InformationWeek Stories by Seth Heringer

InformationWeek Stories by Seth Heringerhttp://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2011-09-07T13:45:00ZHow To Turn Any Printable Doc Into A PDFHere's how to create PDFs of Web receipts. http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/231600339?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors Why waste all that paper and ink printing out Web receipts and other documents when you can save them as Adobe PDF files? The benefits are myriad. There are many PDF printing utilities available, but my favorite is <a href="http://www.primopdf.com/download.aspx">PrimoPDF</a>. This utility lets you save anything printable as a PDF file. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/1_pdf.png"> Installation is straightforward, except for the following caveat: Do not install the Install NitroPDF Reader. If you're already using Acrobat or another free PDF reader, you don't need it. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/2.png"> Navigate to the site or document you want to save as a PDF. (In this example, I'm using the prelaunch BYTE.com website.) Open the Print dialog box. Here, I'm selecting Print from the drop-down list in Google Chrome OS. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/3.png"> Under General, select PrimoPDF as the printer. Click Print. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/4.png"> PrimoPDF will launch automatically. The default settings worked fine for me, but play around if you like. You can customize quality, color, and properties. Once you're done, click Create PDF. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/5.png"> The Save As dialog box will open. Choose a name and a location for the PDF. I find it easiest to store all of these files in one folder for easy access. Click Save. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/6.png"> You are done! The saved PDF will open automatically for viewing. Here the entire BYTE.com home page is saved as a two-page document. The PDF does not mirror the website's formatting exactly, but all the information is there. <img src="http://i.techweb.com/infoweek/byte/howto/primopdf/7.png"> Based in Pasadena, CA, Seth Heringer is a senior contributor at <a href="http://www.byte.com" target="_blank">BYTE</a>. Follow him <a href=https://twitter.com/#!/SethHeringer>@sethHeringer</a> or send an email at <a href="mailto:seth.heringer@byte.com">Seth.Heringer@BYTE.com</a>.2011-07-22T05:21:00ZHow to Encrypt Documents with TrueCryptTruCrypt, encryption works on mutiple operating systems. http://www.informationweek.com/news/231000250?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Authors TrueCrypt is one of the best open source encryption solutions around. Here's how to use it. TrueCrypt seems non-intuitive at first. Instead of directly encrypting drives and files, it makes you create pre-set containers first. And only other TrueCrypt users are able to open the containers. Once you get that, TrueCrypt is powerful and easy to use on several OS platforms. First, gather all of the data you want encrypt into one folder. It is helpful to do this early in the process. That way, you'll know what size to make the TrueCrypt container. Go to the TrueCrypt website and download the version of <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads" target="_blank">TrueCrypt</a> that's right for your OS. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/1.png"> Now navigate to the TrueCrypt Setup folder. Double-click TrueCrypt to launch it. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/2.png"> Complete the installation process with the default settings. For most users, those settings are fine. After, if TrueCrypt doesn't open automatically, just launch it off the programs list. In Windows, do this by clicking on the Start menu. Into the search box, type: truecrypt Hit Enter. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/3.png"> Now you need to create an empty TrueCrypt container that will hold the data you want encrypted. First, determine how large the container needs to be. If you already combined the data you want encrypted into a single folder, just right-click on the folder containing your data. Navigate to the General tab. There the folder size will display – I highlighted it in blue below. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/4.png"> Note: this number represents only the data currently in the folder. In order to plan for future additions, consider making the container two to three times larger than the folder's size. So, for the 69.1 MB folder above, a 210MB container would be ideal, allowing for extra space for future additions. Remember the size of the container you choose for later use. To create a container, in TrueCrypt click Create Volume. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/5.png"> Choose Create an encrypted file container and click Next. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/6.png"> Click Select file. Choose where you would like to save the container and what you want to call it. Here, I labeled the container Financial Container and put it on the E drive. After you choose a location and name for the container, click Next. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/7.png"> Select an algorithm for the encryption. I recommend the defaults. They're excellent. Click Next. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/8.png"> Now choose the size of your container by entering numbers into the text box and selecting the units of storage. For this example I chose 210MB. That's because the file containing the data to be encrypted is around 70MB, leaving me 140MB of space for future additions. Make your selections and click Next. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/9.png"> Choose a strong password. No matter how strong the encryption is, if the password is weak, then the data will be vulnerable. Click Next. Warning: BYTE at this writing knows of no workaround to let you recover this password or recover your data if the password is lost. The purpose of TrueCrypt is to make data irretrievable sans password. This is serious. Keep the password in a safe place and make multiple copies if you ever want to see this data again! <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/10.png"> The next screen lets you further strengthen the encryption algorithm by incorporating random mouse movement. As the directions say, move your mouse randomly over the window for about 40 seconds. Afterward, click Format. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/11.png"> After some processing time, a confirmation screen will notify you that you successfully created the container. Click OK. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/12.png"> Click Exit. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/13.png"> Now that you've created the empty container, direct TrueCrypt to mount it to a drive. TrueCrypt lets you select any available drive. Here I've selected the J drive. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/14.png"> Now tell TrueCrypt the location of the container you created earlier. That way, TrueCrypt can mount it to the J drive. Click Select File. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/15.png"> Use Windows Explorer to find and select the earlier TrueCrypt container. For this example, this container is on the E drive. Its file path shows up in the drop-down box after selecting the file. I highlighted that for you in blue below. Click Mount. Enter your password and click OK. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/16.png"> Check it out. The mounted container appears in TrueCrypt beside the drive letter you chose. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/17.png"> Excellent. You have successfully created a container and mounted it to a drive that encrypts anything on it. Now navigate to the drive by clicking Computer in the Start menu and then on the mounted drive – the J drive, in my example. Copy or drag the folder you created at the beginning onto this drive. While the container is mounted, it functions like a regular drive. Do keep an unencrypted copy of your financial folder on your desktop for now. Once you are finished moving files, select the drive in TrueCrypt and click Dismount to make the container inaccessible by Windows. In fact, no one will be able to access it without the password from this point forward. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/18.png"> See? The drive is no longer available under your list of drives. The files and documents still reside in the container. Windows just can’t access them. If you navigate to the container with Windows, you will see it hasn't changed sizes. The data is safe and sound. Only those with TrueCrypt the password will ever be able to open it. <img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/byte/howto/TruCrypt_heringer/19.png"> Based in Pasadena, CA, Seth Heringer is a Senior Contributor at <a href="http://www.byte.com" target="_blank">BYTE</a>. Follow him <a href=https://twitter.com/#!/SethHeringer>@SethHeringer</a> or email him at <a href="mailto:seth.heringer@byte.com">Seth@BYTE.com</a>.