Work Life: PDF Missing Links on Mac OS

My boss came to me with a weird issue: Her PDF document was missing hyperlinks.

The document had been created in Word for Mac then saved as a PDF. We can easily recreate the problem. Just create a Word doc on Mac, add some hyperlinks, save as a PDF, open the PDF and tah-dah: no links.

After a bunch of research, we actually found a solution that did not involve jumping through a bunch of hoops, though it does involve a couple hoops.

OPEN THE DOCUMENT IN GOOGLE DRIVE, EXPORT AS PDF.

There it is. Easy peasy.

Hope this helps someone out there!

A Microsoft Story

One of the email lists to which I belong took a decidedly twisted turn when a bunch of us started using Microsoft products in our responses, just be goofy.  Well, a challenge of sorts was laid before me, and after first rejecting the opportunity, I changed my mind.  What follows is a short short story in which Microsoft products are indicated in ALL CAPS. Enjoy!

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The time had come to return to the BASIC building blocks of the situation. 

Jimmy had built his VISUAL STUDIO such that anywhere he looked, WINDOWS surrounded him. He had dreamed of the day when he could leave his OFFICE, take to the SKY, DRIVE his flying car and surf the INFO PATH. 

For now, though, he had no ACCESS to such frivolities  He stared at the ever-changing PHOTO GALLERY playing through the small lcd frame on his DESKTOP. He was the boss, and now he was the MESSENGER of bad news. The company's main PROJECT had failed. He would WRITE one WORD; just ONE NOTE. His MESSENGER had delivered the MAIL. And, just like that, he had let go of his OFFICE ASSISTANT. His ENTOURAGE, whom he considered EMBEDDED, disbanded before he even had a chance to EXCHANGE words with them.  "Oh, why ME," he called out to no one in particular. He spun around in his chair to gaze at the VISTA before him.

Jimmy's mind traveled back to the early days of his life, when was a SERVER in the local pub, a FREELANCER in this MIDTOWN MADNESS that he called home. He often took orders "TO GO," though he never saw these as being the ESSENTIALS to advancing his true passion: to be an AGENT, a DEFENDER wrapped in his POWER SHELL. Sure, he wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but he couldn't see things clearly through his WORLDWIDE TELESCOPE.  

"I can just PICTURE IT!" he said aloud.

Instead, he became a CREATIVE WRITER.  He knew then that there was no MONEY to be made in that.  So, he packed up his BINDER and his BRIEFCASE, and studied MATHEMATICS.

Years later, he emerged on the FOREFRONT of LIQUID MOTION technology as a MOVIE MAKER.  He could seamlessly travel the STREETS, and TRIPS he could take would be but a mere moment in time away from him. This was the time of big movie houses, the AGE OF EMPIRES, after all, and nothing could stop him from revolting against the RISE OF NATIONS trying to quell the freedom to make movies. He took FLIGHT, grabbed his POWER TOYS, and latched on to a positive OUTLOOK for the road ahead.  Alas, as fate would have it, he made the FRONTPAGE after a failed LYNC between two train cars took away the only FAMILY SAFETY a newborn had ever known. Jimmy retreated into the shadows.

As the years went by, he saw a SILVERLIGHT at the end of his tunnel, and quickly found himself the head of a multi-billion dollar company. He envisioned himself as just a blip, a MAP POINT.  He had started out with a simple NOTEPAD, a WORDPAD if you will. He was a PUBLISHER now. And, his massive success led him to take bigger risks. No matter how hard he tried to expand, to EXCEL, he found that he simply met with failure. "Nothing WORKS!" He shouted into the emptiness that now engulfed him. He had succumbed to the DYNAMICS of double-crossing and corporate espionage. He had failed to ask himself, "Was the SOURCE SAFE?" 

"What about the BUSINESS FINANCIALS," a voice broke Jimmy's thoughts.  It was his partner, BOB.

"I don't even know anymore, man.  I can't even keep my thoughts straight right now," Jimmy said as he slowly turned in his chair to face his partner.

"You'll figure it out, Jim. No matter what you've gone through, you seem to find your center; your STEADY STATE."

Midori - Resurfaces Again

Back in 2008, I wrote a piece on my company techblog about Midori:

Hedging bets against Midori?

I admit it.  I have not been following the latest gossip in the frontlines of Microsoft development.  Frankly, I have too much going on.  However, the newest buzzword from the folks in Redmond is "Midori."  What is it?

 

Midori, rumored to be out in 2011, is a 'possible' departure from anything related to Windows.  Sort of.  It is supposed to Microsoft's way of leaving Windows in the dust and starting over with a new operating system that is NOT backward-compatible with previous versions of Windows.

 

So, you have thousands, tens of thousands, millions of dollars worth of software and man-hours tied up in your network operating systems and servers because you went with the 'big dogs?'  Tough.  Dump it and start over.

 

I understand the 'logic' behind wanting to make such a move on Microsoft's part - Windows has become so bloated, it is almost unusable (read, Vista in the early days).  In an effort to keep everyone happy, Windows programmers have been holding on to legacy APIs, DLLs, and a varied hodgepodge of other acronyms in the name of customer satisfaction. 

 

Starting over SOUNDS like a good idea.  But, here's my issue with it...  If I have to start over with a system that will not run my current programs (though there is talk of a Windows-like emulator that would TRY to run your current apps), then why would I spend a gazillion dollars to make that move?

 

Look, if it means learning a whole new OS, frankly, I've got my picks out there.  I could switch to Novell-Linux or a variety of other Linux-based OSes.  What difference would it make?  And, if I switched away from Microsoft, I would open the doors on all kinds of free and/or open-source software that can do basically what I'm doing now. 

 

Wait, that means I would have to learn new software.  From the looks of it, I would be doing that in either case.  I might as well save myself some money as this dog learns some new tricks.

The company techblog is on a dying platform that we have since moved away to a hosted solution. In the name of preservation, I have been moving posts from that site to our new site. This post, though, I opted to move here.  In any case, I decided to see if the Midori Project was still around. Sure enough:

Here is a ZNET article about the changes to the personnel and a discussion in the comments about the OS itself: http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-midori-operating-system-skunkworks-project-soldiers-on-7000007110/

As you can see, the OS did not come to light in the form of Vista, Win7, or anything else over the past 5 years.  I hold fast to my comments above: Microsoft Midori will be unlike any other OS Microsoft has produced. I also believe it will be the "equivalent" of Windows 10 (Windows X, if you will).  Of course, it won't be called "Windows."  We're on Windows 8 as of this current writing. I believe we will see Windows 9 and then we will no longer see ANY version of OS called "Windows."  When the release date for "WinX" comes around, Microsoft will wow the world with their new OS.  And, when that happens, everyone gets to start over as far as anything Microsoft is concerned.

When social networking and professional learning communities (pln) pay off

Here are a few points to ponder that came across my PLN just today, and all within minutes of each other:

A new Kindle-killer is in the works:  http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=62152

Microsoft allegedly rips off Plurk, including very MINOR changes to actual coding! (http://www.atypical.net/archive/2009/12/14/stunned-at-ms-plurk-ripoff)

Other countries are dumping all their testing and various other practices to try and catch up with US creativity and ingenuity, while the US is hellbent on emulating the countries that realize "their way" didn't work: http://tannervision.blogspot.com/2009/12/if-youve-never-failed.html

As I have said before, sometimes social networking is not about YOU but who you READ...