Snap2PDF – An Easy Way to Manage Your Documents

Managing documents is always difficult, especially when you have a lot of them. Certainly, it is not possible to carry all of them wherever you move. But it is easy to carry your iPhone/iPad anywhere you go. You must be wondering what makes this app so special. With just a few simple clicks of your mobile’s camera, you can manage your documents perfectly using Snap2PDF.

About the app

Snap2PDF is a universal app, designed for both iPhone and iPad, for organizing your whiteboards, receipts, business cards, magazine articles, posters, print outs, coupons and newspaper clippings. All you have to do is take a snap of the document and the app converts it to PDF format right away. Now you can share the converted files through SMS and email. It recognizes various languages like English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, Czech, Danish etc.

Working of the app

Snap2PDF is a very simple app to handle. Just take snaps of your documents and they get converted to PDF files automatically. You are provided with many options to manage your documents. For creating a PDF document, you can either take a snap using your device’s camera or select a photo from your album. Your PDF documents can be edited and managed, as per your requirements. You can add/delete/rearrange pages in your document effortlessly. You can also organize your documents under different categories by tapping the category, naming it and adding the document to it. Searching for a document can be easily done using the keyword search option.
Snap2PDFSnap2PDF allows you to share your documents in .pdf format through email. The most convenient feature of this app is that you can create a Dropbox account, select documents and export them to your Dropbox account for safe management. You can open a document as a PDF file in other PDF viewer apps like iBooks, FileExplorer etc. You can make your document search easy by choosing the preferred language of index. There is also an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) facility to automatically pick out blocks of text from images.

Snap2PDF is a very useful app that provides multiple ways of managing, securing and sharing files easily. It costs $2.99 and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Steps you can take to protect your identity and assets

Identity theft ravages the financial world about like a force-five tornado. With just the four digits of your social security number, a sophisticated “digital impersonator” not only has power to take all your money but also to open credit accounts and secure mortgages totalling potentially a million dollars or more.

More credit cards increases vulnerability to identity threatNaturally, the more assets you have and the better your credit scores, the more damage a skilled identity thief can do. Therefore, although you do not want incipient paranoia to drive you into the company of identity-protection scammers, you do want to safeguard your accounts against intruders and thieves of all descriptions.

First, follow your common sense. Shred everyday documents that reveal your financial information, keep sensitive documents out of your trash, and digitize your most important financial information, protecting it with impenetrable passwords. Then, develop healthy habits that will keep your personal information safe wherever you go and whatever you do:

Empty your purse and wallet

Make cash the official currency of all your commerce. The more you use credit and debit cards, the more you make them vulnerable; you obviously increase the risk of losing them, but you also put them at-risk of password theft or “skimming”, the use of electronic devices to capture the numbers on their code strips.

On an ordinary day, you need only your driver’s license, your health insurance identification your roadside assistance card, and the one credit card you use for emergencies – the one with the best, most efficient theft and fraud protection. Carry enough cash to cover your transactions and provide for an emergency stop at a coffee shop! You’re safe and good to go.

Refuse to do business over the phone

Under no circumstances should you ever transact business over the phone, because you have absolutely no way of authenticating the person on the other end really is who he or she claims.

Automated transactions give you a few more protections than voice transactions, but they still come with risk that a determined identity thief may steal the numbers you send and therefore gain control of your accounts.

Especially refuse to share the last-four digits of your social security and charge account numbers with telephone service representatives. Exercise similar caution about internet transactions, double-checking to make sure your easy-access, user-friendly bill-paying and shopping sites have high-quality encryption and other hack protections.

Create and re-create strong passwords

If you watch crime dramas and mysteries, you know that every sleuth, whether good guy or bad guy, easily guesses the most common passwords – your birthday, your children’s and pets’ names and your address.

Sophisticated computer spies have compiled lists of the top twenty most frequently used password formulae, all of which are so painfully obvious even the “Home Alone” villains could guess them. Use your own criminal mind to develop passwords only you could know. Then, change those insidious, super-sneaky passwords about once each month.

Keep your distance

When you must use the ATM, or when you use your debit card at the gas station and in other public locations, make sure people are not peering over your shoulder, and shield the keypad with your free hand while you enter the magic digits.

Whatever precautions you take in semi-public situations, take them to an exponent of ten when you use a credit or debit card at a major retailer, because you are extremely exposed as you use the elevated keypad at the check-out stand.

Check every “mistake”

Good financial management requires you reconcile your account statements every month. Personal safety demands you check and reconcile your accounts at least every week. Use your banks’ and creditors’ websites to review deposits and purchases, making sure your own records match theirs. Whenever you see a discrepancy, call the customer service line immediately, engaging the representative until you feel satisfied they have corrected the error or you have taken proper steps to protect your account and assets.

“I used to take pride in being a trusting person,” says one identity theft victim, “No more! Now, I take pride in how safety-conscious I have become.” Stressing the emotional and practical consequences of identity theft, “You cannot imagine how vulnerable and violated you feel when an invisible thief steals everything you have worked to save. Then, you cannot imagine how much work it takes to reconstruct your genuine financial self.” Feeling a little bit safer and more secure because she has survived the ravages of identity theft, the victim says, “Now, a thief will find it easier to break into Fort Knox than into my accounts.”

Five Web Alternatives to Desktop Applications

I’m a big fan of web based applications. I don’t have anything against desktop applications, but there are many limitations with desktop software, especially for someone who like me who is constantly on the move. Higher cost, platform dependence, installation problems (space, hardware, buggy installers) are a few of the reasons I try to avoid desktop applications.

My reluctance to use desktop applications led to me using a few highly useful web alternatives. Mentioned below are the five which I find the most useful.

Aviary Tools

If you are looking to edit images then this is the perfect tool for you.  It’s a great alternative to desktop image editors like Photoshop, Illustrator etc. It has a comprehensive set of tools to do all sorts of things with your image.

You can import your own images to do some quick changes and help text pops up from time to time to ease the process. It has a comprehensive set of tools for vector editing and even audio editing. Try Aviary Tools.

Creately

Creately is a diagramming application that is a great alternative to software like Microsoft Visio and Omnigraffle. It supports technical diagrams like flowcharts, UML and business diagrams like organization charts, mind maps etc.

Creately's LogoIf you are looking to draw a quick flowchart or an organization chart then this is the tool to do it. It also has online collaboration support, meaning you two people can work together in the same diagram, excellent if you are working with clients that are in different locations. Check out Creately.

WobZip

As you will probably guess by the name, this is a great alternative to software like WinZip. It supports popular file types like ZIP, RAR and as an added bonus scans the files for viruses as well.

Most downloads are packaged as zipped files so this is an extremely useful tool to have. The best thing is, you don’t have to sign up or provide you email just to get the file. Try WobZIp.

Google Docs

I consider this a must have tool for anyone. It’s a great alternative to Microsoft office and offers controlled sharing with others as well. You can prepare documents, design slideshow presentations, create spreadsheets and much more.

As mentioned, the online sharing ability makes it very easy for many people to work on the same document. You do need a Google account to use the service, but most people have one these days, so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Check out Google Docs.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is the latest addition to my online tool set. Wunderlist is an online to do list manager, which also has some cool additional features which makes it very productive. If you want they provide desktop applications for many devices that automatically sync with your online account.

You also have the ability to share lists with other users. This is especially useful if you are working with few others on some small tasks. You can easily see what they have completed and what needs to be done. Try Wunderlist.

Mentioned above are five tools that have helped me become more productive and efficient in my day to day work.  There are hundreds more web alternatives out there so if you can think of a similar one make sure to mention in the comments section. In the meantime try out these services and enjoy the freedom of web based applications.