Since it is Valentine’s Day, it is only appropriate that some link love is in order!!

• Did you know that the author of WordPress for Dummies, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, also has a site where you can ask questions about WordPress, get the latest WordPress news and themes? The site is called WP Assist and it should certainly be added to your bookmarks or feed reader.
• And while we are on the topic of Lisa - I am happy to announce that I have joined her team of fabulous designers at e.Webscapes. I have long been a fan of her group’s work and the timing just couldn’t have been any better.
• One of the most commonly overlooked areas of site maintenance is the footer/copyright. Leah at Working Solo wants to know if your site is still living in the past or have you got it together? Leah’s business is growing, too, and I will be helping her out as well as needed. I love working with such pros as Leah and Lisa! It makes the whole process much more rewarding.
• Easton of Business Blogwire fame wants to help you improve your blog! He just released an extensive 52-Point scorecard for your blog. How do you measure up?
• Dawud at dmiracle has been asking a lot of questions lately - he really knows how to make us think! This week he raised the single most important question about your business - WHY?
• Gayla at MomGadget has discovered a very cool new tool for you to use if you have monetized your web site. The tool is called Pubmatic and it is like wearing new blog shoes!! You have to check it out for yourself.
• Wendy at eMoms at Home shares her secret of the $1000 business card. What is your secret weapon?
• Next time you are looking to design an ad (or have one designed for you), check out Randa’s post on the anatomy of a great blog ad.
• Somedays you just want to crawl back in bed and call the whole day off. Ed from Evolving Times wants to change that! He has 7 ways to get a positive start to the day.

And for a good chuckle, I just couldn’t resist sharing this one with you -  12 Reasons Why a Geek will Steal your Girlfriend.

I must have married a geek (a good looking one at that) because my husband knows that the way to my heart is through technology and gadgets, so he bought me a Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator for my car since he knows I will be driving to various gymnastics meets over the next few months. That little gadget really got my heart going when I figured out that I can use my cell phone hands free through its Bluetooth capability - way cool.

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and don’t OD on the chocolate and candy hearts!

At least three times this week, the topic of converting a document to a PDF file has come up. The general web population has become pretty comfortable with downloading and viewing PDF documents, thanks to the free Adobe PDF Reader application, however, more users are finding the benefits of creating PDFs from their documents and they aren’t sure how to do it.

WHAT IS A PDF FILE?

Created by Adobe Systems in 1993, a PDF, or Portable Document Format, allows you to share any document, created in any software with anyone, on any platform. Basically, it means if I create a document in PageMaker and you want to see it, you can - and you don’t need to have PageMaker to do it.

When the PDF application was first released, the only way you could read or create a PDF file was by using Adobe’s software, which is not always affordable for the average user. Adobe released a free version of Adobe Reader, which made it much more feasible for the general public to receive the PDF files.

So reading one is easy, but how do you create one?

CREATING A PDF FILE USING AN ONLINE SERVICE

If you need to create a PDF file quickly and just don’t have the time to research the best PDF creators, download software, or learn something new, Adobe offers a FREE trial of their online PDF creator. With the Adobe online PDF creator, you can convert your first 5 PDFs for free. If you think this is a service you want to use a lot more, you can get a subscription for it.

Other online options:

• PDF Online
• Online PDF Converter
  
• Express PDF

CREATING A PDF FILE USING A DESKTOP APPLICATION

If you think you will need to create PDF files frequently, it is definitely worth downloading a PDF creator application, or if you need your PDF files to be high-end print quality, you might just need to fork out the bucks for the real thing. A lot of design software comes with PDF capabilities built in. If you are using any of them (like Dreamweaver came with Macromedia Flash Paper, a great PDF creator that I use daily), you may want to recheck your installation disks. You may have something already.

When using a desktop PDF creator, it is often as easy as sending a document to a printer. Instead of the end product being a piece of paper coming out of your printer, you will “print” the document to a PDF file that you can then email, upload or share with others electronically.

Other PDF creators give you a one-click conversion option as well. It is just a matter of reading the documentation and playing around with the software.

Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0 is about $400, however, there are plenty of more affordable options (all under $100):

• ScanSoft PDF Converter 4 Professional
• Nitro PDF Professional
• MyPDF Maker

Free is good, too:

• CutePDF
• DocuDesk - 5 free trials
• Firefox add-on Loop to PDF lets you upload, convert and combine PDF files from your toolbar
• PDF995
• PDF Online

This was merely an introduction to PDF files and what they are. Depending on your needs or your end user needs, there are endless applications, add ons, additional capabilities and such you can get into. If you are sending files to a print publication, dealing with secure documents, multi authors, user interactivity and other challenges, it is well worth the investment into learning advanced PDF techniques.

And for all my readers who are already very adept with PDF conversion, I know there are other tools that are easy to use, powerful, and affordable. What do you use?  

What were you doing during the Super Bowl last night? Being the geek that I am, I was watching it for the commercials only and voicing my opinion about them via Twitter.

Jeremiah Owyang used Twitter to create a MicroMedia event that resulted in more than 2500 opinions on the commercials, their effectiveness, brand relevance, and overall appeal. As Twitterers, like myself, watched the ads we sent our comments to a Twitter address that Jeremiah had set up just for the event. Using one of the Twitter search engines (I was using Twitter Search) I was able to read what others had to say about the commercials, too. Jeremiah has already written a post about the aftermath (A Night at the Twitterbowl), his analysis and some tips to brand managers.

So what ads were my favorite? Overall, I felt the field was pretty weak this year. Too boring, too predictable, and downright stupid in many cases. But if I have to choose, my Top 5 were:

1. Budweiser’s Rocky/Clydesdales spot - the Clydesdales are always a classic
2. Coca-Cola - Charlie Brown and balloons parade
3. Toyata’s Big Wheel races - appealing to the 70s/80s kid in many of us
4. Diet Pepsi Max - the Chris Katan cameo made it successful
5. Victoria’s Secret - excellent timing, tie in to both the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day

Did you miss the game and the commercials? You can see them all in the order they appeared at www.myspace.com/superbowlads.

What were your favorites? Which ones did you really dislike (Amp Energy, Careerbuilder, and Salesgenie for me)? And which ones do you think the companies got their money’s worth out of?