Thing 63: PDF Form-Topia: PDF Form Filler Freeware

FoxIT Reader is a wonderful free tool to add to your PDF arsenal. Click the Play button to view a video that introduces you to FoxIT Reader and describes its wonderful features. We especially love the feature that enables us to type text in a non-editable form.

I downloaded and installed it to my flash drive so that I would not leave home without it! Would you like to have your very own copy? Log onto: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Click the DOWNLOADS link. Click Download Foxit Reader 2.3 (Installer: .exe, 2.55 MB). Click the RUN button to run the insatallation program from the FoxIt Software website. Or click the SAVE button to save the file to your computer, and run the installation program from your computer. I chose to run the installation program from the Fox It Software website. The installation process was quick and easy!

Then I opened the Post office application file I saved during THING 62. To recap: Log onto http://www.usps.com/. Click Forms. Click Employment Forms. Click PS Form 2591(PDF).

Click Tools; Typewriter Tools; Typewriter. Click in the text box you want fill in and begin to type. If the cursor doesn't land exactly where you want it to, you can click the Move cross, and drag the text box to wherever you want to place it. Then you can type to your heart's content. It is so easy!

There is one caveat, however. If you save the completed form FoxIt Reader adds a red evaluation mark to the completed form. If you buy the FoxIt Reader Pro Pack for $39.00, you can save a completed form without an evaluation mark.

You can PRINT the form without having evaluation marks added. That's what I did. It works beautifully!

I'm so glad we've had this time together. Until next time, Happy Computing!

-Mary

Thing 48 - Is there any free AND legal music out there?

music.download.com

As a library employee who works in the computer lab, I am often assisting patrons who want me to help them burn a CD or put songs on their mp3 player, but they have brought in no music. They are often infrequent computer users and think that there is all this free music out there to download from the internet. Here is the only site I found that has fairly easy to find, legal and free song downloads. Below I have listed the steps to get songs they might want to listen to (more popular/top 40 stuff.) If a patron wants free and legal MP3s to download and burn onto a CD or add to their mp3 players, this is an option. This only works if they don’t have a certain artist/song that they want.

1. Go to http: music.download.com
2. Click on the yellow “110,462” in the green bar. It reads “110,462 Free MP3s” (The number might have changed if new songs were added or removed.)
   
3. Sort by “total listens” to get more popular artists listed first.
4. Click on the blue “see all free tracks” line.
5. If a song is available to download you will see“Download Free MP3” next to the song title. Not all songs will have this option.
   
6. Click on "Download Free MP3" download the song.

Discovery exercise:
1. Follow the steps above.
2. Download the song of your chosing and save it to your desktop or mp3 player.
3. Write a blog post about this website. Did you find it easy to use? Do you think it would be easy for patrons to use? Do you know of any other websites that might be useful for this purpose?