Nov 10
11
Lest We Forget
Did You Know?
“Lest” is an Old English word that originated before the 12th century. While not as commonly used as it once was throughout the English speaking world, it is now predominantly used only in North America. According to Webster, the word “Lest” has two meanings. The first is an archaic form of “that”. For example, “Afraid lest he should fail.”
Today many countries around the world are focusing on its more current and relevant meaning, “For fear that” as in “Lest we forget.” Today we recall the official end of World War I on November 11, 1918 and remember the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians who lost their lives to protect us in times of war then and since.
Lest we forget… People get upset these days when anywhere from a few to several thousand get killed in a random act of violence or senseless act of terrorism. Can you even begin imagine what thousands of people getting killed on a daily basis over a period of 4 years might be like, never knowing if someone you know will ever come back to you again, fearing that someone will come knock on your door… or that someone in particular won’t ever again? 9 MILLION – that’s how many souldiers died in WWI alone. They may not have been people you know. In fact most of us were not even alive at that time. But how sure are you that you would even be alive today if it wasn’t for them?
Lest we forget… the 9 million fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, husbands, wives, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, friends and lovers. These are the people on both sides and all of them are doing what they are told, for people they believe in to people they don’t probably have never even meet. We are talking about farmers, business people, shop keepers, althletes, teachers, students, clergy, scientists, leaders, followers and more. How can this be right? Whether it is 9 or 9 million people, what is the value of even one life? We are talking about someone unique, someone that can not be replaced. What if even one of them had been destined to find the cure for things like Aids, Cancer, or Alzheimer? One of those 9 million might have been someone who might have grown up to solve world hunger, found a clear alternative to fossil fuels or a new kind of leader who might have ushered in a new era of global repect for human rights and world peace.
Lest we forget… all the people who have since died for the basic freedoms we often take for granted. In just 8 years, we will have reached 100 years since November 11, 1918. Will war still hold some meaning to your son or daughter? Will they really understand the impact of death on a massive scale and do everthing in their power to avoid it? Will they pass on this awareness to their children?
Lest we forget… How many more wars, how much more loss of human life will it take before people like you and I realize that nobody wins in a war and everybody loses? Will you need to die in order for your family to finally understand?
Today, on this Remembrance day, please take the time to shine as a representative of the best of humanity and share with at least one other person you know why the only way to win a war is to avoid it.
If you have ever had a friend or family member go off to war on behalf of your country, I hope you were lucky enough to get your loved one back. Either way I thank you on behalf of my family and myself for your courrage, support and sacrifices. I sincerely hope that will I see a day in my lifetime when humanity evolves to the point of realizing that we have all the tools we need to be able to resolve conflict without killing.
…Lest we forget the true cost of sacrifice in times of war.
Life Coach Michael Milette
www.michaelmilette.com
Nov 10
1
Retreats… Just for Men
Women gather together because together they are stronger.
Have I been operating out of my head for such a long time that it’s only now becoming obvious to me. Women are getting organized! Women are positioning themselves to do way better in business and in life than men have ever (way to go women!).
At least for me, it’s not about men vs. women. I see it as an opportunity here to learn and grow. There are more women’s networking groups, support groups, business directories specifically for women than ever before. Even many of the local movie theatres are coming up with programs like Mom and Tots viewings where women can now go see a movie with their strollers. There are women specific exercise groups and courses, books specifically written for women and even Coaching Retreats and Getaways specifically designed for women.
Mother Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Princess Diana, Carly Fiorina, Martha Stewart, and yes, my Mom (hey, without her you would not be reading this). What have these and most other women in common? Besides being women, they all had a strong support network.
It’s not too surprising. Historically, women have congregated to bond, share and support each. Recent research shows that the lack of this actually affects them not only emotionally but biologically.
I have always been impressed by women’s ability to congregate and come out feeling stronger together. I think this is truly an amazing and wonderful. There is a lesson in there for us men and we need to step up and take notice of what is working for women and what is not for us.
The fact of the matter is, connecting through feelings is the new “smart” of the 21st century. If you are a man and you are not able to get out of your head and connect with people at a deeper level, women are going to leave you in the dust. They’ve been practicing this for centuries and are VERY good at it. Don’t take my word for it. Just take a look at the job ads. Almost every one of them now places high value for interpersonal skills, sometime even over technical skills. Why? Because you can always learn a technical skill but getting out of your head is a little more challenging.
One of the most powerful tools women have is the power of congregating in the setting of a Coaching retreat. No, it’s not some cool vacation plan. It’s where we go when we realize that, in our hectic go-go-go day-to-day life, we have reached a point where we are just reacting to life instead of leading our lives. This happens when we don’t check-in with ourselves as we follow through with our life plan.
Don’t know what your Life Plan is? Don’t feel too bad, most don’t or at least have never taken the time to create one. You are probably one of the majority who react to life. Although having a life plan does increase your chances of feeling happy and fulfilled by your life, unless you make space in your life to carry through with the plan, and have a great support network to help you stay on track, you might not be making as much progress as you wish you were.
With all the resources out there for women, men are being left in the dust. If you are a man and haven’t seen this, wait for it. It will be slapping you in the face like a 20 pound bass very soon… unless you do something about it today. Just as it takes time for a ship to alter its course when you turn the rudder, life doesn’t always change on command. However even a small shift over the years can make a huge different… kind of like compound interest.
Although we often have similar and common interests, if you’ve ever read the book Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus – or even if you are married - you are probably realize that what works for women doesn’t always work for men.
I Need Your Help
Borrowing a page out of the Woman guide to life, I am asking for your help (I know, not very manlike). A group of coaches and I are currently researching what men would want to get out of a Coaching Retreat for Men. These retreats will be specifically designed for Men, focusing on what is important to men, using activities that are of interest to men, specifically addressing the issues that men need to deal with in a way that men can relate.
That’s where we need your input.
IF YOU ARE A MAN: If you are a man, please take a few minutes to complete our survey at: http://bit.ly/CoachingRetreatsForMenSurvey
IF YOU ARE A WOMAN: You would have my heartfelt appreciation if you would be so kind as to share the above information with at least three men you know and encourage them to complete the survey.
The mandatory portion of the survey is completely anonymous. Towards the bottom, there are some optional questions that are not so anonymous. Although not required, we would really appreciate it if you would fill these out as well.
Do men gather together because together they are stronger? Smart men do. Wise men will also step up and realize that women just might know something they don’t.
Don’t forget to complete the survey!
We gather together because
together we are better,
faster, stronger, smarter
and make better decisions
and a better future.
Almost every day I hear people tell me things like:
- I am a private person
- I prefer my privacy
- I don’t trust social media sites
- What is social media anyway?
- I don’t know how to use social media
- I don’t have time for social media
- Social media seems so impersonal
Here is a reality check: Social Media is showing up more and more in our lives every day. If you aren’t using social media to bring a face to yourself and your business, you aren’t just avoiding it, you are actually giving this control up to others.
Take a look at where Social Media was in 2009, just one year ago.
Imagine where it might be today and double or tripple that!
Social Media, Your Business and Your Life
The fact of the matter is, if you have a business and want it to continue to grow, potential customers will be looking to social media to find businesses just like yours.
Think about it, if you had a choice between picking a real-estate agent or marriage councillor out of the phone book or going to someone who came highly recommended by someone you trust, which would you be more likely to choose? We are all consumers and we are all looking for the best value from our hard earned money.
Playing small won’t help your business grow and if it isn’t growing, it’s most likely dying. Even if your business is perfect and status quo suits you just fine, your competition is busy building up their business. Think of Sony, once king of the portable music players with their Walkman. Happy with their business just the way it was, it didn’t take too many years before other innovative players came in and took over the industry. Today, it’s very rare to see someone carrying around a Sony Media player.
The same could happen to your business in the blink of an eye. Then what? If a company like Sony hasn’t been able to recover from their mistake, what makes you think you could then turn your business around any better?
Social Media: Be Safe, Not Sorry
Social engineers who steel your identity are still out there and we certainly don’t want to help them along. Don’t divulge all your personal information. Social media sites are certainly not the place to air your dirty laundry. Think about this for a minute. If you are not happy with your boss or co-workers, do you really think it will make things better for you or for them in the long run by publicly insulting or humiliating them? And even if they never see it, other will. Who do you think those others will be? People they know? Your future employers? Do you really think your friends will love you more for badmouthing anyone at all? Perhaps a few, however would you want to hire someone who has a reputation for speaking poorly of their employers?
Being in business means having a public side to your life. If you don’t want to be caught with your pants down, live the way you want others to treat you. Double check your moral compass by imagining what your mother might think of you if she was going to see details of your private life on the 6 o’clock news (or worse yet, Facebook or YouTube!).
Did you know? Unlike a conversation amongst friends, Social Media sites often keep what is written in the public eye forever.
Share things that are already public. For example, you can hardly be in business without people knowing your real name. If you feel the need to hide that, you probably shouldn’t be doing business in public.
Social media can work for you if you act socially responsible. This isn’t just about what you post online, but what you say and do when you are not. Just because you aren’t posting the lesser known part of your life doesn’t mean that others won’t… and this applies whether you are on Facebook or not. If people are going to say things about you or your business, don’t you think you should have a say in that conversation?
Leading Your Life or Letting Others Lead It For You
You have a choice of painting a picture of yourself or letting others paint you. When you let others be in control of your life, they will do so from their own perspective and in their own best interest. Only you have the ability take control of your life and act in your own best interest. Ultimately you want to create as many win-win situations as possible as this reflects well on you and others.
It’s your choice – get involved and take an active role in your life, or do the ostrich thing, stick your head in the grown and hope nobody is going to kick you in the behind.
With warmest regards,
Michael
________________________________
Life & Tech Coach Michael Milette
Come discover a great life!
www.michaelmilette.com
The Validation Challenge
Using the following video as an example of ways to affect your environment and the people around you, validate a minimum of three people each day this week and notice how you made yourself feel at the end of the week.
Share the challenge with everyone you know.
Questions
- Who did you have to be in order to complete the challenge?
- Did you find it easy or difficult?
- What did you start to notice as time went on?
- Where did you do your validations? At work? At home? At school? While travelling?
- Who did you validate? Your children, your spouse, your friends, your co-workers, your teachers or maybe even strangers?
- How many people did you validate this week?
- Share how your participation in this challenge has affected your life.
With warmest regards,
Michael
____________________________________________
Life Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life!
www.michaelmilette.com
Sep 10
30
The Hidden Benefits of Fundraising
FUNDRAISING! Oh there’s that word that sends shivers up and down the spine of otherwise great parents and activity organizers. Besides the obvious MUST reasons which sometimes get offset by parents who would rather just pay higher registration fees, why must youth do fundraising? What do you think of fundraising?
A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY: Fundraising is a fantastic opportunity to teach youth important life skills including:
- Planning
- Budgeting
- Goal setting
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Working with a purpose
It also gives them self-confidence by teaching them:
- Basic public speaking skills
- To develop a sense of responsibility
- That they can earn their own way
And if those are not good enough reasons, it also offers the opportunity for:
- Youth to develop leadership and organizational skills
- Getting parents families involved in their kids activities
- Promoting public awareness of the organization as a positive youth development program
Great fundraising skills not only helps our youth grow as responsible members of society, they can then take their new life skills to the other activities they might be involved in and help others improve their fundraising skills – sounds a lot like Leadership, doesn’t it?
ATTITUDE IS PARAMOUNT: Fundraising need not be a chore. However attitude and inspiration must start with leaders, coaches, teachers and parents. Using basic life skills training such as being polite, good presentation, dressing well, and showing respect, fundraising can be a fun and exciting experience for everyone.
Take the time to have fun doing some role playing (skits/play acting) with the youth before you start your fundraising campaign. This will provide them with the courage and confidence they will need to have more fun doing it. Turn it into a challenge or a game and then have other youth provide positive suggestions.
A STAKE IN THE PROGRAM: Little things like teaching kids the purpose of fundraising and giving them a purpose (why are we doing this?) can be a very powerful driving forces in keeping them determined and committed to reaching their goals. Whether youth or adults realise it or not, youth have more influence over your organization’s success than anyone else for without them, the organization or activity would not exist. How many realize that youth are the ambassadors of their organization or activity when they meet other people, or even other youth?
Fundraising helps youth today prepare for the ultimate roles they will play as the parents and leaders of our community and our businesses of tomorrow.
Can you think of any other single activity that can accomplish all this and more? Put the FUN back into FUNdraising!
Helping your kids with fundraising is great. Actively take part by making they take the initiative to enroll your participation, and follow up with you. If they aren’t sure how, be a great parent and teach them.
Your child is capable of amazing things. As he/she grows up, one of the best gifts you can do for them is to prepare them to become independant contributing members of society by reducing their dependance on you while encouraging them to have positive and loving relationships with those whose lives they touch along the way.
Parenting isn’t necessarily a natural skill. Working with a coach can Although most of us will be a parent at some point or anotherJust as every successful athlete has a coach to support and guide them, Need help working figuring out your parenting challenges? Contact me today to discover the joys of parenting and develop a great relationship with your kids.
With warmest regards,
_______________________________
Life Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life!
www.MichaelMilette.com
Take what makes sense to you in life and leave the rest. — Michael Milette
In life, you don’t get anywhere by playing it safe. FEAR has been defined as “False Evidence Appearing Real”. The greater the risk you take in life, the greater the potential for failure but also the greater potential for reward. So how can you improve your chances of success?
Secret #1: Don’t Give Up
About 80% of people don’t succeed because they don’t even bother to try. Out of the remaining 20%, about 80% of them give up not realizing just how close they were to succeeding. It doesn’t matter whether you are able or disabled, whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are black, white, pink, blue, red or purple, whether you speak French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese. If you have a vision, take action towards making that vision happen and never give up, you will be part of the remaining 4% of all people who succeed in achieving what they want. There may be times when you fall down and you don’t feel like you have the strength to get back up. Ultimately, the secret of success is to simply get back up one time more than you fall down.
Secret #2: Focus on Value
Focus on finding ways to bring value to people and the money will follow. Choosing this path will lead to working smarter. Focusing on making money will result in you working harder. Finding ways to bring value to people means not only creating a product or service that will be of value to people, it also means finding ways to bring awareness of your products to people and making it accessible both physically and financially.
Secret #3: People Care About What They Want
The problem with just wanting to make money is that people, quite frankly, really don’t care what you want. People however will gladly part with their money if they feel that you understand their problem and are addressing their needs. In essence, what people really want is to feel good about doing business with you while you solve their needs. This is ultimately what will keep them coming back for more instead of going to your competitors.
Bonus Secret: Remember That You Too Are a Consumer
If you have any doubt about the three secrets to success described above, think about yourself as a consumer. It doesn’t matter what you are shopping for. When you go shopping, whether it be for groceries, a car, a house or new clothes, chances are your decision will be based on what you want, what you value and what you need. Does the fact that all the vendor, manufacturer or farmer really wants is your money even enter your mind? Perhaps, but only if you feel they are taking advantage of you as a consumer.
Next time someone turns you down when you are trying to sell your products or services to someone, really stop for a minute, put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself if you would have bought from yourself.
As always, take what makes sense to you and leave the rest.
With warmest regards,
Michael
_____________________________________
Life Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life!
www.MichaelMilette.com
Sep 10
20
What does COURAGE mean to you?
I recently came across the following definition for “courage”… on a t-shirt! You really never know where you will find wisdom in life.
Read the following out loud (no, not in your head!!!) and really hear the words as you speak them.
Courage
also known as fortitude, is the ability to confront fear,
pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation.
It can be divided into “physical courage”
— in face of physical pain, hardship,
and threat of death —
and “moral courage”
— in the face of shame, scandal,
and discouragement.
As a virtue, courage is covered extensively
in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics,
its vice of deficiency being cowardice,
and its vice of excess being recklessness.
It reminded me of something that we tend to forget in the face of fear: We are powerful beyond measure. We may not be able to throw around bolts of energy or to leap tall buildings in a single bounce. However we have something even more powerful: The ability to shift our perspective and see things in a different light.
Courage is… within witin all of us.
Last week I attended an outing organized by a local photography club. To my great surprize, after just taking three pictures, the batteries in the camera died. I could not understand it. I had fully charged the batteries before setting off that day. Regardless of what actually happen, I was faced with a choice: I could either get upset about the situation and be hard on myself, or I could find a way to make the most of the situation.
Having grown up in Scouting and having worked in IT, experience has taught me to always have a backup, especially when you might not easily have a second chance. So I pulled out my small backup pocket camera. The quality of the pictures wasn’t going to be as great however it would certainly be better than heading back with no pictures at all. I was still feeling a little disappointed and could have just left it at that. Instead, I decided to see if I could make this an even better day. Now I know that one of the best ways to feel great isn’t to look for what you can get out of a situation but rather what you can give so I started walking around looking for opportunity. As I was in a touristy part of town, it wasn’t long before I noticed some groups and families doing the tourist thing trying to get group pictures of everyone. I am sure you’ve been there where people take turns taking pictures because someone has to be behind the camera taking the picture. So I started walking around offering to take pictures of groups of 2 or more people using their camera. It felt great when people expressed appreciation for my assistance. That was on top of how I felt for doing it in the first place. The tourists would soon be heading back home with a wonderful photographic souvenir of their visit and thinking what nice people Canadians are.
The moral of the story is, it takes courage to harness your power to change your perspective, to change yourself and to change others. Courage feels great!
Courage is like a muscle which must be exercised regularly. Playing small does not serve you or the world around you. You have the ability to make a difference for yourself and others, whether they are friends or strangers. Practice finding courage within yourself and it won’t be so hard to find when you really need it.
Contact me to discover and harness the incredible courage and strength that lies within you.
With warmest regards,
Michael
_______________________________________
Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life!
www.michaelmilette.com
Where do you go to find material to blog about? If you are anything like me, the well does run dry from time to time.
However aren’t there also times when you feel so inspired and motivated, filled with several great ideas to blog about? Fortunately there are two wonderful features most blogs have that you need to know about to help you out:
Draft: Did you know that you can write a blog post but and save it as a draft without publishing it? Not only does this feature help you stay on track with your daily schedule, you’ll be able to come back and either finish it or polish it up later (don’t forget to use spell check!). I often use the save draft feature to just add ideas for posts I would like to work on at a later date when I don’t have time in the moment.
Future Publishing: Did you know that you can schedule the publication of your post for a future date and time? This feature will enable you to prepare your blog posts in advance and have them appear on your blog at regular intervals. Regular visitors to your blog will appreciate the regularity with which new posts appear.
So, where do you get ideas for blogging in the first place? Each day there are things that you think about, that you do, that you hear, feel, smell, see, learn and experience which affects who you are, and who you become. Some days it’s life altering, and some days it just life experiences.
What little life lesson did you learn today? Share your thoughts and feelings and you will discover many others who share your challenges in their day-to-day life.
Playing small does not serve the world. The web enables you to change the world one blog post at a time. If you can learn to step up and take notice of the abundance around you, you begin to also see all the things around you that are worth sharing.
With warmest regards,
Life Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life
www.michaelmilette.com
Sharing knowledge and experience with you here
is my way of contributing to this world I call my home.
Do we really need to wait until our world is in imminent danger in order to force us to put our differences aside and start working together to make this world a better place? Not just for the rich, the powerful or the famous but for every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth. We have the ability to do it but do we have the maturity?
Consider what we could potentially accomplish together if everyone shared and worked collaboratively towards a common greater good instead of competing against each other for individual gain. Think of the world as our team. Are we really positioning ourselves to win the game? With almost seven billion people in this world, do you really think you need to bankrupt the competition or your customers in order to gain opportunity? If you believe this, your neighbour might be thinking the exact same thing at this very moment. Shall we explore this idea together for a minute?
So you want to improve sales. You do everything you can in order to stay one step ahead of your competition and in the end, thanks to your cunning sense of business, you outmanoeuvre your competition right out of business. Yay! One less competitor to worry about, right?
Maybe not. Don’t your sales actually depend on others having money to spend? We’ve seen what living on credit can do on a national and even global scale. If you step back and look at this from a different perspective, the people you just put out of business were actually people who spent money, or at least they did while they had a job. You didn’t just get rid of your competition did you, you also eliminated money spending consumers. “But they worked for the competition. They weren’t my customer!” Maybe not, however they did spent money at clothing stores, grocery stores, they purchased homes, cars, fuel, and consumed a lot of other goods and services. Each time they took a dollar out of their wallet to pay someone, that person made money. If you’ve really doing well, those are the people who added trailing zeros to your bottom line.
Now if you bought out your competitor, you’re probably feeling pretty proud of yourself, possibly even humanitarian, but are thinking that it might be time to trim the fat. Once again employees, otherwise also known as consumers, get laid off reducing your potential customer base. Don’t worry, “everyone is doing it so it must be right”, no? Get your hands out of your pocket. There’s nothing left.
First a few people got laid off. Then a few hundred more. A few thousand followed them and, before you know it, millions of people are out of work… but you got rid of some pretty stiff competition in the process! Wake up and smell the lack of coffee. You can’t afford this strategy anymore. You were competitive, you undercut everyone and offered the best value for your buck and you are still losing? There must be a better way and there is. It starts with this:
What worked to get you here isn’t going to get you the rest of the way.
The sooner you understand this and find a new strategy, the better off we will all be.
There is a saying that goes something like, if you aren’t growing, you are dying. This applies equally to businesses and to people. Keep up your current strategy and by next week, you might be the one going out of business.
Killing off your customers in the process of doing business may be
profitable in the short term but is simply bad for long term business.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, you need consumers to keep your businesses afloat. In the above scenario, you didn’t just get rid of other businesses, you were getting rid of your customers at the same time. A healthy economy depends on people having money to spend and, if you need to work with your competitors to help them stay afloat, you’ll be helping yourself out in the long run.
Avoid the panic and develop a sustainable long term plan for your business. If enough people start to do this, there will be plenty of business to go around for everyone.
If you are even beginning to imagine the raw potential that the people of this world have together, then you can start to understand why I share the information on this blog with you.
Together we grow, individually we will die.
Contact me if you would like to learn how you can focus on developing a healthy sustainable business.
If you would like to contribute to this blog, I offer full attribution for any articles you submit including your name as well as email address and/or a link to your website or blog. Naturally I reserve the right to decide which articles will appear on this blog.
With warmest regards,
Life Coach Michael Milette
Come Discover a Great Life
www.michaelmilette.com
Aug 10
30
Create PDF Files for Free
Unlike Word documents which can change from one computer to another and Powerpoint and Publisher files which may not even be viewable on many computers, Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files are a type of file that will always look exactly the same whether it is is displayed on the screen or printed. You never have to worry about pages shifting either. You can also make it more difficult for people to copy content from your document. When it comes to documents like contracts and agreements, files that you don’t want people to change before they sign, PDF files can prevent people from editing your document’s content.
Like Microsoft Word files, PDF files are completely self contained and can be easily distributed equally well over the web, as an attachment to an email or on a CD or USB memory stick.
PDF files can be opened using Adobe Acrobat Reader which is not only freely available from Adobe’s site but is actually included on most computers. You won’t have to worry about whether someone is using Windows, a Mac or Linux, whether they are using Microsoft Word or one of the alternative word processors like Open Office, WordPerfect or Word Pro. PDF’s can even be opened on many mobile phones.
Although PDF files are great, they do have drawbacks. For one thing, people can’t make changes to a PDF file unless they have Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on their computer. However if you actually want to prevent people to make changes to your PDF file, you can take it one step further by adding a password that will prevent them from editing the file. A second password can be added to only allow people with the password you specify to viewing it if it contains sensitive information.
The good news is that many office productivity applications now include the option to save, print or export your document as a PDF. For example, If you are using Microsoft Office 2007, you can save you to save files from any of the Office applications such as Word, Excel and Publisher into a PDF by first downloading and installing the free 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS. If you are using Office 2010, this feature comes built-in. Just click File, Save and then change the “Save as type:” to PDF before saving.
But what if you are still using an older version of Office or other applications? No problem! You can actually create PDF files from within just about any application on your computer and it won’t cost you anything but a little time to install the software that will allow you to make it happen.
Apple Mac OSX comes with software to create pdf’s. All you need to do is print the document and when you go to choose the options, you select “Save as PDF”. If, on the other hand, you are on Microsoft Windows, the following is a short list of my favourite free solutions to help you get similar functionality. Anytime you need to create a PDF file, just print to one of these PDF printers and provide a filename. Regardless of whether you are on a Mac or on Windows, don’t forget to make sure your filename ends in .pdf .
Just a reminder that you will need to be logged into your computer using an administrator account in order to install any of the fillowing applications.
CutePDF Writer
I like this particular application for it’s simplicity. Just like PDFill Writer mentioned further down, there are no options to choose from. Just print to it and it prompts you for a filename. The end result is similar in functionality to Adobe PDF Printer/Distiller but for a price that can’t be beat (FREE!!!). There won’t be any no watermarks, limitations, spyware, or advertisements in your PDF files. I have been using it problem free for years!
Installation
- Make sure you are logged into your computer using an account with administrator rights.
- Go to a website called Ninite. I love this site as it offers a very easy way to install popular free applications from the Internet.
- Add a checkmark in the box next to CutePDF Writer and scroll down to the bottom to click on the big green button.
- Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
That’s it, your ready to create PDF files by simply select CutePDF Writer from the list of printers and click OK. Within a few seconds, you will be asked for a file name for the PDF file. It is really that simple!
Limitations
Although you can create forms, they will not be fillable nor savable on your clients computer. Links may not be clickable either depending on the version of Acrobat Reader they are using. To get these features, you will need to purchase and use the professional version of Adobe Acrobat.
A Few Tips
Although any Truetype fonts will work, these will quickly increase the size of your PDF file since the fonts must then be included within the PDF file itself. Try to stick with standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New. You will be better off anyway. Although it may be neat to put all kinds of interesting fonts, your documents won’t look professional if you use more than a couple of fonts in a document.
You can considerably reduce the size of the PDF’s created by CutePDF Writer by following the instructions on the following page: How to reduce the size of output PDF file. I use the -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen setting and can’t tell the difference on screen between this and the default setting.
Want More Advanced Features?
The password option when saving as a PDF from Microsoft Office applications restricts a person from opening the PDF file. If you want to make a PDF viewable but not editable, you will need to add a password for editing only. This and many more options are only available in the following free alternatives:
- PrimoPDF – This application allows you to set security settings for your PDF. Unlike the other solutions presented here, it also enables you to append to an existing PDF. This means that you could create parts of your PDF using different applications such as Word, Excel, your favourite web browser, your email program, etc.
- PDFill PDF – PDFill Writer is just as easy to use as CutePDF Writer described above. Where this program really shines is in it’s PDFill PDF Tools which allows you to do things like merge existing PDF files, split or re-arrange pages, add or remove security restrictions, rotate and crop pages, add headers/footers and watermarks and more.
It is interesting to note that the latest version of OpenOffice, the free compatible alternative to Microsoft Office, can now also allows you to open, edit and save PDF files. You can even create fillable PDF files.
Note: Adobe Acrobat Professional, not to be confused with Adobe Acrobat Printer / Distiller, is the only way to create forms that are fillable and saveable. This is what you will need in orde to enable your clients to email a completed form back to you.
Feel free to contact me if I can be of service to you.
With warmest regards,
____________________________________
Life and Tech Coach Michael Milette
Come discover a great life!
www.MichaelMilette.com
TNG Consulting Inc.
Sustainable solutions for life
www.TNGConsulting.ca
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