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If the program you are working on does not have an option to save as pdf then here are a few options that might help:

Install a simple pdf printer option

Use a simple little utility: Bullzip PDF Printer that creates a pdf printer that you can print to from any program.

You can download this program here: http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

When installed it will add another printer called Bullzip.   In your program that has the document (or picture) choose print and select the the Bullzip printer. It will then give you options to save as pdf.

Use a free online pdf convertor

You can also upload your file to an online convertor that will convert it for you to download.

One such example is https://www.freepdfconvert.com/ which also gives you other format options like jpg and tiff.

Use Google Drive to download as pdf

If you are a Google Drive user then you can upload  your document to Google Drive.  Then when viewing it you can choose to Download as PDF.

Download the document as a PDF. Click File → Download as → PDF Document (.pdf). Depending on your browser settings, the download may begin immediately or you may be prompted to choose a download location.

PDF Files Meet Legal Document Requirements
Because a PDF document is a “read only” document that cannot be altered without leaving an electronic footprint

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Modifying your hosts file allows you to override the DNS for a domain, on that particular machine. This is useful when you want to test your site without updating your domain to the new site yet.

You will be given an IP address and the domain name to add to your hosts files.  Usually in this format:

54.39.229.198 www.domain.com
54.39.229.198 domain.com

These 2 lines with your new ip address and domain is what you will be entering into your hosts file.

Here are the instructions based on the various operating systems

• Windows 10
• Windows 8
• Windows 7
• Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.1.5
• Mac OS X 10.6 – 10.10

Windows 10

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Click the Search icon
3. Type Notepad in the search field.
4. In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
5. In Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
6. Make the necessary changes to the file.
7. Click File > Save to save your changes.

For Windows 8

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Type Notepad in the search field.
3. In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
4. In Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
5. Make the necessary changes to the file.
6. Click File > Save to save your changes.

For Windows 7

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories.
2. Right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
3. Click Continue on the Windows needs your permission UAC window.
4. When Notepad opens, click File > Open.
5. In the File name field, type C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.
6. Click Open.
7. Make the necessary changes to the file.
8. Click File > Save to save your changes.

Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.1.5

1. Open /Applications/Utilities/NetInfo Manager.
2. To allow editing of the NetInfo database, click the padlock in the lower-left corner of the window.
3. Enter your domain user password and click OK.
4. In the second column of the browser view, select the node named machines.You will see entries for -DHCP-, broadcasthost, and localhost in the third column.
5. In the third column, select localhost.
6. From the Edit menu, select Duplicate. (The quickest way to create a new entry is to duplicate an existing one.)A confirmation alert appears.
7. Click Duplicate.A new entry called localhost copy appears, and its properties are shown below the browser view.
8. Double-click the value of the ip_address property and enter the IP address of the other computer.
9. Double-click the value of the name property and enter the hostname you want for the other computer.
10. Click the serves property and select Delete from the Edit menu.
11. From the File menu, select Save.A confirmation alert appears.
12. Click Update this copy.
13. Repeat steps 6 through 12 for each additional host entry that you want to add.
14. From the NetInfo Manager menu, select Quit.You do not need to restart the computer.

Mac OS X 10.6 – 10.10

1. Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. Open the hosts file by typing the following line in the terminal window:

   sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
   

3. Type your domain user password when prompted.
4. Edit the hosts file.The file contains some comments (lines starting with the # symbol), and some default hostname mappings (for example, 127.0.0.1 – local host). Add your new mappings after the default mappings.
5. Save the hosts file by pressing Control+x and answering y.
6. Make your changes take effect by flushing the DNS cache with the following command:

   dscacheutil -flushcache
   

The new mappings should now take effect.

 

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Recently a few clients found that excel files that were dynamically created online and being downloaded to Microsoft Excel 2015 were opening blank.

I tried to change the content type on the download and also change file extension to xlsx form xls but neither worked

Trust Issue in Microsoft Excel

It looked like the file was actually blank but it is actually a trust issue in Microsoft and we were able to get around it by doing the following:

1. Open Excel Go to File Options
2. Click Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings
3. Go to Protected View. there are 3 options that show that were all clicked. Uncheck the first option that reads — “Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet”.
   In some cases both the 1st and 2nd options need to be unchecked

I had originally thought that I was going to have to rescript the downloads from Excel version to csv but thankfully the above worked.

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Sometimes you might be asked to clear your browser cache to correct an issue or view the latest page of a website.

Why Clear your Cache?

Each browser keeps a copy each website page as you visit it.  It then gives you this page then next time you visit that site to speed up your browsing experience.  It then periodically gets the last version of that page but there are times you need to force it to get the latest version without waitng.  That is when you need to clear your cache.

How to clear your cache in your browser

Clearing the cache is different for each browser, but practically all of them have a cache clearing option in their options or settings. Here are some instructions for the main browsers:

Chrome:

• Settings (three dots)
• More Tools
• Clear Browsing Data

Firefox: 

• Menu (hamburger)
• Options
• Advanced
• Network
• Cached Web Content
• Clear Now

Safari: 

• Options
• Reset Safari
• Remove All Website Data

Edge:

• Options (three dots)
• Settings
• Clear Browsing Data

See http://packard-bell-scandic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38047/~/microsoft-edge%3A-how-to-clear-browser-history-and-cache for more information on MS Edge

Or try Refreshing the page

If you only want to load a page bypassing cache then simply refresh the page. The page will reload without using the cached files. Please note: This doesn’t clear the browser cache.  You can do this with a soft refresh or a hard refresh.

Soft Refresh

If you click on the refresh/reload button or press the F5 or Ctrl+R hotkey on your web browser, this will trigger a “soft refresh” on the web browser where it will check against the web server to see if the files are modified. If modified, the web browser will pull the latest version of the file and if not modified, the web browser will continue to use the cache version.
Read More: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/refresh-webpage-with-soft-or-hard-reload-in-web-browsers/

Hard Refresh

As for hard refresh, it is a method to force the web browser to fetch all of the files again ignoring the expiration time and bypassing the local cache.
Read More: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/refresh-webpage-with-soft-or-hard-reload-in-web-browsers/

Soft refresh webpage: Click on the Reload/Refresh button or press the F5 key (PC) or Command+R (Mac) on keyboard.
Hard refresh webpage: press the Ctrl+F5 key (PC) or Command+Shift+R (Mac) on keyboard.

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