A new blog post from NiXPS, XPS Variable Data example with the NiXPS SDK, details how NiXPS SDK can be used to combine an XPS template and data pulled from a database.
This process is called variable data processing and saves you time and money when you need to fill out the same template (e.g. an Invoice form) multiple times — with every occurrence using changing data.
From XPS Variable Data example with the NiXPS SDK:
The reason I say that XPS really shines here, is for a few reasons:
It is very easy (and free) to …

Do you like listening to podcasts? Do you like PDFs? Do you work with PDFs? If you answered yes to both questions, then I have got some good news for you: Acrobat Technical Evangelist, Joel Geraci, will soon be starting The PDF Developer Junkie Podcast.
The podcast will be audience driven and will rely on listeners to email in recorded questions about developing with PDF.
I will post a link to the podcast as soon as the first episode is live.

Plastic Logic have announced a new electronic-reading device aimed at the business market.
The device mirros a 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper in size, is thinner than a pad of paper, has built-in wireless, and unlike the Kindle, will include native support for a number of common file types:
The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books.
Plastic Logic’s research indicates that professionals tend to read more business content than recreational content, …

Despite decades of talk about the fabled paperless office, consumption of paper has continued to grow exponentially. In Australia, 1.4 million tonnes of printing and fine paper are used every year, with the average paper document being copied 19 times. And to add insult to injury, it’s estimated that only 11% of office paper is being recycled.
Enter Project Paper-less. An organization that’s making an audacious call-to-action for Australians to take up the challenge of reducing their paper usage at home and in the office.
Project Paper-less aims to:
Project Paper-less aims to …

Adobe have announced plans to immediately discontinue the development of FlashPaper… Although some once touted FlashPaper as a PDF-killer, it never really fulfilled it’s promise in that regard. And, as you can imagine, any lingering PDF-killer thoughts, were quickly laid to rest when Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005.

In a recent blog series by NiXPS listed 9 business benefits of XPS:

Benefit #1: XPS is ideal for sharing and publishing
Benefit #2: XPS is truly ‘what you see is what you get’
Benefit #3: XPS is a reliable format for the future
Benefit #4: XPS is safe
Benefit #5: XPS is easy
Benefit #6: XPS is efficient
Benefit #7: XPS is a natural extension of .NET and WPF
Benefit #8: XPS saves you money
Benefit #9: XPS leverages your investment in Windows

Those benefits sound nice enough, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and from …

Long-time PDF expert Duff Johnson has shared some of his initial thoughts on Google’s new Chrome browser:
I had wondered if Google was going to (try to) write their own PDF viewer for Chrome.  Not this time; the installer seems to find and use the Acrobat/Reader plugin, assuming it’s already installed into Firefox or (presumably) IE. That’s a good start.
Too bad, that would have been a handy feature. Luckily, I think there’s a good chance this feature will be added in the future, since Google Doc’s users can already view PDFs in …

Up until recently I had been thinking about buying a Kindle. From the reviews I’ve read, it sounds pretty good, and not having to carry around physical books is a real bonus.
So as preparation for buying a Kindle I thought I’d try reading a few e-books on my Eee PC, to see if I could stand reading books on an electronic device.
It turns out that a) I don’t mind reading books on an electronic device, if the device is right, and b) I don’t need a Kindle any more because …

Over the past week we have blogged a little (here and here) about viewing documents online as Flash documents, instead of PDFs. Today I am going to look at a few of the online platforms that can be used to publish your documents online.
Scribd – Scribd is a document sharing website that claims to host over 350,000 documents. Users can upload their documents (pdf, doc, xls, etc) and choose to share them with everyone or only specific people. Documents are viewed online using iPaper, a document viewer for the web (Flash of …

Continuing with the theme of viewing certain documents online (here and here) instead of downloading them, I just came across a Firefox extension that lets you quickly add online files (doc, pdf, xls, ppt and every Open Document format) to Google Docs. According to the developer:
You right click any document link on the web, choose “Send to Google Docs” from the context menu and the file will immediately open as a Google Document. The file also gets saved permanently in your Google Docs account.
Similar functionality has existed for a while now in Gmail …

I’ve had the inside tip that a new website, pdfscripting.com, a site focused on scripting Acrobat and PDF — with a healthy dose of JavaScript is on the boil. Using a subscription model, you’ll have the opportunity to access a swagger of videos, script examples, automation tools, and cut-and-paste libraries.
It’s owned and operated by WindJack solutions– who’ve been knee-deep in Acrobat & PDF since version 5.
I’ve taken a look through the beta site and I’m quite impressed — you can sign up to get the word when it’s publicly released. …

If you’re sick of waiting for PDFs to load in your browser or downloading them to your desktop, then check out PdfMeNot.com. This site helps you to quickly view PDFs — without a PDF Reader insight — by converting the PDFs to Flash documents and then quickly displaying the result in your browser.
My first thought when I saw this website was — wow, these guys must really not like PDFs — but after using it a few times I can see that it could be useful for some people, especially …

In 2006 Microsoft revealed XPS (codenamed “Metro”) to the world, it’s an an XML based final-form-file-format (try saying that 3 times in a row), with similar goals to PDF.

Between September 23 – 25, 2008, Acrobat and PDF Experts from all over the world will be descending on the Midwest, for the third annual PDF Central Conference. This year the conference will be held in the Minneapolis Convention Center, and will feature renowned speakers such as Ted Padova, Duff Johnson and Thom Parker.

There’s a useful tip from Karl in the comments section for the post Free Online PDF Converts on how to extract text from a PDF into an Excel file, for free. I thought I’d share it with everyone:
Download Foxit Reader 2.3 from Foxit Software at http://www.foxitsoftware.com/.
1. Fire it up and open the document.
2. Activate the selection tool.
3. Highlight the table that you want to convert.
4. Copy it to the clipboard.
5. Open Notepad and paste the text.
6. Save the file and open in Excel.
7. The Text Import Wizard should display.
8. Use …