Have you ever tried to complete a .pdf form or application? It’s really a challenge; especially now that typewriters have become a rare commodity. To tell you the truth, I finally broke down and paid for a program that will convert .pdf files to Word format. Imagine my surprise when I came across several free online conversion tools. I will still use the conversion program I purchased because what the heck I already shelled out some substantial money for the product. I wish I had known about these products sooner!

PDF Filler – as I mentioned earlier in this post filling in forms can be a bother when you are working with .PDF files. Usually you print them and then type or write to fill in the forms. Or…you buy a program that gives you the ability to fill in forms. Well, now I am really depressed because while researching and reviewing sites for this post I just discovered this marvelous free tool that makes it very simple to complete .PDF forms. I actually prefer this product to the one I just spent way too much money on! Save yourself a considerable amount of change and check out PDF Filler. I was really impressed with the easy upload process and interface!

PDFescape – this is a free, online PDF reader, editor, form filler, & form designer. It can be used to quickly and easily fill out .PDF forms and does not require downloads, installations, or registration. With PDFescape, you can fill in PDF forms, add text and graphics, add links, and even add new form fields to a PDF file. This is a product that could be used if you wanted to develop a PDF form for students, parents, or customers to complete and email back to you. I did not like the form-filling function as well as PDF Filler, but it did the job and there are many excellent functions available when you use this free online product. Try it and let me know what you think.

PDF Hammer – quickly and easily rearrange the pages of your PDF files online without installing a thing! Simply upload PDF files to PDF Hammer via your web browser, perform your edits, and then save the files back to your computer. The online editor allows you to view the pages of your PDF files as you edit them. The free PDF editor lets you:

• Combine PDF. Create single, polished PDF documents by merging multiple files
• Edit PDF pages. Quickly rearrange, reorder, and delete the pages from existing PDF files.
• Secure PDF. Protect the contents of PDF files with password-based security.
• Update PDF metadata. Make PDF files more useful and usable by setting the document information (metadata) fields, including author, title, subject, and keywords.

Convert .pdf to Word – this Web 2.0 conversion tool is part of a free suite of conversion tools. I tried several different forms/applications to test the free online .pdf to Word conversion tool with fairly good results. Keep in mind that when you convert a form with this product you will need to add Word text boxes to fill in the form. The conversion process was quick and simple and all conversions occurred online without the use of an email address. The suite also allows you to convert…

• text to .PDF
• .PDF to text
• .PDF to image (.jpg)
• .PDF to .html

The screenshot below links to the conversion site. Note the additional conversion options that can be found at the top of the webpage when you link to the site.

I also discovered three additional outstanding conversion tools that I charted so that you could easily choose a free online product that could be used to convert your files to or from .PDF. Use the site logo’s below to quickly access the conversion programs:

Other Programs that convert documents to .PDF include…

• Expresspdf - converts Web pages, Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft Excel documents to PDF documents.
• pdfonline – converts Web pages, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Works to PDF documents.
• HTM2PDF – convert webpages or raw html code into PDF documents
• Kinati to PDF converter – converts numerous file formats to PDF, but incorporates a watermark for their product on the output. Also, there is a 15 MB per file size limit for the free trial conversions.
• Lettos – converts .DOC, XLS, and PPT to PDF
• PDF-o-matic – converts webpages to .PDF
• PDF4U – converts Word, PowerPoint, and Postscript documents to PDF. File size should be 30K or less to take advantage of the free conversion service.
• PrimoOnline – converts documents and images to PDF files. Supports conversion of more than 300 file formats and files up to 5MB in size.
• RSS 2 PDF – Free Online RSS, Atom or OPML to PDF Generator

Another Program that converts .PDF to other file fomats is…

• Nitro PDF software – convert .PDF to .RTF or .DOC (Word)

There are some great videos online that support curriculum. Isn’t it too bad that there are also so many questionable videos on the same sites that feature those great videos? So…if the filter police are blocking content (usually with good reason) that you would like to share with your students what can you do? I hope you don’t go to students and ask them how they bypass your school filter (though I know some educators who in desperation have taken that route). The ideas and resources mentioned in this article should make it simple to share content with your students, especially if you are willing to save video content from your home computer and transport the file to school on a thumb drive or upload the video to a different site. These are the steps I have taken in the past…

If a video has an embed option I prefer to use that option as my first means of sharing a video. Unfortunately, if a site (like YouTube) is blocked by a school filter, usually the embedded content is blocked as well. When I find a good video that I know will be blocked in school I first look for that same video on a school sanctioned site like SchoolTube or TeacherTube. Both of these popular sites feature embed options you can use to post the videos on your website or you should be able to go directly to the site from your school computer.

If school sanctioned sites like SchoolTube or TeacherTube have not posted the video I would like to use, I visit a conversion site and use the URL conversion option to save the desired video to my hard drive. The conversion sites I have tried and used successfully include….

KickYouTube – This is a simple converter that I suspect your students already know about. When someone sends you the url for a youtube video (or you find a youtube video on the site), simply replace the www. portion of the url with the word kick. It’ll look something like this:

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?=…etc etc
New: http://kickyoutube.com/watch?=…etc etc

In a couple moments you will be taken to the new site that shows the video with a menu bar above it that contains the names of common file extensions, from mp4 to avi and more. Click the file type you want, then click GO. The word Go changes to the word DOWN. When it does, right-click the word DOWN and choose Save target as…

Remember, it is likely this site is blocked by your school, but you can certainly use this neat little conversion site to save videos to your home computer or a thumb drive.

Zamzar – converts files ups to 100 MB in size and supports numerous video sites (click here to see a list of the supported sites). File formats are too numerous to list, but include the most common formats, as well as some more obscure formats.

My Music Converter – don’t be fooled by the name, this site also converts video to any one of the following formats: MP3, MP4, AVI, MPG, MOV, WMV. You can upload and convert video with a maximum size of 100 MB using the URL from YouTube. The site also allows you to convert files from your computer.

VixyNet – paste the web address for the video in the conversion box, select a format and start. Save the converted video to your computer or thumb drive.

Convert Tube – Download online videos to your PC, Mac, iPod, or mobile phone using this simple online conversion tool.

ConvertMyTube – converts YouTube files to one of several formats: .AVI, .MOV, .MP4, or .WMV

CatchYouTube – enables you to convert YouTube videos into any number of different video formats (3GP, DVD, MP4, MPG, MOV) and then to download these to your computer.

Media Convert – this site is visually cluttered, but the conversions formats that you can use are outstanding. Look for the Conversion from URL tab and you will be on your way to converting a URL to almost any format.

If one of the conversion generators I have posted above does not work for a video site you have encountered you can install and use the Video DownLoadHelper application crated as an application for Firefox. This terrific little application installs an icon on your Firefox browser toolbar that will let you “record” a video you are watching to your hard drive in Flash format (.flv). Watch the YouTube video below to learn more about this application…

Unfortunately, there is a good chance that your school computers may not support Flash (.flv) format. If that is the case, you can download and use a Flash player like the one mentioned in the above video or you can use one of the conversion tools I listed above to convert the file you saved to a format that is easily viewed using the computers in your school.

Speaking of copyright…I should mention that as a general practice, I contact the originator of any video content I come across to ask permission to use the video for educational purposes. Sometimes the video producer/originator will post a link where I can download the video file in it’s original format. Saving video for classroom presentation on a thumb drive should be fine in terms of copyright depending on the producer and his/her reply to your request. If I do not hear back from a video producer I usually download and show the video, but then I delete the file. You should not post video to a website that is open to the world at large. There are copyright rules involved. That’s why I prefer the embed option…it’s legal by YouTube’s terms, but then again we are now back to where we began…most schools block YouTube…it’s a vicious circle, isn’t it?