New Able2Extract Professional 14: Sign PDFs & Convert with AI

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

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.

*by andreascy*

How to Fill and Edit PDF Forms with Able2Extract Pro 12 [Sneak Preview]

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

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. 

*by andreascy*

The Multiple Benefits of Owning a PDF Converter

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

One of the greatest things about the constant evolution of technology is that it makes our lives easier in many ways. This is especially true when it comes to our professional lives. As the workplace shifts more and more towards computer-related activities and the Internet, there is a constant influx of products entering the marketplace that are specifically designed to make your job easier, lighten your workload and increase your productivity. 

One tool that falls into this category is, without a doubt, the PDF converter. The PDF is a document format that is incredibly popular in today’s business world. There are two main reasons for the popularity of the PDF. Firstly, it is a universal file formats. That means that it looks exactly the same, no matter what platform you are using. So if you have created a PDF on your Windows computer and you send it to someone who is using Linux, the PDF will look exactly the same on both computers. This is a very important feature in the business world when it comes to convenience. 

The second big reason for the popularity of the PDF format is the fact that it is very compact. It allows you to include a lot of data into a reasonably small file size. That’s what makes the PDF great for not only sharing data, but also archiving it. 

The one thing that the PDF does not have going for it is the fact that it is virtually uneditable. So if you receive data via PDF that you have to manipulate and work with further, you can see why this would be a big problem. And that’s where the PDF converter comes in to play. 

There are many types of PDF converters available. There are online PDF converts that are used by people who might only need to convert a PDF into another file format every once in a while. Most are not incredibly accurate and often make you wait a while to get your converted file. But people who need to extract important data from PDFs on an everyday basis tend to go for a professional PDF conversion software solution. One such tool is Investintech.com’s Able2Extract PDF Converter. 

While there are plenty of PDF conversion tools to choose from on the market, Able2Extract’s most recent version 8 has a lot of features that you just won’t find anywhere else. Let’s take a look at what they are:

A huge variety of conversion options

Able2Extract is designed with just about every type of professional in mind. Are you a bookkeeper or auditor that is constantly working with numbers and tabular data? Able2Extract allows you to accurately convert PDF tables into Microsoft Excel. Are you an architect or interior designer? Convert PDF plans into AutoCAD formats so that you can edit the designs further. Are you a content writer and receive lots of great ideas in PDF format? Convert them into Microsoft Word and begin writing immediately. And that only scratches the surface of Able2Extract’s conversion options. It also supports PDF to PowerPoint, HTML, a variety of image file formats, text, and much more. 

Pin-Point accuracy when converting 

The whole point of purchasing PDF conversion software is to save time. You’re not going to save any time if your converted file is formatted incorrectly and requires further editing upon conversion. Able2Extract provides you with accurate conversions that almost perfectly reflect the original format of the PDF you are extracting the information from. The software even has special custom Excel conversion options, because the makers or the software realize how problematic it can be to convert tabular data accurately. Able2Extract allows you to convert your files and then immediately start working with the information that was earlier trapped within your PDF. 

Fast conversions every time

Have you tried online PDF converters and you’re sick of having to wait for your file? Most online tools in this niche require you to upload your PDF, enter your email, and then wait at least a half hour before you can download your converted file. Able2Extract allows you to perform each conversion in mere seconds. 

Cross platform capabilities

As mentioned earlier, the PDF is a cross platform format that works on any computer. So why should your PDF converter be any different? Able2Extract works just as well on Windows, Mac or Linux. 

Batch conversions

Have you received a zip file containing dozens of PDFs that need to be converted into an editable format? Instead of converting them one by one, you can use Able2Extract’s batch conversion option and convert them all in just one process. 

Ability to convert scanned PDFs

The professional version of Able2Extract also includes the industry’s best OCR technology. OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, and this technology enables you to convert not only natively created PDFs, but scanned ones as well. So if you are looking to use text found in a PDF of a scanned magazine article, the OCR capabilities of Able2Extract can decipher the scanned text and convert it into an editable Word, OpenOffice or text file for you. 

On top of everything, Able2Extract also has a very sleek graphical interface that is very user friendly. Even if this is your first experience with PDF conversion software, you’ll be able to start using it immediately. 

If you want proof of just how easy it is to use, check out this tutorial video. And if the video intrigues you further, head over to Investintech.com to download a free 7-day trial version of Able2Extract and test it out yourself.

*by andreascy*

The Future Landscape of Software Development

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

The advent of laptop computers marked an important milestone in the history of mobile computing. Laptops made it possible for people to bring their work with them almost everywhere they went. The evolution of Palm Pilot-style digital planners further fueled the trend and defined what it meant to "stay connected" while out in the field. However relevant or essential these products were, no technology changed the digital landscape more or pleased consumers as much as those wireless handheld devices put out by the now-famous technology giants BlackBerry and Apple.

Future technology trends are expected to continue to extend the nebulous bounds of the cloud, and further leverage the capacity and reach of the 4G mobile spectrum. Of course, the most impressive and stunning technology trends always seem to spring from unexpected places and are generally the most difficult for industry insiders to forecast.

The Future of Software

Current and emerging trends in the field of software development are being driven by new programming languages and platforms, new development methodologies, updates to core Internet technologies (HTML5), changes in customer expectations, and the unstoppable ascendancy of powerful new mobile computing devices.

Rapidly expanding demand for greater numbers of mobile computing devices has put pressure on software developers to create more mobile applications. Key stories circulating in the industry press seem to concentrate on a shift toward revamping familiar and standard software packages so that they run smoothly and easily on tablets and smartphones. Indeed, future launches of the most popular and time-honored business applications written for the PC are expected to become available for tablets and hybrids in the months ahead. 

More Programming Languages

It should surprise no one in the industry that coders are going to need to know more languages. Today, Java and Objective-C with a little jQuery thrown in account for most of the heavy lifting with respect to building complex software applications and mobile apps. The performance requirements of modern mobile computing devices will create a need for developers who are conversant in such languages as Ruby, Python, Node.js, and certain exotics such as Clojure and Haskell. No examination of this subject could be considered thorough or complete if it did not touch on HTML5 and CSS3, or if it ignored how cross-platform app design is greatly enhanced when developers are comfortable with the development and implementation of bespoke programming languages.

Customer Satisfaction is Paramount

New ways of thinking, along with an increased demand for multi-paradigm solutions are driving the accelerated rate of change in the development process itself. At present, Agile principles many not make one agile enough to satisfy today's consumer because customers today are no longer happy just being satisfied, they want to be delighted. According to Forbes, organizations such as Apple and Amazon have conclusively shown that delighting customers is a worthy, profitable part of the development process.

Finally, other future trends that software developers and engineers can look forward to hearing more about in the months to come include more current philosophies concerning version control systems, where most versions of a product will be staged in the cloud. Other trends to be aware of include the potential for removal of certain highly important open source products from the public domain. If this should occur, developers will need to brush up on alternative database solutions such as MariaDB, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

ALSO OF INTEREST: What's The Big Deal With Software Bugs?

We hope this information has been helpful. 👍

*by andreascy*

How Long Does it Take to Build an iOS or Android App?

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description: 

How long do you think it would take to go from concept to store submission for a native iOS or Android app? Include everything from spinning up servers, to managing users, to integrating with social networks, to developing a protocol for versioning, to wireframing, designing and polishing your UX.

While the question isn’t as timeless as “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” (spoiler alert: 3481), it is one that’s very dear to our community of mobile app developers. The duration obviously varies with the complexities and increased functionality of the application to be developed.

Progress Kinvey - a mobile Backend as a Service startup - put this question to 100 mobile developers (43% enterprise, 57% individual). Based on this survey, they came up with an answer: about 18 weeks, the same amount of time that it takes to build 1.3 Boeing 777 airplanes and to drill 3 3,000 foot oil wells. 

This infographic depicts how much time developers will spend on each component of their native apps front - and backend. Check it out...

Source: Published by Progress Kinvey

Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at Kinvey says:

"Backend functions accounted for 10 weeks, with data storage, data integration and versioning accounting for the biggest blocks of time (13 days each). The UI represented the bulk of the eight weeks of frontend development. On average, developers felt it would take about 40 days to wireframe, design, develop and polish their app’s user interface."

"73% of developers surveyed agree it would take a week or less to enable offline usage and data synchronization, yet a core backend feature like integrating data from third-party APIs yielded a wider range of responses. In fact, nearly as many developers (25) anticipated data integration would take a month or more as those (29) who said it would take three days or fewer."

Many of the aspects listed, especially the back-end aspects and 3rd party data integration, are of course not unique to a particular mobile platform or even to mobile platforms in general. So the 18 weeks would only apply if you had no previous targeted infrastructure across all these areas.

Conclusion

While the above infographic doesn’t purport to be the definitive timeline for app building - after all, it’s based on the development of an MVP-quality app and it doesn’t take into account the approval process - it was intended to be a conversation starter. 

So to that end, how long do you think it would take to build v1 of a native app? And do you think time requirements frontend items are easier to plan than backend components? 

Let us know down below.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Mobile App Security Threats To Plan For

As always, I'll catch you next time. 💖

*by andreascy*

Introducing Mozilla Firefox Boot to Gecko (B2G) OS

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Bringing the Open Web to Mobile Devices

I saw this and couldn't resist having a little sneaky play around with it. 

* ATTENTION * 

This is NOT a daily driver and it's NOT stable, it's Pre-Alpha. If you want something to use as a phone, this isn't it. If you just want to use your phone as a phone, you need a custom Android ROM, so, be careful with your experiments.

Download the file here >>

So what is this? 

An Open Source project from Mozilla (the lovely people behind the Firefox Browser) that aims to support HTML5 apps written using "Open Web" technologies rather than platform-specific Native APIs. 

The idea is essentially to have all user-accessible software running on the phone be a Web app that uses advanced HTML5 techniques and device APIs, to access the phone's hardware directly via JavaScript. 

It initially targets Android-compatible smartphones. 

The company hopes to get onto smartphones and tablets to rival the likes of Android and iOS. B2G is based on the Linux kernel and includes drivers from Android, but on top of that is the same Gecko layout engine that powers the Firefox Browser. 

The main advantage of the OS being powered by Gecko is that developers can write apps using noting more than HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

Boot to Gecko (B2G) Simulator in Firefox

Want to see B2G in action? 

Well, fire up your copy of Firefox (preferably a Nightly Build) and head over to Mozilla engineer Paul Rouget's website where you will find the simulator.

Actually, the simulator is pretty nifty. Of course, it's quite limited in places and you can't do everything with it, but on the whole it's very neat. If nothing else, it gives you a feel for where the B2G project is headed.

It requires work in a number of areas, so I won't go into more details. I suggest you read a lot over at their wiki - start off at: https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G and work your way through the pages.

You'll get suprised at how fast it boots. Can't wait to see the development for this, looks like it's going well already!

Overview:

Running on Galaxy S2:

We hope you enjoyed this article. Here are some resources / references for extra reading time.
Wikipedia, Mozilla Wiki
*by andreascy*

New Windows 8 Book : Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Hello friends!

Want to get your hands dirty in writing articles? The *Official AndreasCY* comes up with a new opportunity. Just drop us your area of interest and a bit about you and your background and someone from our team will follow up with you as quickly as possible.

Today we'd like to show you a brand new Windows 8 Book that is available for pre-order. It's called "Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript" and it's being written by Jaime Rodriguez. 

I hope you guys are already familiar with these coding languages (HTML5 & JS). Here's the promo about the book :

Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript will help web developers quickly get up-to-speed with developing next-generation “Metro” apps for Windows 8 with HTML and CSS. Microsoft Windows 8 Principal Evangelist Jaime Rodriguez guides developers through constructing a real Windows 8 Metro app from start to finish, using expert techniques and Microsoft-recommended coding patterns and practices.

Along the way, Rodriguez shares unprecedented insider insights into Windows 8 and Metro, making this an outstanding introduction to the platform for any developer. Readers will start by taking a “lap” around a typical Windows 8 Metro-style application, understanding its elements, how they fit together, and how Metro development differs from what they’ve done before.

Rodgriguez introduces Microsoft’s development tools and resources for Windows 8 Metro development, including Visual Studio 11, Expression Blend, and Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS). Readers learn how to integrate data with REST, JSON, and XmlHttpRequest, use Microsoft’s new Metro controls and Store API, manage views, provide notifications, provide multi-touch interface support, integrate with hardware, the shell, and the Windows 8 OS, and much more.

Useful reference appendices present HTML5 and CSS3 standards, Metro design principles for developers, and more. I hope to contact and do an interview with the author in the future.

You can order the book from Amazon.

*by andreascy*

Watch IntuiLab’s Massive Multi - Touch for Any Web Browser in Action, Using HTML5

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

IntuiLab has built design and execution extensions for on-the-Web multi-touch. The video embedded below showing off "Massive" Multi-Touch for any web browser using any touch device using HTML5. 

"An alternative to native, rich clients for hosting multi-touch applications is the Web browser. Until recently this has not been possible because the lingua franca of the Web - HTML - did not recognize manual gestures. This meant Web browsers on touchscreen devices reacted to manual interaction as if they were simple mouse events, limiting responses to page scrolling and link clicks," writes Intuilabs. 

Introducing the Web as a multi-touch application hosting option opens the door to instant availability and universal access, giving retailers, advertisers and the like a powerful new medium for communicating with their prospects and customers. Web designers and their clients will be able to create immersive Web experiences without requiring plug-in downloads or excessive cross-browser scripting to ensure compatibility. 

As illustrated in the video, the workflow for creation and deployment of a browser-based multi-touch application will be : 

• Application creation in IntuiFace Presentation. 

• The process will be identical to that used for creating multi-touch applications intended for rich client use. 

• There will be no content limitations. Use any image, video, document, map, etc. and any of our design elements. 

• Deployment to IntuiLab's in-the-cloud multi-touch application hosting solution, assigning a URL to each deployed application. 

• Connect to the hosting website from any Web browser on any device and select the application of interest. 

• Interact with the selected application in your browser as intended.

Interactive mobile phone experiences could be ported to the Web, establishing a consistent look-and-feel, and then expanded to take advantage of additional screen real estate. Ambitious retailers, hospitality vendors and the like could take things a step further and carry over the phone and Web experience to their stores, lobbies and gathering places through interactive tablets, kiosks, tables and touchscreen walls.

If you liked this topic then we have a ton of other interesting stories here. If you are also a fellow Twitter user then i'd suggest to check our Trending Tweets for all the goodies we share. Feel free to discover also the latest BIG Stories and other exclusives by subscribing on our Daily Newsletters and RSS feeds. Take care everyone!

*by andreascy*