While working on a new eBook, I needed an easy way to get Microsoft Office Word 2007 to export my writings as a PDF file.  After doing a little searching around, I found an add-in that will do just that.

This simple download allows you to export and save files in the PDF format in Microsoft Office 2007.

This download works with the following Office programs:

• Microsoft Office Access 2007
• Microsoft Office Excel 2007
• Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
• Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
• Microsoft Office Visio 2007
• Microsoft Office Word 2007

You can download the add-in here.

After you install this download open the document you want to publish and then, depending on the program you are using, select Save to PDF from the Office or File menu.  Hope this comes in handy for anybody else looking for an easy way to save files from Microsoft Office Word 2007 to the PDF format.

I do much of my e-mail management from within Gmail.  One of the few annoyances I have found is having somebody tell me they just sent me something, and I have to click through several links to check manually that specific POP account.  By default Gmail uses a common timing algorithm to fetch your POP account mail, but now you can ask them to do it at the click of a button.

Thanks to a new Gmail Labs feature, you can now use the Refresh link to check all your POP mail accounts too.  Just click on the Google Labs green beaker at the top of Gmail, and enable Refresh POP accounts.

Now, if you use Gmail to manage both your Gmail account and your POP mail accounts, you can check all your mail accounts quicker. (via Lifehacker)

• FilesTube.com
• FileField.net
• Rapidshare1.com
• OplaHol.com
• Shareminer.com
• FileCrop.com
• FilesBot.com
• RapidshareData.com
• MegaDownload.net
• 4shared.com

What About Google? Of course, the ultimate alternative to all of these would be doing a file search in Google.  How do you do so?  Well, just start any Google search with filetype: and then put in the file type you want to search for.  Taken from Google, here are the most popular file formats you may want to search for using this trick.

• Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
• Adobe PostScript (ps)
• Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku)
• Lotus WordPro (lwp)
• MacWrite (mw)
• Microsoft Excel (xls)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)
• Microsoft Word (doc)
• Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb)
• Microsoft Write (wri)
• Rich Text Format (rtf)
• Shockwave Flash (swf)
• Text (ans, txt)

So if you are looking for a .txt file about hosting, you would type into the Google search box… 

filetype:txt hosting

So, if you are searching for a file on the web – you might try these resources or this neat Google tip.  Either way should get the job done for you.

I always have, and I always probably will.  With that said, I wanted to both give you some great green wallpaper and try out a new Google search technique I picked up from an article on Lifehacker.

First, here are some of my favorite green wallpapers I have found from around the Web:

Now where is the trick?

Next time you search Google Images, be sure to try typing in, imagesize:1680×1050 green.  Changing the dimensions, will change the resolution of the picture you are looking for, and insert any search term you want (doesn’t have to be green) for the type of wallpaper you are looking for.

There you have it – two for one deal just for you.

Searching around for various plugins and scripts to add onto the already pretty great Windows Live Writer I stumbled upon a tiny program that will let you do that.  Windows Live Writer System Tray is a small application that lives in your system tray giving you quick access to these Windows Live Writer features:

• Start a New Post
• Open an Existing Post
• Show Options
• Exit

This is the system icon that will be placed in your system tray when the app is started.  You can grab the free download on the Windows Live Writer System Tray web site.  If you enjoy Windows Live Writer as much as I do, I know you’ll appreciate being able to keep it handy in the system tray at all times.

Please go gather this from the kitchen:

• 1 Can of Vienna Sausages (Armor is the best!)
• 3 slices of bread (regular ol’ white bread, don’t get fancy!)
• 1 bowl (don’t eat the bowl, please…)

Step 1: Drain the water from the Vienna Sausages, and then dump them into the bowl.

Step 2: Stack the 3 slices of bread, one on top of the other and rip them in half by your bare hands. This should give you 6 rectangle pieces of bread.

Step 3: Eat the first Vienna Sausage now. If you don’t, you’ll end up with an odd amount later on.

Step 4: Last step in this recipe is to wrap each Vienna sausage in a piece of bread (don’t be afraid to squeeze the final result to make it stick well). Then eat as you wrap. You now know what keeps me going from my day to day job a Lunarpages, to producing a web hosting podcast and more.