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<title>Qualum Product Reviews</title><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/index.html</link><description>Product Reviews</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2009 J Stoppi</dc:rights><dc:date>2010-07-21T13:14:16-07:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:59:44 -0800</lastBuildDate><item><title>AnyBizSoft PDF Converter for Mac</title><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><category>Software</category><category>MacOS</category><category>Windows</category><dc:date>2010-07-21T13:14:16-07:00</dc:date><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/caf03957169d48e3909a397ab38d15e7-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/caf03957169d48e3909a397ab38d15e7-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Often the Windows pedigree of such apps is readily apparent in the look-and-feel of the interface, but in this case, AnyBizSoft have done some homework and it looks much like a product from a traditional Mac stable. 

...It helps that the design is a homage to minimalism: on launch, you are presented with merely a 600 x 525 px window, with the simple invitation "To get started, please drag and drop PDF files here or add PDF files from the File menu."


...If you wish to change this, you click on the little cogwheel that appears next to it, which offers you the option of converting it into one of the five other file types possible: Excel, Powerpoint, HTML, Text, or EPUB. 

...Changing the target file format results in a different icon showing on the right &ndash; the familiar Excel and Powerpoint icons, or the roughly compatible equivalents of &ldquo;T&rdquo; and &ldquo;H&rdquo; for Text and HTML formats, respectively. 


...In the meantime, if you don&rsquo;t want all files to be converted repeatedly, Remove all those that you don&rsquo;t need at a given moment, and leave only the ones that you do want converted.


...(Converted documents, incidentally, are placed automatically in a &ldquo;PDF Converter&rdquo; folder within the user&rsquo;s Documents folder &ndash; a good default setting, but in future versions one hopes the user would be able to change this default to a folder of their choice.)


...The example I used came through fine &ndash; but again, only if you open the result in the real MS Excel: Excel subsitutes, such as NeoOffice Spreadsheet and Apple&rsquo;s Numbers, treated it as a CSS stylesheet rather than provide the figures. 

...As a final benefit, PDFCM offers the ability to circumvent some restrictions in password-protected PDF files: if the password is set only to prevent printing and editing of the PDF file, you can convert it with PDFCM and do your editing and printing from the result, without providing the password. 

...AnyBizSoft&rsquo;s PDF Converter for Mac is a solid, one stop-shop solution for converting PDF files into editable files &ndash; provided you&rsquo;re using genuine MS Office applications to open the results in the case of conversion into .doc or .xls formats.


Its big advantage over its competition is that it provides one-stop conversion into no fewer than six common formats (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Text, HTML or EPUB). ...  Between it and Mac OS ability to make a PDF file out of virtually any document through the Print dialog, you have the ability to edit and save PDF files without having to buy the full Adobe Acrobat software. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>VelOCRaptor 1.0</title><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><category>MacOS</category><category>Computing</category><dc:date>2009-06-25T11:31:23-07:00</dc:date><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/b7fa9d4705023f44966aaaade3222f0a-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/b7fa9d4705023f44966aaaade3222f0a-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Harlequin Computer Solutions, the UK-based makers of VelOCRaptor, may not want you to think of their software as lethal, but small, fast and intelligent it certainly is.    For reasons I can&rsquo;t explain, there&rsquo;s been a dearth of compelling OCR software on the Mac since OS X came out, so this is a most welcome development. 


Operation is as simple and as effective as one expects of good Mac software: take any image file of a scanned page of text, and drop it on the small VelOCRaptor window.    It immediately starts to process it, and after several seconds (or up to a minute for larger, more complex documents), it suddenly becomes a second version of the file, with the same filename followed by the words (with text), which looks the same, but where you notice you can now select the text, copy and paste it elsewhere, etc. 


I tried it first with a double-sided leaflet, with images and two columns.    The initial, &ldquo;dumb&rdquo; PDF measured 660KB &ndash; the scanned version weighed in at 5.2Mb, but preserved the images and the column structure. 


A copy-and-paste of the scanned text into TextEdit revealed an imperfect but usable rendition of the text:


Much better &ndash; nearly perfect &ndash; fidelity came about when scanning a plain page of text:


At $29 US, is it worth the money for a licence?    It&rsquo;s your call, of course, but we&rsquo;re on board. 


<i>Company: Harlequin Computer Solutions Ltd | Cost: US$29.00 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 | For further info... </i> ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>iClip Lyrics</title><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><category>Computing</category><category>Recreation</category><category>Software</category><dc:date>2009-04-02T12:57:46-07:00</dc:date><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/9bf0b47def7ea3ad06cba25feaf817a3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/9bf0b47def7ea3ad06cba25feaf817a3-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Launch it, then play the song in iTunes.   The lyrics are downloaded and pasted for you in the Lyrics section of the song's iTunes entry so fast that you&rsquo;ll literally miss it if you blink.   Double-click another song to start it, and its lyrics, too, are downloaded in a flash.   In this way, you can fill in the lyrics of virtually all your songs collection in as many seconds. 

I say "virtually", because iClip Lyrics gets the lyrics from a particular website &ndash; LyricWiki.org.    So Parachutes by Jenn Grant stumped it, but all the songs in Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill or Sting's Fields of Gold came up immediately.    Of course, that's not iClip Lyrics' fault, which does its part even better than one could hope.   You can download and use iClip Lyrics for free, but it's easily worth a donation of  $10 or more.   Enjoy.


<i>(Source: Macworld) | Cost: Free (donations welcome) | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+, iTunes 7+ | For further info... </i>QQQQQ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>ScanSnapM Color Image Scanner</title><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><category>Computing</category><category>Hardware</category><category>Peripherals</category><dc:date>2009-02-14T19:17:49-08:00</dc:date><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/309382b0f1b6e08e0033ed61f21fdb45-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/309382b0f1b6e08e0033ed61f21fdb45-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[We&rsquo;ve all been vaguely aware that if we scanned the paperwork and saved it as electronic files, we could get rid of a lot of paper files &ndash; specifically, those for which you don&rsquo;t need the original.  


The problem is that with traditional, flatbed scanners, you have to place each sheet individually, close the lid, press the button, then contend with a variety of file formats when saving the result.


The ScanSnap does away with that problem by allowing you to scan a small pile of (loose) pages into a single PDF document, which you may then file away on disk, attach to an email, print, or (on Macs) file away in your iPhoto collection.    If you file it on disk, you also have the option of having the text on it converted to computer text through the optical-character recognition (OCR) software that comes with it. 


Even better, it will scan both sides of pages (Duplex mode) by just setting that in the Preferences. 


The sheer speed and effortlessness of the operation is what makes it worth every penny of the not inconsiderable $500 cost. 


Bung in the sheets into the sheet feeder, press a button, and &ndash; assuming it&rsquo;s plugged into your USB port and the ScanSnap Manager software is running &ndash; it immediately scans the sheets, one by one, and converts them into a PDF and a presents you with a dialog of options: Scan2Folder (file), Scan2Email, Scan2Print or file under iPhoto:


If you choose to file, the next dialog gives you a preview (of all the scanned sheets, one page at a time, with ability to zoom in or out), and buttons and fields for saving it to disk.   A default name is provided: double-click it to change or add to that name, then click on Browse&hellip; or History button to navigate your hard disk (or network, or ....  (Undocumented bug: double-click and edit the file name first before Browsing, because it won&rsquo;t allow you to change the default file name if you Browse first). 

...Undocumented bug: double-click and edit the file name first before Browsing, because it won&rsquo;t allow you to change the default file name if you Browse first.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>XpenseTracker</title><dc:creator>jstoppi@qualum.com</dc:creator><category>Computing</category><category>iPhone/iPod touch</category><category>Software</category><dc:date>2009-02-28T10:59:51-08:00</dc:date><link>http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/4830b16804e2f6a62a1a6aa674d97b25-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.qualum.com/html/information/product/files/4830b16804e2f6a62a1a6aa674d97b25-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If, like me, your desk tends to get piled up with receipts that you mean to enter into bookkeeping but keep putting off because you have better things to do at your desk, XpenseTracker offers the enticing prospect of allowing you to do your bookkeeping on the road, on your iPhone or iPod touch. 


Item entry is semi-automated: today&rsquo;s date is inserted automatically, and &ldquo;Client&rdquo; (payee) is a customisable pop-up field you can choose from.   If you&rsquo;re abroad, it can enter the amount in the local currency and convert it into your home (&ldquo;Master&rdquo;) currency based on exchange rates that it downloads every two days (or more often, if you like).   With the iPhone, you can also take a snapshot of the receipt and attach it to the entry. 


Of course, all that information is of little use if you can&rsquo;t get it onto your computer, so XpenseTracker allows you to export the current log of entries, or &ndash; if you prefer not to send such information online (like me), you can export it directly to your Mac.    This requires the downloading of a sister app called SyncDocs, which, when launched on your machine, can be &lsquo;seen&rsquo; by the iPhone/touch and exported it.    When it has done so, it reports that it has exported the log file successfully &ldquo;to the desktop&rdquo;.    In actual fact, it&rsquo;s exported to a &ldquo;SyncDocs&rdquo; folder within your designated downloads folder.    Another point which isn&rsquo;t pointed out in the documentation is that the &ldquo;Client&rdquo; field isn&rsquo;t exported, by default, so you need to make sure it&rsquo;s turned on in the app&rsquo;s Prefs.  

Other than that, it works well and I commend it to fellow iPhone/iPod touch users. 


<i>Silverware Software | USD$4.99 | </i>QQQQ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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