Gmail is everything good in terms of speed, functionality and simple; but the plain interface simply makes some of us bored. If you are sick of seeing the same white background every time you load your mail, here’s something for a change. Folks at Global Designs Inc has released a Firefox plugin that will sure to give your Gmail interface a new look. The image above is what your Gmail interface will look like, after installing the plugin.

Here’s how your email interface can look like with the plugin.

Learn more about the installation here. Only works with Firefox browser.

globexdesigns via bitbot

TBot, the WLM robot translator provides machine translations to WLM buddies. It is a part of the services offered by http://translator.live.com. TBot might not have the human translation skills but enough to break the barriers of communication.

If you would like to communicate with the new translator bot, just simply add mtbot@hotmail.com to your contact list and start chatting.

Here’s 2 ways you can use TBot:

1. One on one conversations with the bot where it will respond with the translation. That means, hit enter after typing in a language and TBot will replied with a translated version of your choice.
2. Invite a friend and each chat in a different language with TBot assisting in translation.

As far as this article has been written, TBot is able to translate English to/from Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. TBot can handle translation between Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional too.

Have fun!

Facelift Image Replacement, FLIR is Javascript that detects particular title/paragraph (H1, H2, H3, P, etc) on your website and convert them to an image representation. If you are sick of the boring standard web fonts like Verdana, Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, now you can display any type of funky fonts on web without worrying your readers might not have that font installed.

You’ll need a little bit of Javascript and CSS knowledge in order to install, amend the script to your existing website, but you’ll be fine. With FLIR you can design your website with almost any typeface. And oh, don’t worry about the Search Engine Optimization part because all H1, H2, etc are still preserved in the source codes. You’ve gotta test the demo yourself.

Examples | Facelift Website | Download

If you’re a video fan and spend a lot of time watching online video, here’s a must-have Firefox add-on for you to play a particular online video at Firefox sidebar – YouPlayer. In short, YouPlayer is a video player with playlist which works on Firefox sidebar while you are surfing the Internet on the right.

How To Use YouPlayer

1. Firstly, install YouPlayer Firefox add-on. Upon installation, click on “YP” on the bottom right side in your Firefox browser.
2. To start to watch an online video, you can click on “Search” button in YouPlayer to search a video in YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, DailyMotion or MySpace.
3. You may drag and drop a link or local files from hard drive into a playlist window. When you double-click of it, it will be loaded in the video window.
4. You can save the playlist and make it work as a bookmarker so you can always continue to watch the unfinished video in your playlist.

Portable Document Format (PDF) has been widely used for electronic documents in our daily life, either in work or personal file exchange. According to Adobe, PDF has been around for more than 15 years, with more than 250 million circulating on the Internet. But why PDF, and not the typical text files, docs, etc? Adobe has a good answer for that – Multiplatform, Extensible, Trusted and reliable, Rich in file integrity, More secure, Searchable and Accessible. Click here to read more about Adobe PDF.

We present you 80+ Free Tools, Tips and Resources to help you master and get the best out of PDF documents. Full list after jump.

PDF Converters

Online Tools

1. Youblisher – Free flip page software
   Youblisher.com is a free hosted flipping book pdf publisher software. After creating a free account pdf files can be uploaded and be converted into flash page flips in a short time.
   
2. PDFTextOnline – Extract text from PDF and makes these text copy-able.
3. ShowPDF – A PDF-to-HTML converter.
4. FreePDFConvert – Convert MS Office, Images, Web Pages, Vector Graphic Formats files to PDF or Convert PDF to Word (doc) or Excel (xls) document, extract Images from PDF.
   
5. Document Converter eXPress – Convert files to PDF or Image without the need of installing special software.
   
6. Web2PDF Online – A free HTML to PDF Conversion service for your websites that allows your visitors to quickly save useful information in your blogs and websites to PDF files.
   
7. Lettos – DOC to ODT & PDF, ODT to PDF a DOC, PDF to TXT
8. PDFIt – A Firefox extension that allows you to convert any page into a PDF through a online service provided by Touchpdf.com.
9. htm2PDF – A service to convert your webpages to PDF
10. Zamzar – A free online file conversion that able to convert PDF to many document formats.
    
11. PDFOnline – Convert documents to PDF, PDF service for iPhone, web to PDF and PDF to word.
12. KoolWire – Just send your documents to pdf@koolwire.com, then you will receive a converted file in PDF format.
    
13. HTML2PDF.BIZ – Web Service & API that converts your Website into PDF.
14. ExpressPDF – ExpressPDF is an online service that lets you convert your Microsoft Office documents to PDF.
15. Online PDF Converter – You can convert you PDF file to text or image (JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF) absolutely free.
16. PDFText – Converts your PDF (Acrobat) file to plain text.
17. RSS2PDF – Free Online RSS, Atom or OPML to PDF Generator.
18. PDF-o-matic – A simple PHP script that uses HTMLDOC to convert the web page of your choice.
19. LOOP – A free web-based service that allows you to convert and combine files to PDF.
20. FeedJournal – Convert RSS and Atom feeds into PDF newspaper.
21. BookletCreator – A free online tool that allows to create a booklet from a PDF document.

Offline Tools

1. doPDF – With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF files.
   
2. PDF995 -  Pdf995 makes it easy and affordable to create professional-quality documents in the popular PDF file format.
3. BullZip -  BullZip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application.
4. PrimoPDF -  Create PDF files from 300+ file types and optimized for print, screen, ebook, or prepress.
   
5. PDFConverter Desktop – PDFConverter Desktop is Windows software which allow to convert your files to PDF directly from your desktop.
6. OmniFormat -  A free document conversion utility which allows dynamic conversion and image manipulation of over 75 file formats.
7. PDF to JPG – A complete solution for the conversion of PDF documents into JPG, TIFF or other graphical files.
   
8. PDF Image Converter – An easy-to-use application that converts PDF pages to image files with excellent quality.
9. PDF to Text Converter – Easy PDF to Text Converter can extract text from pdf files — it does NOT need Adobe Acrobat software.
10. PDF Ripper – Extract image, text, chart, formula from PDF files.
    
11. PDF to Word Doc Converter – A desktop document conversion tool to convert Adobe PDF file to Microsoft Word Doc file.
12. PDF Creator – An application for creating PDF documents from almost any windows application that is capable of printing.
13. Some PDF Convert Tools – Convert PDFs to DOC competently and in batch.
14. SWF Printer PRO –Convert documents (DOC,XLS, HTML etc) into both standalone flash movie (.swf) presentations with navigation and/or PDF document format with security options support.

PDF Creator & Editor

Online Tools

1. Google Docs – Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows you to download file as PDF.
2. FreePDF.org – A PDF creator which is free and create your own pdf file with editor facility. Registration is required.
3. PDF Hammer – With PDF Hammer you can quickly and easily edit PDF files online, without the need to install anything.
   
4. PrimoPDFOnline – Free Online PDF Creator
   
5. PDFfiller – Online PDF Form Editor-Writer works on any form.
6. PDFescape – Your online PDF reader, editor, form filler and form designer.
7. gOffice Web Word Wizard – gOffice Web Word Wizard is a wrapper around Microsoft Word 2007. This means you can implement a subset of the features found in Word on your website.
   
8. Arcobat.com – Acrobat.com organizer for sharing files and creating PDFs and storing files.
9. PDFsharp–An Open Source library that easily creates PDF documents from any .NET language.
10. Zoho Tools – Zoho writer allows you to create a document online and save as PDF format.
11. O!pdf – Online PDF creator
12. Online PDF Creator – A very complete online PDF creator, comes with WYSIWYG editor.
    

Offline Tools

1. CutePDF Writer -  Create PDF for free, free PDF utilities, edit PDF easily.
2. OpenOffice.org -  A free and open productivity suite that allows you to save a document into PDF.
3. A-PDF INFO Changer -  A very simple tool, that lets you edit the properties of a PDF file, including author, title, subject and keywords. It does not require Adobe Acrobat.
   
4. Skim -  Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF.
   
5. PDFTools 1.3 – PDFTools is a PDF management application. It can encrypt, decrypt, join, split, stamp, create and rearrange a PDF file.
6. FPDF – FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP.
7. PDF Text Reader – Convert PDF files to text or PDF to TXT.
    

PDF Readers

Online Tools

1. PDFMeNot – A free online PDF viewer.
   
2. Samurajdata – An online viewer, with which you can view PDF and PostScript files as browsable images and Word documents as web pages.

Offline Tools

1. Sumatra -  Sumatra PDF Portable is the lightweight Sumatra PDF packaged as a portable app, so you can view PDF files on the go.
   
2. Foxit Reader -  A free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size (only 2.55 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set.
3. Adobe Reader -  Easily view, print, and collaborate on PDF files with free Adobe Reader 9 software
4. Cool PDF Reader – The world’s smallest PDF viewer/reader to view, print, and convert PDF files to TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS.
   
5. eXPert PDF Reader – A free pdf viewer software that lets you view and print pdf documents on windows operating systems.
6. PDF-XChange Viewer -  A smaller, faster and more feature rich than the Adobe Reader which has until now been the Reader of choice for PDF files.

PDF Tips & Related Tools

1. Insert a PDF into Powerpoint 
2. How to convert a PDF file to Word, Excel or JPG format
3. How to convert Powerpoint To PDF
4. How to capture links and embed in PDF
5. How to add Save as PDF button to your website or blog
6. How to Remove Watermarks from PDF Files
7. Docmetrics – Track Statistics for Your PDFs
8. Adobe Reader Speed-Up -  Allows you to significantly speed-up the time it takes to load the Adobe reader application.
9. A-PDF Number  – Add numbers to PDF pages
10. Scan2PDF – Enables you to scan paper documents and save them to PDF format on your computer for digital archiving or backup.
    
11. Combine PDFs – Merges multiple PDF files into one. (Mac only)
12. PDF Filler – PDFfiller lets you fill PDF Forms on-line
13. PDF Image Grabber – Allows you to take embedded images out of PDF Files.

PDF Resources

1. Issuu – A place for online publications: Magazines, catalogs, documents, and stuff you’d normally find on print.
   
2. Data-Sheet – A search engine specially designed for searching PDF files, powered by Google.
3. PDF Search Engine – PDF Search Engine allows you to search web for e-books with relative ease.
4. Scribd – Scribd is a free, web-based, document sharing community and self-publishing platform that enables anyone to easily publish, distribute, share, and discover documents of all kinds.
   
5. Calameo – A new publishing method that has an incredibly wide variety of options and is simple to use. From a PDF file, you create magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures and etc.
6. Yudu Freedom – YUDU is a free online publishing service that lets you share your work with the world!
   
7. PlanetPDF – PDF user community – PDF softwares, events and newsletters.
   
8. VeryPDF- A Fascinating Entry To The PDF World

Back to end of June, Google announced they are testing the new iGoogle in a small number of randomly selected Google accounts. In an other word, not everyone is able to access the canvas view enabled version of iGoogle

For this, we’ve crawled deep into the Internet and finally collected some information about the new iGoogle. Details next!

What’s New

This time, the new iGoogle places the tabs on the left side of the page instead on the top. It allows you to expand the tabs to see the list of gadgets in a tree view. This new structure works similar with Google Reader to me.

Another big improvement is each gadget has an expanded interface aka canvas view. Within canvas view you’re able to check for more information and deeper functions will be provided too like we can directly read an email or a subscribed feed.

How To Access The New iGoogle

To accession the unofficially release version of the new iGoogle, try the steps below:

1. Visit http://www.google.com/ig
2. Paste this in the browser address bar:
   javascript:_dlsetp('v2=1');
3. To go back to the original version, click “Leave the sandbox” on top of the page or paste this in the browser address bar:
   javascript:_dlsetp('v2=0');

Previously, I mentioned about a neat Firefox trick that allows you to duplicate the tab on the fly by just dragging it to a new space. Anyway here what I failed to figure out, and thought would be cool to have:

1. Support Mac’s Firefox
2. Keyboard shortcut instead of mouse dragging

Thanks for readers tip-in, there’s work around for both now.

Firefox in Windows

[Mouse] – Hold Control, drag tab to new space.

[Keyboard shortcut] – Click URL (highlight), Alt + Enter

Firefox in Mac

[Mouse] – Hold Command, drag tab to new space.

[Keyboard shortcut] – Click URL (highlight), Option + Enter

Thanks Wendy, Jeniffer

Think of TinyPaste as shortURL service that turn long lengthy contents short (in format of URL) instead of URLs. This free service is simple, just paste in your text, click submit and share the URL. If you happen to paste large amount of content over IM, Twitter, etc, TinyPaste might just come in handy.

Get more efficient with TinyPaste Firefox plugin

Instead of going back to the website whenever you intend to make long contents short, try this Firefox plugin. All you need to do is just right click -> convert. It’s really that simple.

Do you have figures that you instantly want to make a comparison chart out of it? Try ChartGizmo. ChartGizmo is an online service that generates chart on the fly by talking your input into count. It’s free to use, generating charts are just a sign-up process away.

Generating charts are pretty straight forward. ChartGizmo supports 3 type of charts; bar, pie and line chart. For every chart created, you can also save them as HTML and share with your peers.

Create chart online with chartgizmo.

Fine Tuna’s service model is simple. It allows you to share an image over the Internet with your peers and friends, and on top of that, you can add your comments on the image. If you think you could use some comments while sharing images, try Fine Tuna.

This free web service allows you ways to share an image, you either upload or provide an URL to the image, add in comment and share it. If you like doing this and gonna use it often, try the bookmarklet.

I’ve came across free SMS services from time to time, but most of them either don’t work for me or the free service is only applicable to specific region only. Chawt, on the other end here, works just fine! And I have to tell you, it’s really hard to find a free online SMS sending services nowadays.

This free SMS sending services requires you to sign up, and activate the account with your cell phone. Just paste the code sent to your phone on the form, activate it and you are good to go. I’ve tested and my friends received them. The only drawbacks is the fact that every messages come attached with a line of advertisement. Well, for something free I wouldn’t complain too much.

Send SMS free with Chawt.

Thanks riotE for the heads up!

Whenever you found something interesting online and wish to share with your peers, the most direct way would be telling them the URL and which area or section to look at. With Kwout, you can share stuff more efficiently by quoting specific part of the website as image and share it. It’s all easily done with within few clicks.

Kwout is an online free service that allows you to crop, quote specific part of the website, turns it into image so you can share with anyone. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Go to kwout.com, type in the url in the textbox.
2. Scroll the area you want to share, click ‘Cut Out‘.
   

   

3. You’re done!

Do your final adjustment in terms of image width/height, borders, shadows, etc if necessary. Kwout provides 3 ways to share your quoted screenshots – post on web, post to Flickr and email to friends.

Bookmarklet to quote

There’s bookmarklet that you can place on your browser, so you don’t have to visit Kwout whenever you want to do some quoting. Check out the bookmarklets at the lower fold of the main page.

You see those yellow stripe ad on the header of some blogs/websites? We’ve mentioned how you can get one yourself previously in one of our article – 40+ Most Wanted Wordpress Tricks and Hacks. However, that one we mentioned, you are required to pay to get rid of the author’s message. If you are not ready to pay but want a clean yellow stripe with nothing but your text ad, it’s still possible.

Check out these 2 tutorial links, little HTML/CSS knowledge required.

• How to create your own stripe-ad
• Create Your Own Stripe Ad For Your Blog Or Website

Feedjit is a free service that provides bloggers and webmaster several interesting widgets that boost interactivity among visitors and the website. Amongst are these following widgets:

• live traffic feed
• live traffic map
• live recommended readings
• live page popularity

These widgets are pretty self explanatory, and folks at Feedjit makes them really easy to get them on your website/blog sidebar. Just click on ‘Add it’, copy the script and paste them on the website. For bloggers using Typepad and Blogger platform, simply click on the icon to add. These widgets support further size and color customizations too. Pretty neat tool to show off some statistics.

While you are at it, you might want to take a look at Top 14 Free Web Statistics Tools we’ve previously wrote.

Vector Magic allows you to convert bitmap images to vector directly from their website. The process is fully automated, so for those who don’t have a Photoshop or Illustrator, converting images into vector format is not a problem now.

Vector Magic is extremely easy to use. Upload your image, select your configuration and let the system handle the rest. When it’s done, just download the vector output of your image. Click here to read more about using Vector Magic.

You want to access a website blocked by your ISP; on the other hand, browsershots, a free webservice that allows you to test your web design in different browser. How can it help you? Think about it.

We mentioned about browsershots.org about a year ago. It’s a free service that help you test your web design in different type of browsers so you don’t really have to install them on your machine just to check on the designs and alignments. Type your URL in Browsershots, and it will generate screen captures for you.

If you are blocked from accessing specific websites, type them inside Browsershots and let it generate you the website in images. Get the picture yet? This makes browsershot the 10th alternative way to access blocked websites. :-)

PageOnce the free web service that allows you to store all your online accounts under one roof, so you can access them within one page is now on public beta. That means you don’t really need an invitation, simply go to the website and sign up an account and you are good to go.

Click here to sign up a PageOnce account.

These guys quoted my lines as testimonial too. Nice.

I’m not sure how many places they are searching from, but Google Image is one, that’s for sure. If you want to find photo of someone via the Internet, you can try your luck at facesaerch.com. The site has a very simple interface and it only serve one purpose – finding photos for you. It might not be the most accurate, I tried searching for few friends and on most attempts the photos did appear, even though sometimes they don’t appear first in the results.

Notice facesaerch was wrongly spelt, but that’s not a typo.

The simplest way to understand what’s IE WebDeveloper is to think of it as a Firebug for Internet Explorer. IE WebDeveloper allows you to check, inspect and edit your HTML DOM, display error messages, log messages, show the website source codes, monitoring DHTML event and HTTP traffic. In short, it’s a web designer and developer’s best friend.

IE WebDeveloper resides on your Internet Explorer. Application like this were first developed for Firefox (Firebug) but we know it’s IE that we really need to check and inspect our codes with.

Download IE WebDeveloper for Internet Explorer

uFacebook is a uTorrent Facebook application. Think of it as a online torrent control; you get to do all sort of things via a Facebook app. For instance, initiate & pause any downloads, search for torrents all inside Facebook. uFacebook also has the ability to upload torrent from your local machine by simply browsing to it and click ‘upload‘. There’s even option where you can change the priorities of the torrents, so the more important one gets downloaded first.

uFacebook and uTorrent are developed by Morrent, the same team who developed uTorrent WebUI for iPhone and Windows (gadget) rel=”nofollow”. Read more about installing uFacebook, or click here to find out more about Morrent.

Hat tip from Aaron.