A user translated the site to Swedish - now up!

The other day I got a mail from Jan, a Swedish user of my Word to PDF Converter:

I was stunned at your word to pdf convert service when I stumbled across it last week. I thought a little help from my side could be useful. I have translated the page into swedish and I have also provided a swedish flag and upgraded the images with text in swedish. The filenames I have chosen are unique and follow your naming convention for the other translated countries web-pages.

If you like it - use it. It comes free of charge. I will make a donation through PayPal when I receive my next salary.

Attached are the html and image files and a link to a screen shot of the translated page… I just noted that the flags are not included on the screen shot but the swedish flag is included in the zip-file.

Needless to say, I am very happy to have this mail and would like to sincerely thank Jan for translating the page (with images and all!).

Thanks to Jan, we now have a “Word till PDF Konverter” in Swedish!

Many years ago a Russian fellow translated the site, without me ever asking for it, and sent it to me. Unfortunately I never put it up and later I changed the text so the translation will probably not match today. Even so, I am very grateful and if anyone sends a translation to me now, I promise I will put it up.

Thanks so much!

New design and new translations are online

I have made a new design for the Doc2PDF Word to PDF converter homepage but I have not yet replaced the old design of the English version of the site. Instead I have created new German, French, Portuguese and Spanish language versions of Doc2PDF which utilize the new design, to test them out.

Here are the links:

Word a PDF (Español)

Word à PDF (Français)

Word in PDF (Deutsch)

Word para PDF (Português)

The goal of the new design is to make it easy to find the conversion button and provide a more pleasing user experience. Lets face it, the old design is pretty bad.

Please let me know of any translation errors you may find and I’ll promptly fix them.

Also, please let me know how you like the new design and if you want it to replace the current design of the English version of the site.

A little bit about the history of Doc2PDF

Back in 2004, I was studying electrical engineering at the university. During that period, and still today I believe, the Department of Electrical Engineering was very Open Source friendly. I, along with two friends, managed the computer lab. We oversaw the desktops and servers, their interconnection, configuration and setup. The available budget was small (zero). The only way to utilize the computers was to use free operating systems called Linux and FreeBSD.

That said, the culture was very open source friendly among the students as well. The students wanted to use Linux on their desktops and were happy with it. That is probably the exception at the university, but hey, we were studying electrical engineering and should be able to manage complex operating systems.

Personally I frowned upon Microsoft and the Office package. I was an Open Source zealot. (Now I am a “best tool for the job” follower). The teachers at the university generally gave the assignments in Microsoft Word format (.doc). Continue reading A little bit about the history of Doc2PDF

7 Tips For A CV That Works For You

In today‘s job market, you want to make the most out of every job opportunity that arises. The Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the entry point to your dream job. You have one chance, so focus on getting it right.

There are enough of guidelines for creating a good CV on the internet. They all tell you essentially the same thing. Below are tips for what I feel you must take into consideration when making a stand-out CV.

Here are tips for making a great CV:

1. Don‘t use these words in your CV: Maybe, Perhaps, May, Might, Probably, Try, Hope.

Your employers don‘t want to read in your CV that you are going to try your best or you may be able to learn quickly or you will probably be very good in this job or I hope I will fulfill your expectations. You get the drift. You will do your best, you will learn quickly, you are very good for this job.

2. Send the CV as a PDF document, not as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a format for displaying and printing documents consistently. The documents are guaranteed to look the same on any computer and the printed version is guaranteed to look exactly like on screen. The fonts you use are embedded in the PDF file, the images in the document (if any) are compressed so the file size is reduced, and you can‘t edit the PDF document. So no one can steal your CV template which you spent so much time creating. Besides, Word documents (.doc and .docx) can contain viruses and are often automatically removed from email attachments. And it just looks unprofessional to receive a Word document. Convert your document from Word to PDF here: www.doc2pdf.net

3. Do a search on yourself on Google.

While Google is almost always your friend, it has a way of never forgetting things. If your name is relatively uncommon (like Gzack Ritrovado Francese rather than John Smith), chances are you will appear among the first results in Google. You don‘t want your prospective employers to stumble upon your blog post where you talk negatively about your previous employers. Also you don‘t want them to see a picture of you very drunk, holding a glass of beer, wearing a sweater with your previous employer‘s logo on it, partially obscured by the cigar you are holding. And they were just reading in your CV that you are a non-smoker and you don‘t drink.

Continue reading 7 Tips For A CV That Works For You