Import Data in Excel from PDF or Image

This simple trick allows you to import data from pdf files which are in tabular format. When you are in Excel, just go to the Data tab and click on the first option, Get Data, From File, From PDF. Then choose the PDF file from which you wish to import the data and it is imported into Excel instantly!  Just remember that you may have to do a bit of cleaning up if the original PDF file is not properly formatted, but it saves a lot of time by not having to input the data manually.

If you are using Microsoft Office on your Android phone (now re-christened as Microsoft 365) go to the Apps tab in your App, tap on Scan and then on Image to table. This will allow you to take a photo of your table from a book or magazine, and directly create an excel sheet for it.

Pretty cool, huh?

Arcwise.ai

This simple Google Chrome extension is your co-pilot for Google Sheets. You can instantly understand, clean and ingest data in Google Sheets with the AI behind ChatGPT.

You can use Arcwise.ai to clean your data from a dirty original database at the click of a button. If you have received a financial model and have no idea what it does, you can infer formulas yourself from a complex Worksheet. You can even ask a question in simple English – “What does column C do?” and the answer will be served instantly in plain language. If you have the concept of the formula but you don’t know how to write it, Arcwise.ai writes the formula for you! If you see data on a website and wish to import it into your sheet – well, Arcwise can do it for you.

Arcwise.ai is free for you to use – just add the Chrome extension to your browser and get instant, intelligent assistance!

https://arcwise.ai/

Blush

When we use illustrations and pictures in our projects / presentations, we normally pick up royalty free images from the web. These images can just be resized and rotated before use. Blush goes the extra mile. You can easily create and customize stunning illustrations with collections made by artists from across the Globe. Just visit https://blush.design/ choose a style, Customize the Art, play around with variations until you create what exactly you want and then download the PNG or SVG of your creation and use it on your web app, presentation or any project you want to bring to life! Not only are the illustrations amazing but the customization is extremely simple to implement. You have full control, you never lose context and have a worry free license since Blush allows you to use every graphic for personal and commercial purposes without the need for attribution.

If you are a designer for print or web or any other medium, you must give Blush a try!

SumatraPDFReader

We have all used Adobe Acrobat Reader which is the industry standard for reading PDF Files. Many times, it is laggard to open and heavy to use.

SumatraPDFReader is extremely quick and opens up instantly. It is small, fast, customizable and free. Apart from PDF, it also supports various other file formats like eBook, comic book (cbz/cbr), DjVu, XPS, CHM, image formats and text documents for Windows.

The interface is minimalistic and apart from viewing the document, you could rotate it, resize it and even print it.

A very light and versatile PDF reader for day to day use.

https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/

Jotti.org

Very often viruses enter our system through attachments received in emails. Most of the time, if you have a strong, paid anti-virus tool installed, it will be prevented from opening and spreading. However, each anti-virus tool has its own limitations – what is caught by one anti-virus tool may escape notice of another anti-virus tool.

This is where Jotti comes in useful. It checks and scans each file that you send it, against multiple anti-virus tools. Hence there are more chances of any malware or virus getting detected. So, as soon as you send it to Jotti, the file will be scanned by E-scan, Avast, F-Secure, Kaspersky, BitDefender, Fortinet and multiple other tools. The result is that you have added protection against viruses in any of the files which you submit for scanning.

Jotti is a free tool and extremely useful when you are getting attachments from multiple sources and need to be extra careful before opening them.

https://virusscan.jotti.org/

QuickLook

QuickWhenever we are in the Windows File Manager, we have an option to see the Preview of our files in the right pane. This is a very useful feature of Windows, but extremely slow at times. More so if you are previewing multiple file formats in quick succession.

QuickLook is a simple app that makes things zippier. Just go to the Microsoft Store and look for the QuickLook App, download it and install it. After installation, when you go to the Windows File Manager and need to preview any file, just press the space bar and you will immediately get a preview of the file you are on! It is that simple.

It also supports the following actions as indicated:

Spacebar: Preview / Close Preview

Esc: Close Preview

Enter: Run & Close Preview

Ctrl+Mouse Wheel: Zoom Images/Documents

Mouse Wheel: Adjust Volume

Try it, and get a quick preview experience.

Housing Co-op Master

This is a simple app made for co-operative housing societies.

It has the provisions of law for co-operative housing societies listed serially. You will find the relevant provisions, circulars and case laws in some cases. This could provide a quick reference point for looking up various provisions right from your phone.

There are also videos on various topics like Deemed Conveyance – Importance, Documents required, etc.

It is a work in progress and many more topics and courses will be introduced from time to time. Some will remain free and some will have to be paid for.

For Housing Co-operative Societies, this could grow to become a valuable resource for all their formation, running and administrative needs.

Android: https://bit.ly/40ter2I

Grain.com

Grain is an AI-powered meeting recording for all teams. It automates note-taking, record-keeping, and insight capture from every conversation online. It can connect to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and virtually any other online platform.

Grain allows you to focus on the conversation and let Grain AI capture, analyze and synthesize your meetings. You will get an accurate summary that allows you to easily recall, clip and share key moments.

Just allow Grain to join your meeting as a participant. (For transparency, it is notified to all collaborators that Grain is recording the meeting.) Once in, Grain will record and transcribe minute by minute, who said what and make it available to you in text format. Hence your entire meeting will be transcribed in text format and you could quickly search through the text to figure out who said what, when! Besides, it will summarize the key statements made in the meeting in a couple of neat paras, which will in turn point to the actual timeline of the recording.

Extremely useful if you have missed part of the meeting, joined a meeting late and even for creating minutes of the meeting later on. Or, you could just save the text as is, as a record of the meeting.

You can start with 50 meetings free, and once you are addicted and discover the power of the system, you will happily pay a small price for the same, to get the full benefits!

www.grain.com

AIS for Income Tax

The Income Tax Department has launched a Mobile app for Tax Payers to view their individual Annual Information Statement (AIS). As you may be aware, the AIS presents to you TDS/TCS information, SFT information, Payment of Taxes, Demand and Refund & Other information. All this at the tip of your fingers.

The AIS has been available, for a while, from the normal Income Tax Website (incometax.gov.in) accessible after several clicks. The AIS app gets you all this information on your mobile, instantaneously. After you install the app, you need to verify your email and mobile no.  (as per your profile registered with the Department) with OTP and can set 4 digit PIN. You can then track your taxes paid, Refunds Due, TDS and more, on the app. All this information is available for your current Financial Year and also for the previous couple of years

It is extremely simple to use and very fast for easy access your information. Just use it once to see the power of the system – Download AIS Now.

Android: https://bit.ly/3TS0Lff

PrintFriendly.com

PrintMany a times we visit a webpage which we would like to print and preserve for future reference. When we try to print any webpage, you will notice that we get a lot of junk, advertisements and distortions. To avoid getting a jumbled page in print, just head to printfriendly.com

Once you are on that website, you can just paste the URL of the webpage that you wish to print, and it will present a Print Preview for you. You can make some more edits / deletes to the webpage as per your requirements and then send it to print. It is that simple.

If you are using Chrome, they also have a Chrome Extension, which does the same thing for the page you are on. This makes the whole process faster, better and easier – there is no need to copy and paste.

The best part of this is that there is no registration, no login and no storage of your webpages on their servers. There is a paid, pro version, but most of the stuff that you need, is already there in the free version.

Go ahead, make your web pages Print Friendly, with PrintFriendly.com