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TOP OF THE WEEK TO YOU!
(by realwired! CEO, Brenda Dohring Hicks)
Top of the Week to You! is designed to offer the inside scoop and latest of what's important in the world of technology as it relates to the commercial real estate industry. |
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Let's Revisit this Topic
I wrote about the issue of converting PDFs a while back but was recently reminded of it during a planning meeting. I thought it was important to share with my colleagues again.
How many years have we used PDF documents because we didn't want them to be editable? Well conspiracy theorists, the seriously paranoid, and those with dark secrets already know that they, PDFs, have always been editable documents. The rest of you normal types might not be so sure. The right answer is that anything electronic can generally be manipulated, but then again so can printed documents with a little Whiteout and a copy machine. The key comes down to what's easy and practical as much as anything else. Of course password protected documents of all kinds help with the non-edit ability and security issues, but let's not go there today.
First, a couple of terms to refresh ourselves:
PDF is "Portable Document Format". It was created in 1993 by Adobe and was and is designed to be viewable on any platform. Generally, there are two types of PDF documents - those created by sending Office files, images, etc. to an Acrobat like PDF printer and those created by scanning physical paper like pages of a book, legal documents, etc.
OCR is "Optical Character Recognition". It is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic text files. Once the process is complete, you can handle the document like most other electronic documents...edit, search and print. OCR software is always improving, much like voice recognition. Studies have shown that because documents are being scanned more often, there is also an increase in the need for OCR as the documents need to be shared or re-purposed.
RTF is "Rich Text Format". RTF is a word processing format that works across platforms, Windows, Linex, and Mac. It was developed by Microsoft in 1987 to facilitate document exchange.
I had an opportunity to meet and see a demonstration of some of Adobe's capabilities a couple of weeks back. It really got me thinking how cool that program is and, even without fully using all of its capabilities, how embedded it has become in what we do.
But I digress...back to the whole idea of it being editable or not-editable. PDF's are always editable. It's just not automatically editable. So again, I come back to ease of use. We will all default to that which we need most often and which is the easiest to achieve.
Search the web and you'll find numerous programs that will handle the process of converting a PDF to an editable document for you...many are free. Of course, if you have Adobe Acrobat it has its own set of tools/software. Their Export feature handles this with ease. For a simple PDF to text it's just a couple of clicks. Now if you want to preserve some of the layout and other features of the document, you'll want to make sure you select through the available Text Options, which also let you handle images and maintain other "formatting".
What if you have a document that's in PDF format that needs major editing? The best idea is to convert it to Word format, and make your edits. Then create a PDF from that Word document. Not only does this strategy allow you to use the powerful features of each format, but it also allows you to edit and create high-quality customized PDFs using Microsoft Word.
So when to use PDFs and when to use .docs or some other word processing document? Many times it's not either/or. Many times the best strategy is one that incorporates the use of both of these formats. The Word format is clearly the best choice for editing and making changes to works-in-progress, while the PDF format is the preferred option for viewing and sharing documents. So most of us create and maintain an original document in Word format, convert to PDF when it's finished and we are ready to share it with others. In the world we work in, the ease of sharing, and re-purposing is key to working efficiency and just getting things done!
If you would like to join our blog discussion click here or I welcome your feedback through email .
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Hot Deals/Leads
Panchero's Franchise Corp. trades as Panchero's Mexican Grill at 50 locations throughout AZ, CO ,CT, FL, IA, IL, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, ND, NE, NJ, PA, SD, VA and WI. The Mexican restaurants occupy spaces of 2,200 sq.ft. to 2,400 sq.ft. in freestanding locations and endcaps of lifestyle, power and strip centers. Growth opportunities are sought throughout CA, CT, FL, IA, IL, KS, MO, MN, NE, NJ and WI, as well as Phoenix, AZ, during the coming 18 months. Typical leases run 10 years. A vanilla shell and specific improvements are required. Preferred cotenants include Target, Best Buy and big box retailers. Preferred demographics include a daytime population of 20,000 and a residential population within two miles earning $55,000 as the average household income. Major competitors include Chipotle and Qdoba Mexican Grill. The company is franchising. For more information, contact Nanette Boyer, Panchero's Franchise Corp., 2475 Coral Court, Suite B, Coralville, IA 52241
Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. trades as Hardee's at 2,000 locations throughout the southeastern, midwestern and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. The fast food restaurants occupy spaces of 3,000 sq.ft. to 3,500 sq.ft. in freestanding locations. Growth opportunities are sought throughout the existing markets during the coming 18 months. Preferred demographics include a population of 20,000 within two miles earning $40,000 as the average household income. A land area of one acre is required. The company is franchising. The company prefers site submittals to be sent via mail. For more information, contact Don Glosier, Hardee's Food Systems, Inc., 100 North Broadway, Suite 120, St. Louis, MO 63102 Searsucker Restaurant operates one location in San Diego, CA. The restaurant, also offering local craft beer, cocktails and wines, prefers to occupy spaces of 6,500 sq.ft. to 10,000 sq.ft. in street fronts. Growth opportunities are sought throughout Miami, FL; Boston, MA; Las Vegas, NV; NY; TX, and Washington, DC, as well as along the western coast of the U.S., during the coming 18 months, with representation by Townsend & Associates, Inc. The company prefers to locate in affluent areas. For more information, contact Michael Rielly, Townsend & Associates, Inc., 1460 4th Street, Suite 306, Santa Monica, CA 90401 Like these leads? Want More? Go to the Dealmakers website for a Subscription. Dealmakers, the nation's weekly news source on retail real estate.
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