This is a really easy tip and, surprising, many aren’t aware that you can add, delete, and manipulate your PDFs in Adobe.  You do have to have the full-blown version of Adobe Acrobat.  Adobe Reader will not do.

Inserting a PDF into a PDF

If you have an existing PDF and want to add additional information consisting of another PDF document, without having to send over seperate and multiple files in an email, here are your steps:

1. Open your first document, the one you want to add the information to.
2. In the menu bar, select Document.
3. In the drop down menu, select Insert Pages…
4. A file directory will appear.  Locate and select the PDF file you want to insert.
5. An Insert Pages prompt will display.
   1. First choose the location.  Your choices in the drop down menu will be Before or After.
   2. Then select the Page you want it to start.  The radio buttons are First, Last, and Page __ of ## (you type in the page location in the box.  It will look like this:

When you say OK, remember that the beginning of the document will be placed “Before” or “After” the very first page of the existing document you are working in, the very last page, or within the document at a specific page location.  I usually select “Before” First (so it starts at the very beginning of the document), or “After” Last (so it is merely appended to the back end of the document, or “After” a specific page location (so it is placed in the middle of the document after a certain page).

If you want to see how the full document is laid out.  On the left side, there are six icons (four left-side top and two left-side bottom).  Right-click on the very first icon that looks like two pages and a vertical display of a thumbnail preview of your pages will appear.

Multiple Program Documents

If you are finding difficulty in getting different program information into one document (i.e., inserting Excel information into a Word document), just convert your documents into PDF and insert the pages with the tip I just explained.  I have worked with a lot of administrative staff that just hate being bothered with the hassle of manipulating different program information into one consolidated document.  This usually consists of Inserting an Object, or other techniques.

Manipulate Your PDF

You want to move your PDF pages into a different order.  This is really simple.  All you have to do is bring up your vertical thumbnail view I mentioned earlier, click-and-drag the page to its new location.  The vertical slider will move up and down till you get where you want to drop your page.

Deleting PDF Pages

The easiest way to do this is to just mouse-click on the thumbnail page or by pressing down on the the Ctrl button, you can select as many pages as you want.  Once you have made your selection, hit the Delete key.  You will be prompted if you are sure you want to delete the page(s).  Just click OK.  Super easy!

Extraction

Lets say you have a large PDF document that you want to save specific pages as another file.  Follow the same procedure as above to Insert Pages…, but instead select Extract Pages… Select the specific pages you want saved as a document, and don’t forget to select the radio button that says Extract Pages As Separate Files, and click OK.  It will look like this:

A “Browser For Folder” prompt will appear, select the directory location for the separated pages to be saved and click OK.  This process does not delete the pages from your existing document. It’s like saving a copy of those pages, and eliminating extraneous pages, to a separate file of only the information you want to dessiminate.  I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, there are a lot of things you can do with PDFs in Adobe Acrobat, but these are just a few really useful and easy tips for putting together, consolidating, manipulating, or refining a PDF document.

If you like this tip, please share and let your friends know where they can get some useful tips and information.  I enjoy getting your feedback and please let me know if you have a question about something that is driving you crazy and you really believe there has got to be an easier solution.  I’ll see what I can do.

This is your life. Don’t let other people tell you who you are. We are all unique and each of us are set apart with our individual talents. We try to conform to the masses and end up feeling lost. We adjust our personalities to feel a part of and end up feeling misunderstood, different, or weird. To tell you the truth we all feel like that.

If we were meant to be cookie-cutter replicas, creation would have been designed that way. And how boring would that have been? When something bad happens to you, learn from it, take something away from it, and use the experience to become a better person and your choices in the future.

Get pissed off enough! Get passionate. Do something about it. If it truly is the system being unfair to a select demographic that you fall in, do something about it. Complaining about it doesn’t change it. Being passionate is the motivator, taking action makes changes happen. Let your passion come through and then do everything you can to change it. Be a force to be reckoned with.

Some Examples of Very Unique Individuals.

• Lady Gaga

• Isaac Mizrahi

• Mother Teresa

• Oprah Winfrey

• Rosa Parks

• Helen Keller

• Amelia Earhart

• Florence Nightingale

• Anne Frank

• Margaret Thatcher

• Sandra Day O’Connor

• Harriet Tubman

• Marie Curie

• Harriet Beecher Stowe

There are so many others, but I hope this list gets you to thinking about people who inspire you, that your story can make a difference. Did any of these people think they would be remembered in history? They are the hero in their own stories and took action to make happen what they believed in. They are unique and different and found their voice along the way in the process.

Every story is made up of a sequence, or series, of events. The way events are ordered to create your story is called the plot. The plot is all the action that takes place during your story. Every story has the following elements:

The Setting.

The setting of a story is the place and time of when a story takes place. Does your story take place at home, work, school? Is it in the past, present, or future?

The characters.

The characters are the people, animals, and other creatures in your story. There are generally two types of characters in a story: the hero and the villain. The hero is the main good character of the story. The hero is the character we are hoping will succeed, defeat the villain, and be happy. It’s safe to say that you get to be the hero as you are the star of your story. The villain is the bad character in the story. The villain tries to prevent the hero from succeeding or being happy. You can have more than one villain.

The Sequence.

Exposition. This is the beginning of your plot. It gives the background, history, and details of the characters past to understand the personalities and present lives of the individuals. It is important to understand these background details in order to understand the plot. The exposition is background information on the characters and setting that provides information about events and may explain what happened before your story begins.

Conflict.

The conflict is the problem faced by the characters. The hero wants something or is trying to help others. The villain is trying to stop the hero from succeeding. The conflict is the most important part of the story. This is the part that makes the story so interesting and exciting. The hero must confront the conflict and find resolution. The story does not end until the conflict is resolved. You can’t cheat the story and give up. Besides that is way to easy and your story goes on as is without resolution. To end the story, you must resolve the conflict. Have you identified the actual conflict of your story? It may not be what you think. It could be something quite simple or something much more complex.

Climax.

This is the part of the story when the conflict of the plot is resolved. This is usually the most exciting part of the story. The climax is sometimes referred to as the “turning point” where the plot of the story changes for better or for worse for the hero. This is where we want the hero, you, to defeat your villain in the climax.

Resolution.

The resolution is the end of your story. It occurs after the climax. This is where you learn what happens to the characters after the conflict is resolved.

You already have elements of your story. You have your setting, characters, and conflict. Detail your exposition; some history and background on your setting and your characters that bring clarification to the conflict you are facing. Then describe your conflict. What are you trying to accomplish and what is holding you back? What or who is your villain?

This part of your story has already been written.

Let me say this again… This is your life. You are the star in your own movie. How do you want it to turn out? Do you want people to remember you, after meeting you, that you were authentic and interesting? That you inspired them to remember what makes them special and unique?

Now take a few moments to write out the rest of your story. Really put yourself in it. Feel it, touch it, smell it, breath it. Be very descriptive in everything that you do as if you have already done it. Etch it in your mind the exact process of what you did to achieve your resolution. Exactly what steps did you take in the course of your climax? Detail what you saw, the people you met along the way, what you did. Feel it in your bones and write it down. Then read it aloud. If it does not resonate with you and inspire you to act on your story, edit it, rewrite it, bring it to life.

In everything you do, aspire to be the hero of your own story. I know you can do it and that inspires the rest of us.

There are some really fabulous techniques that will simplify selecting text, files, and documents in a flash.

 

Ctrl+A

In a document, it will select everything on every page. If you are in a directory, it will select all files and all directories within that directory. If you are on a webpage, it will select everything on that webpage. This is pretty cool.

 

Single Click

In a paragraph. Single click the left button of your mouse anywhere within a document or webpage and that is where your cursor will be placed.

Left of a paragraph. Single click the left button of your mouse to the left side of a paragraph and you will have highlighted and selected that entire line. You will know you are to the left of the paragraph when you pointer icon turns from a the “I” symbol to an arrow. If you are working in a table, single click the left button of your mouse at the top of a column (make sure your pointer icon looks like an arrow above that column) and it will select the entire column. It works the same way with the rows.

In a directory. Single click the left button of your mouse will select the directory or file you click on.

 

Ctrl-Click

In a paragraph. Holding down the Ctrl button and single clicking the left mouse button will select an entire sentence, including the period.

Left of a paragraph. Holding down the Ctrl button and single clicking the left mouse button is the same as Ctrl-A. It will select the entire document.

In a directory. Select your first directory or file. While holding down the Ctrl, select another directory and file that is not next to the first directory or file you have already selected (so you can see the affect). This technique allows you to select multiple files and directory that are random throughout the directory. By Ctrl-Clicking on an already selected file or directory will unselect it.

 

Shift-Click

In a paragraph. This one is a little bit interesting. Click your cursor to where you want it in the document, then Shift-Click somewhere else in the document and you will have only selected from the first location, where you placed the cursor, to the second location, the location you clicked on with the Shift-Click.

Left of a paragraph. Place the cursor once again where you want it. I would suggest somewhere in the middle of a line so you can see the affect. Shift-Click to the left a paragraph in another section of that paragraph or document. What you should see is either, 1. If you Shift-Clicked the side of the paragraph above where you placed the cursor, you will have selected all the lines up to the location where your cursor was located; or 2. If you Shift-Clicked the side of the paragraph below where you placed the cursor, you will have selected from the starting point of your cursor to the end of the line you Shift-Clicked on.

In a directory. Holding down the shift key, click on any file or directory. While still holding down the shift key select another directory or file that is not next to the first directory you selected. You will have selected multiple files in that sequence.

 

Double-Click

In a paragraph. Double-Click within a paragraph will select the word.

Left of a paragraph. Double-Click to the left of the paragraph will select the entire paragraph.

 

Triple-Click

In a paragraph. Triple-Click within a paragraph will select the entire paragraph.

Left of a paragraph. Triple-Click to the left of the paragraph will select the entire document. Same as Ctrl-A.

 

Wrapping It Up

Let’s take this a step further and give you choices with the selections you have made.

In a document. Right mouse click will open a panel of choices. Your selection within that panel will only be applied to the selected and highlighted text. The hot-keys that I referred to in previous posts will work here too.

In a directory.  Right click within a directory, a panel will appear with its own choices. The copy, cut, paste hot-keys will work here too. Only what you selected will be copied, cut, pasted, or deleted. Here is the cool thing in the directory, if you select “Open,” all the documents you selected will start opening simultaneously. Now you don’t have to go back each time to open each document separately when you need to work on multiple files.

Once again, I may have chosen a topic where I bit off more than I can chew. I’m hoping that I presented it in a way that is easy to understand and formatted it so that it is easy to quickly view the function of that technique.

This post I want to say “Thank You” to my daughter, Mo, who inspired me.

Hot-Key combination tip for the week. You’ll notice that there are some shortcut keys that just go together. Printing, saving, and closing your documents are the perfect completion to a project.

Ctrl+S
Holding down the Ctrl key, tap the letter S. If the document has been previously saved, meaning it has already been given a document file name, it will save over the current version of that document. If it is an originating file and has not yet been saved, you will be prompted to give it a file name.

Ctrl+S is a really easy way to make quick saves. Hopefully you have your Word program Options automatically saving a backup in reasonable increments of time in the event that you computer goes down. You don’t want to lose 10 or 20 minutes worth of work. When you lose it, anything is more than you want to rethink and redo. Nevertheless, Ctrl+S is a quick save when you get interrupted or need to step away immediately.

Ctrl+P
While holding down the Ctrl key, tap the letter P. This will bring up the print menu. If you are printing to the printer that is tagged as your default, all you have to do is press the Enter key. If you have choices of printers, this is where you get to use your mouse to make the selection of an alternate printer if you will not be using the default printer and press Enter.

Alt+F4
Once again, hold down the Alt key and tap the F4 key. This hot-key will not only close out your document, but closes the program as well. If the document has had any edits applied to it before executing this hot-key, a menu will ask you if you want to save the document. If it is an originating document that has yet to be giving a document file name, you will be prompted to save the document. Answering “yes” to save the document will display your file directory to apply a document name and the folder to save in.

When I know that I am finished making edits to the document, doing it in this order:
     Ctrl+S, Enter, Ctrl+P, Enter, Alt+F4
is seamless.

All these hot-keys will work in any of the Microsoft programs the same.  These keys will automatically prompt you to what you need to do next, so you never have to worry about exiting a document and leaving edits behind, unless you choose to.

You’re ready to move onto the next task at hand.

Bonus Hot-Key Tips
While discussing with colleagues some of their favorite quick hot-keys they like, I would like to offer you the two that you might find indispensable.

Windows Logo Key+M
If you work in an open cubicle where your monitor faces people who enter from behind you and find yourself working on private or sensitive information, such as your banking, you can quickly minimize everything on your desktop by pressing down the Windows logo key and M. Instantly all that will be viewable is your wallpaper.

Windows Logo Key+L
This hot-key requires you have a Windows password. Walking away from your computer, leaving it unattended for even five minutes, leaves your information available to anyone walking by your desk. Kind of like leaving your purse or wallet out in the open around your desk for sticky fingers or the curious, instead of securing it away in a drawer. Pressing the Windows logo key and L will automatically lock the computer out, displaying the password access prompt.

Many of the shortcuts I like to share with you eliminates excess prompts and overall time in execution. If you find these helpful or have any suggestions, write me a comment and let me know. All suggestions are appreciated and helpful to other readers.

This is a back-to-basics hot-key tip.  I’m always amazed how many people still use the mouse to scroll through the menu bar to access the copy and paste functions.  These were probably the first of many shortcut keys that I learned when WordPerfect was running on DOS.  If I can get you hooked on the value of shortcut keys, or as I refer to them as hot-keys, it is the Ctrl-C (copy) and Ctrl-V (paste).  Another value in these keys is that they are used in nearly every other program, definitely in all of the Microsoft Suite programs.

Hot-Key: Ctrl-C
Just like when accessing the menu bar, select/highlight the text, information, graphic and with the Ctrl key pressed down, push the letter “C” key on your keyboard.  That’s it. Your information has been copied to the clipboard.  This information can be used over and over until you replace the information with the “copy” function.

Hot-Key: Ctrl-V
Now switch over to another program or location in the document you are working, placing the cursor where you want the information, and with the Ctrl key pressed down, push the letter “V” key.  There it is, pasted into your designated location.

Bonus Hot-Key: Ctrl-X
This is an alternate “copy” key.  It is refered to as “Cut” in the menu bar.  If you find that the information would be better placed in a different location, Ctrl-X will delete the selected/highlighted information, storing it in the clipboard to be used over and over until you replace the information with something else using the “cut” or “copy” functions.

Combination Key Tip Using Alt-Tab
Using the Alt-Key hot-key tip that I gave you last week is the perfect ensemble key combination you will find.  I use these four hot-key tips throughout my working day when manipulating data and information constantly.  You could say these are my “staple” shortcut keys.  Copying information and switching between programs and duplicating the information with these hot-key tips is a tremendous timesaver.  You will find your co-workers fascinated at watching you flip through programs, copying, and pasting without mousing around.

In a later blog I will explain how to quickly locate and select text without your mouse.  Soon you will find yourself maneuvering around your documents rarely having to mouse through your menu and scroll bars, completing work in half the time.

Now we’re making computing fun!

I have a great network of friends I can always rely on to give me advice and suggestions. They are smart, successful, and know what they want. So I will enlist them for advice on how my blog is coming along in regards to presentation, style, and content. My friend, we will call him “Frank,” relayed some things that he thought I may want to consider that he believes are improvements.

Frank is a very direct person and likes his information straight and to the point. As you can see, I am a bit of a storyteller and I like to illustrate with examples, which may cause me to careen off point. So, back to the point. He loves what I’ve come up with here, but likes his information direct and to the point. “Tell me what I want and/or need to know so I can move on” kind of guy. I respond with “KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid.”

The suggestions and tips I plan to give here are simple, easy, and fast. They are designed to be executed without having to seek out an IT genius and they will save you time. You will be able to accomplish the same task in a fraction of the time that you did before.

Hot-Key Tip: Alt-Tab

Frank is a person who “normally” has around 20 applications running at one time, consisting of web pages, documents, programs, and accessories going at any given time. I try to do everything that needs to be done by not leaving my keyboard to execute the process without reaching for my mouse and searching. This takes my right hand off the home keys and my attention is now on navigating a mouse in a seek-and-destroy mission. This tip will allow you to navigate through all your open applications without having to grab your mouse and look around for what you want.

You can have any of your windows minimized, maximized, or anywhere in between, or a combination of any of those to execute this.

First, hold down the Alt key. Then, while holding the Alt key down, tap the Tab key. This will display a window of all the applications you have currently running with a description of the highlighted application. It will look something like this:

If you continue to hold down the Tab key, you will rifle through probably ten pages in one second, unable to view the description as it passes through. So tapping the Tab key, always holding the Alt key down, you will be able to view each document and description to get to the one you want. Once you release the Alt key, the desired page will lift onto the screen and is now your active application.

So this one is for you Frank. Sometimes you really are my “idea” guy.