You have probably noticed that PDF’s are a widely used document format. That’s because they are extremely portable; you don’t have to pay a fee to view or create PDF’s and you can view or create them on virtually any computer.

PDF’s can be viewed using Adobe Reader, which is available here. Once Adobe Reader is installed, simply open the PDF file like you would open any file (by double clicking it). This will start Adobe Reader and open the document. Adobe Reader has many features which you would also find in a word processor. You can easily print the document, change the magnification of the page, display multiple pages at once, spell check the document and much more. All these features can be found in the Edit, View and Tools menus.

Creating a PDF is just as easy as viewing them. You need two things; a word processor (like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice or WordPerfect) and a PDF creator. The best creator I have found is PrimoPDF, which is freely available here.

The first step is to write the document you would like to be a PDF in a word processor. Once you are happy with the document, go into the printing options. Instead of printing the document using your normal printer, select PrimoPDF. Once you’ve pressed print, a PrimoPDF box will appear. To create a basic PDF, select the Custom tab and Cancel out of any boxes that pop up. Next, choose where you would like to save the document using the Save as field. Finally, simply click Create PDF and your PDF should appear.

Go on, give it a go!

Stored in: How To 

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Do you know how many web browsers your website works in?

Do you know how many web browsers there actually are?

The correct answer is: Lots. Hundreds! Thousands more likely.

Thankfully for us, however, there are really only two types of browsers you need to consider. If you run a fairly standard website, these will probably account for 99% of your audience.

• Firefox, Safari, Opera & Internet Explorer 7. These are the most modern and standard compliant ones. Chances are if your site works in FF and IE7 it will be fine in the others too. These browsers generally hold about 70% of the market.
• Internet Explorer 6. The name that will send a shiver up every web developer's spine. IE6 still holds something like 28% market share. It is also incredibly bad at rendering websites the way they were intended.

So what are the other browsers, you ask? Usually mobile phones, email/newsreader clients or other devices that can access the web. There are also hundreds of smaller name browsers out there, but personally I think you'd be mad to use them (for security reasons).

At Kintek, we test in Firefox, IE7 and IE6. This means we can guarantee support in about 90% of browsers, and fairly confidently state that the remaining few percent will work, too. Safari and Opera are very good browsers, which means you don't need to pull your hair out making your sites work in them.

There are also resources out there you can submit your website to that will show you what that site will look like in hundreds of different browsers, which we use from time to time.

Very soon we will see the release of Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3. When that happens, the browsers will all be so good at following Web Standards, that all this worrying about Cross-Browser-Compatibility should hopefully become a thing of the past.

Stored in: Web Design 

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If you upload images to your website and wonder why they take so long, there's a good chance you are uploading them at a very high resolution. Taking a few minutes to learn how to resize images on your computer can mean saving a good deal of time when it comes time to upload or email them.

Dimensions on your screen are measured in pixels.

That means if you want your image to fit neatly on your screen, it doesn't need to be any bigger than that. Most digital cameras these days default to enourmous resoultions of over 2000 pixels in each direction.

The best utility for quickly modifying the size of images is Irfanview. You can download Irfanview from here.

It's a very small download, quick installation and has more features than you could imagine. Opening an image in Irfanview you'll notice some numbers in the bottom left corner. This is the resolution. Pressing Ctrl+R allows you to resize your image. Make sure you have the "Preserve Aspect Ratio" box checked, select a size, and click OK.

All you have to do now is save your image. It couldn't be easier.

Irfanview even allows batch resizes (resize all your holiday photos with one click!).
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/graphics/irfantut/batchcon.html
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic50519.html

Finally, just for a quick example, you can use this form to resize an image. Give it a shot...

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"Thankyou so much, can't say enough great things about you guys."
Andrew
OzTradie

OzTradie

OzTradie is an Australian wide directory of trades and services. It enables people to search and request quotes from trades people in their local area.
Reach:	Australia
Launch Date:	March 2008
Completed to budget:	Yes
Completed to time-lines:	Yes
Web Address:	www.oztradie.com.au
Tasks:	Website Design, Flash Components, Code Fixing
Technology:	ASP, ACCESS & HTML/CSS
OzTradie engaged Kintek to redesign their website with a Web 2.0 look and feel. The new design would need to be fully integrated into the existing software and all styles throughout the site would need to be updated to suit the new design including forms, buttons, links etc accordingly. OzTradie also required a substantial amount of changes and bug fixes to their existing software. The new Web 2.0 style website design includes: Striking black and orange industrial style design Sleek black and grey gradients Large, clear and legible font size Web 2.0 style buttons Fading testimonial slideshow on home page Subtle and inobstrusive flash effects (Bunk Media) 3D boxes with inner glows Other usability / seo features: The logo links back to the home page (good for usability) Full css based design and layout

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Cymbalsplus

Cymbalsplus is an Australian based supplier of hand crafted, traditional style Cymbals and Drums. They deliver a wide range of quality instruments to amatuers and pros that meet and exceed quality standards at an accessible price range.
Reach:	Australia
Launch Date:	January 2008
Completed to budget:	Yes
Completed to time-lines:	Yes
Web Address:	www.cymbalsplus.com.au
Tasks:	Website Design Integration, Ecommerce Development with payment gateway
Technology:	PHP, MySQL & XHTML/CSS
The website design for the Cymbalsplus website was undertaken by one of our 3rd Party Partners, 2Right. Once the design was complete, we integrated it into a search engine friendly website template and commenced development of the backend ecommerce system. The website includes: Striking and modern website design (2right) Horizontal text-based navigation system with drop-downs Secure Credit card payments via the eway ecommerce payment gateway Dynamic embedded sound files for each product (no popups) Advanced filtering options to allow you to narrow down your selection based on preference Each product is unique and therefore it was important to ensure that all products can only be purchased once. This was achieved by removing the product from public view immediately upon being selected for purchase. If a successful transaction is not placed within 1 hour of a product being selected for purchase, The system automatcially removes it from the users cart and it becomes availalbe for purchase once again. Logo links back to home page (an important useability feature) The custom designed cms and ecommerce backend allow the administrator to: Manage page content (edit page text, add links etc) Manage product brands, series and types Manage product pages and upload images and sound files Export product info and order info to a csv file

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