementing new understandings through reflective practice in other contexts.
Figure 5: The Multiliteracies Model and Learning by Design (Adapted from Kalantzis and Cope, 2000)
Also identified within the Learning by Design Model are four knowledge processes (See Figure 5 above). The knowledge processes identified are:
(a) Experiencing the known and the new
(b) Conceptualising by naming concepts and theorising
(c) Analysing functions and interests
(d) Applying appropriately and creatively.
Findings and Implications for Museum Learning Practice
Stapp (1984) had argued that schools do not address the knowledge, skills and attitudes for museum literacy. Recent observations of the characteristic use of museums by school-based teachers suggest that a relatively passive, idealist approach to museum experiences, as identified by Stapp, has continued, with teachers lacking confidence and competence in the museum setting (Mathewson-Mitchell, 2006).
Based on the findings of my doctoral research, it is suggested that addressing museum-based multiliteracies leads to effective museum-school partnerships and meaningful museum learning practice. Research data suggested that students’ repertoires of literacy were enhanced as they engaged in the learning process as active designers and multimodal learners (Savva, 2016). It was found that students gained opportunities to:
Figure 6: Findings of Museum Multiliteracies Practice research (Savva, 2016)
It is proposed that any museum education programme or museum-school partnership or collaboration pays attention to the following key principles:
1. Teaching children, especially digital natives of our time, to be literate in any setting is not just a set of skills that can be transferred. Rather, education needs to enable them to participate in social situations using the required literacy practices.
2. Museum visiting is seen as multiliteracy practice; as such it requires specific museum-based literacies that are rarely identified or explicitly taught by museums or schools.
Conclusion
Ultimately, this brief review and presentation of the proposed empirically based, research framework for museum learning practice, forms a pathway to follow for inclusive cultural participation at any level and age. The London New Group’s (1996) ideas further developed by Cope and Kalatzis (2000; 2005; 2006) for a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies, could inform the development of the specific literacy requirements of museums, in a way that could lead to full museum literacy and a transformative cultural engagement and participation for diverse audiences.
A few years ago, THE OFFICIAL ANDREASCY editorial team featured the Able2Extract PDF Converter and presented the multiple benefits of owning a similar software program. At the time, it was the first cross-platform PDF conversion software compatible with Windows, Linux and MacOS. Since then (we tested and reviewed the version 8), Able2Extract Professional has grown into a full-blown PDF solution that not only converts PDF to other file types, but also creates, annotates and edits PDFs on the spot.
PDF annotations and advanced editing files without conversion seem to be the most interesting recent additions and productivity boosters when it comes to working with PDFs. Using PDF annotations, for example, you can easily highlight your PDF content or add custom watermarks to your files. And, of course, direct editing of PDF content is the holy grail of efficient PDF file management.
Few days ago, we have learned that the developer is about to release the newest, updated version of the software with lots of new features and enhancements. These include adding customized bates numbers to PDFs, even faster conversion of multiple PDFs at once, and, most notably, PDF forms filling and editing.
Interactive PDF forms allow us to minimize the usage of paper and save time on scanning various paper forms that we need to submit elsewhere. That is exactly why we wanted to be the first ones to actually test and demonstrate how you can complete and modify PDF forms with Able2Extract Professional 12 that is about to be released on December 6th 2017.
So, without further ado, here is the detailed tutorial on filling and editing PDF forms.
How to Fill Out PDF Forms
To start completing a PDF form with Able2Extract, just open it in the software using the Open icon on the command toolbar, or hit Ctrl+O on your keyboard.
As soon as you have your interactive PDF form opened in Able2Extract, you are ready to interact with it. Click on the field and start entering your information. Input text into text fields, select multiple items on list boxes, specify your options in combo-boxes and checkboxes, and click on push-buttons.
If you make a mistake while you are completing the form, you can go back to any given field and make desired edits.
Once you’ve completed the form, save it to your hard drive or submit. To save a form, click on the Save icon you can also find on the toolbar (or, if you prefer to use the keyboard, then CTRL+S will do the trick). Next time you open the same PDF form, it will contain the information that you entered in Able2Extract. Of course, should you prefer to save one blank copy on your hard drive, save the completed form using the Save As option on the File menu.
How to Edit PDF Forms
The latest version of Able2Extract comes with an integrated PDF form editor. Thanks to this advanced capability, you can not only fill out PDF forms but also easily modify them. For example, insert an additional text field or add a new combobox. Or, maybe just add a new item or delete the existing one from the combobox already present in the PDF form.
It’s really easy, but here is the quick how to guide to editing PDF forms.
Open the PDF form in Able2Extract as already described. Then click on the Edit icon also easily recognized on the main toolbar to switch to the PDF editing more.
On the right side, you will see the Edit PDF side panel. Further to the right, you will see two small tabs. You will need to click on the PDF form tab that is just below the tab you are currently in (see the screenshot below):
Having done that, you will see the Edit PDF form side-panel with two main sections: Form Fields and Properties.
As you can see in the screen capture above, you can add six different form fields (from the top left row to the bottom right row): text box, combobox, list box, checkbox, radio button, action button. And you can also delete any form field (just select it by clicking on it).
To add a form field, click on it and drag onto the page.
Note that for each form field that you add, you can define properties like name, font, font size, background or border color, line width and border style. You can also specify that a certain field be Read-only or Required by checking the appropriate box in the Properties menu.
Clicking the More button, you will have the option to define additional properties for the specified PDF field. Let’s take, for example, the text field. You can customize the default text, specify that the field be multiline, turn off the spell check for the entered text and more, as you can see on the image below.
Obviously, there are multiple options for customizing and editing your forms. You can create complex PDF forms with Able2Extract.
Having created your PDF form, save it. Optionally, you can go back to the convert mode by clicking on the Convert icon found on the toolbar and complete the form you have just made. Then proceed to saving.
Conclusion
Our verdict is the Able2Extract Professional’s form filler and editor work really well. Of course, most people will probably use it to complete PDF forms and submit it to servers. But the real power lies in its PDF form editing functionality. Users who often prepare and work with PDF forms will probably best recognize its potential and appreciate it.
As noted at the beginning of this review and tutorial, Able2Extract Professional 12, with form filling and editing will be released on December 6th, 2017. So, if you want to try it for yourself, it will from that date be available for download here. Trying it is free for 7 days -- just about enough to play with and test all (or most) of its features.
How many times did you miss the opportunity to land a dream job because you didn’t send your resume on time? If you are counting, then you can probably relate with the following situation.
You noticed, or your friend sent you a great job ad that perfectly describes you and you think: “Wonderful, I’ll definitely apply, I just need to adjust my resume.” That’s understandable given that it’s very important to create a resume that fits a job description and requirements. That will bring you one step closer to landing a new job. However, as it usually happens, you procrastinate and wait the last minute and then, of course, something goes wrong and technical problems arise. In the end, as a result, you don’t get called for a job interview.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t have to be like that. You can take advantage of a modern technology and mobile device and edit your resume right away, without delays and technical issues.
PDF to Word Convert will easily and successfully convert your PDF resume into an MS Word document on your iPhone or iPad. In that way, it will become editable, so you are able to make necessary changes, to update your resume or to modify it a little bit, in just a few taps.
Step 1
Download PDF to Word Converter from the app Store.
Step 2
Whether you store your resume on the phone, or you have it on Gmail or cloud services, just click on the button and find your CV.
Step 3
You’ll find your document among converted files. Afterwards, simply open it in Word application and edit your resume.
And that’s it! Now you don’t have to wait the last minute when you can modify your resume immediately and send it right away. In that way, you’ll avoid negative surprises and hopefully get a dream job.
Unpaid internships used to be rather common in the United States. That's no longer the case, thanks to federal regulations that have tightened control over how people are compensated for the work they provide. Unpaid internships still exist, but they are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Companies should tread very carefully with any plans to offer an unpaid internship.
Rules set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) stipulate that employees meeting minimum requirements must be financially compensated for the work they perform. The rules are rigid enough that it is very difficult to establish an unpaid internship that actually qualifies for no salary arrangement between employer and employee. Numerous court cases over the years have demonstrated as such.
In order for an unpaid internship to be legitimate, it must pass the scrutiny of a six-point test established by federal rules:
• Both employee and employer must agree that no wages will be paid for the internship.
• Both employee and employer agree there is no guarantee of employment at the conclusion of the internship.
• The experience received through the internship must be similar to the training the employee would receive in an educational setting.
• The experience of the internship is solely for the benefit of the intern, not for the employer.
• The intern cannot displace a paid employee.
• The employer cannot derive any direct or immediate advantage from employing the intern.
BenefitMall a payroll and benefits administration company says that the stipulations for unpaid internships are clear. If a position cannot pass all six points of the federal test, interns must be paid at least minimum wage.
Minimum Wage Determined by the States
Companies and their payroll departments also need to be aware that the individual states set their own minimum wage requirements. Such requirements are often higher than the federal minimum wage mandated among companies seeking federal contracts. That means that even though the FLSA regulates how interns must be paid, the actual rate of pay is most often set by the state.
Offering paid internships in multiple states means paying those interns based on individual state minimum wage requirements rather than a uniform wage established company-wide. There are some variations in these rules, especially when a company might be based in one state but sending workers to another on temporary assignments.
BenefitMall says that most payroll processing companies are very familiar with the laws surrounding paid internships and state minimum wage requirements. They are in a unique position to handle these sorts of things on behalf of their clients because they already possess the knowledge required to make sure interns are paid properly. However, it is ultimately the employer's responsibility to maintain compliance.
Internships Can Be Beneficial
In closing, internships can be beneficial to both parties whether they are paid or unpaid. Benefits for the intern include on-the-job training, real-life experience, an open door to future employment, networking opportunities, and even opportunities to earn class credits through internship training programs.
Employers benefit from internships as well. They are able to offer educational opportunities to workers who may return in the future with that experience under their belts. They have an opportunity to contribute to the education of the next generation of workers who will support their industry. They can also use paid internships as a form of supplemental labor when creating full-time, salaried positions is impractical.
Unpaid internships are quickly fading away in favor of the paid alternative. If your company is planning on establishing internships, make sure it's done according to the law.
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Let's get to the point! CSV files are often exploited in circumstances when users require large quantities of data exported from specific databases. The CSV (Comma Separated Value) raw data spreadsheet resembles an Excel file (it has the same structure of rows and columns), but the thing that differentiates it the most from .xslx files is its universal formatting. Because of that formatting, a .csv file can be seen on every device and computer, no matter what operating system is installed on the machine at that given time.
This absolute viewability is an extremely rare feature that very few formats have, and because most people don’t know this amazing feature of the CSV, they often rely on transforming the CSV file to PDF before sending it to coworkers and collaborators.
The PDF is a much more popular format which also has the ability to be seen perfectly on every OS/device, but its main function is to convert other formats (like MS Office files, Autocad, Publisher etc.) to PDF, ensuring that the recipient will be able to properly observe them. The PDF however has a slight downside to it, because it cannot be edited easily.
In the event where you have a CSV file stuck in an uneditable PDF, a user needs to extract all the data from the read-only PDF with a specially designed software which can then rearrange all that data back to CSV form, making it fitting for edition once more.
In light of all this, we wanted to share with you a program that performs this type of operation with acute precision.
PDF Converter Elite 5 users can choose from two available options for PDF to CSV conversion; the classic automatic option, and the custom advanced one, which offers more complex editing options. So let’s show you how it’s done.
Basic (Automatic) Conversion
Once you’ve opened the PDF in question by going to the Open button, in the upper part of the screen you’ll find the CSV button.
When you click on it, an additional window will open on the right side, next to the preview of the document.
In the Select area, you can select specific parts of the document to convert. You can use either your mouse (to drag it across the desired part of the page), or select the page range (just type the number of the first and the last page, with a “-” in between). There is also a Select All Pages option, if you want to convert the whole document.
By clicking on the Settings button, you can adjust the type of analysis (the full analysis option is set up by default).
Complex (Advanced) Conversion
The first part is the same, open a PDF file, click the CSV button and select the area of the document. When you’ve selected the parts of the document you want to convert, click on the Advanced Options button.
On your document you’ll see that the green lines will appear, and they allow you to manually decide how your future CSV file will look like.
In the advanced bar you have numerous detailed options, where you can add/delete tables, rows and columns. Each table, row and column can be manually moved to the exact location you require, and click on the preview button to preview how it’ll all look once the file is converted.
In the Tables section, click the Add button to add more tables, or Delete button, to remove a table. If you change your mind and want to try from scratch, click on Replot.
If you want to add columns or rows, click on the appropriate button and then click on the document area you wish to add the column/row. The green line will appear upon clicking and you will be able to move it across the document.
You can also choose to apply these new changes to either that specific page, or if you find it more convenient, the entire document can have that exact layout. If you want to apply the changes to the current page only, just tick that box. If you want to apply these changes to multiple pages, check Page Range section, you will find it at the top of that sidebar, as shown on the image below.
This program has a 7 day free trial period, and it offers many other conversion types including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCad, Publisher, HTML, Image and OpenOffice, so whatever kind of PDF you need converted, you’ll have a handle on it.
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