Converting your files to PDFs

Sometimes you may want to send a file to someone who doesn't have the program you used to create it... and when this is the case, you will need to convert your file to a format they can open and read.

A pdf file can be opened and read by anyone who has Acrobat Reader installed on their PC - and even if they don't have it installed, they can always download it for free.

The most expensive way of producing pdf files is to buy Acrobat Professional, but if you don't want to pay several hundred euros, you will be pleased to know that you can download a pdf printer/converter progam for free (and if you use Word 2007 you will find it can convert docx files to pdf files).

I'm not going to recommend a program because there are hundreds of them out there and I don't know whether one program is any better than the other, just stick pdf converter download into Google or whichever search engine you use and press 'Search'.

You may find you have to pay a few euros to get a decent pdf converter, but you can probably find a good one for less than €30.

Converting file formats

> "Privately and at school I often attach files to e-mails, and I have
> my first steps behind me in scanning pictures and documents, but I
> still feel being quite a baby. Last week I wanted to create a jpg
> file, but I got a pdf file (I don’t know yet why. Maybe I should ask
> Auntie Web)."

If you want to create a jpg file, you should copy the image you want to convert and paste it into your Paint program. Paint is a Windows program that came with your PC if it runs on Windows.

To find Paint:

Click on the Windows 'Start' button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen.

Select 'Programs'.

Select 'Accessories'.

Click on the program 'Paint'.

Paste the graphic you want to convert to a jpg into the screen.

Then click on File --> Save as... and make sure you save it in as jpg file and not a gif or tif type file. (You can do that by selecting jpg from the 'Save as type: box' at the bottom of the 'Save as' screen.

Alternatively, you can download free software that will convert most image formats, e.g. Converter

The site also lists several other free file conversion software which should let you convert most files from one format to another.

Converting Flash video to mp4 and mp3 online

You know that the YouTube Flash videos (flv) are easy to convert online into mp4s (the iTunes format) and to download onto your computer using www.savevid.com. But online conversion of non-YouTube videos is not quite as simple. For any conversion you must first find the URL of the video you want to convert. How? YouTube and a few other sites post the URL plainly, but often you need to be a Sherlock Holmes to find the URL. Step one: Play the video. If it opens up in a new window, you'll see your URL in the browser window. If not, you're lucky if you have Safari (Mac), which allows you to find the URL easily, as Frieda Pattenden first pointed out to me:

Go to the Safari browser bar and select "Window". Then go to "Activity". This opens up a long list of file names that the computer is busy with. Look for a large one that will probably contain "watch?" or "flv".

Once you have the URL, you can use any of a number of sites to convert the file into an mp4 video or even an mp3 audio file. Since audio files are much smaller than video files, conversion into mp3 is often quicker than into mp4. I actually often like to go for a sound bite accompanied by a film still - a very nice media combination for teaching.

So: To convert online video to mp4 or mp3 I use Safari in combination with iTunes. The online sites I use for this are www.convertdirect.com for mp4 (video), and www.flv2mp3.com for mp3 (audio).

Option 1: video to audio

Let's start with coversion of Flash video into an audio file using www.flv2mp3.com:
Copy and paste the URL into the flv2mp3 URL window (see illustrations) and click "I accept the terms: OK".

The site then uploads the file and says "upload complete". Don't enter your email or the output file name. Just select "convert".


Once the file is converted (after a few seconds), your iTunes will automatically detect a new file to play and open up. In iTunes, rename your file and put it in a folder where you can find it. Mp3 - Bingo!

Option 2: video to video

Now for conversion of Flash videos into an mp4 video file using www.convertdirect.com:

1. Copy the URL into the URL window at www.convertdirect.com (this works with any FLV file, not just YouTube)
2. Select the output format MPEG4 + AAC.
3. Type in your email address. You can also download the converted file directly, but I find the process takes quite some time and don't want to wait. Leave your browser open: If you close it while the file is being processed, you can't be sure that the process will be completed.
   

The program will take some time to process the file and then send you an email with a link to a page sporting a big "Q" for "Quicktime". In your browser, save that page using "save file as...". Mp4 - Bingo!


If any of this doesn't work for you, or if you have any tips on finding the URL for videos using a different browser than Safari, we would love to hear from you.

Anything Audio

The Ask Auntie Web column in the Spring edition of MELTA News featured "Anything Audio". Over the next few days we'll be reprinting the column here with all of the links in place for your convenience.

A member, let's call her Audrey, wrote in asking,

Dear Cousin Web,
I think I'm missing out on audio available on the internet. I'd like to use it more in my classes, but I'd also simply like to listen to English broadcasts and podcasts myelf. I can listen to everything on my computer when I'm online, obviously, but what do I need to do if I want to subscribe to a weekly podcast from the web, like Working Lunch from the BBC? And how about the news features that play in RealPlayer: Can I download them, too?

Dear Audrey,
If you want to download audio files to use offline, then the mp3 podcast format is what you want. These files were designed to be played offline on the iPod or other players. Unfortunately, the streamed audio files used by news sites only play online (viz. "Working Lunch"). You can listen or watch online, but you can't take that file with you.

However, if you want to tinker with "ripping" (=rerecording files into a new file or file format) streamed audio files, you might try the VLC media converter (http://www.videolan.org/vlc) or Zamzar, an online converter (http://www.zamzar.com). You can also use recording software such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) to rerecord the online file while it plays. I didn't find a way to save the audio, let alone the video for "Working Lunch" to my computer, though. Have any of you tried to do this with success? If so, please send us your tips. Until then, there are plenty of podcasts ready to go.

We asked around at a recent MELTA Business English workshop, and the participants volunteered their favorite podcasts:

BBC Radio 4 (Gillian, Timea and Lisa)
onestopenglish (Gillian, Rosemary and Dianne)
Business Spotlight podcast (Joan and Dianne)
BBC 6-minute English (Marion)
BNET.com Useful Commute (Susan)
Guardian Weekly (Fran)
NPR: 7AM ET News Summary Podcast (Frank)
NPR: Car Talk's Call of the Week Podcast (Frank)
TED Talks (Anne)
The NYT Ethicist (Joan)
The Street (Brian)

Getting started with podcasts: From feed to desktop to player

One way to get individual episodes from a podcast series is to follow the RSS feed button (orange square). RSS (Really Simple Syndication) software organizes online sources of information for you. Clicking on the button takes you to the page containing the episode description(s) and the audio file name(s) ending in "mp3". Copy the audio file you want onto your computer. On a PC/Microsoft, right click your mouse and select "save as". On a Mac "right-click" using "control" and your mouse, or drag and drop the file onto your desktop.



If you want to get a podcast regularly, subscribe to it. Download iTunes for free (from http://www.apple.com/de/itunes). Then either

1. Open iTunes, click on Advanced and you'll see the option "Subscribe to podcast". Click on that and paste the feed link to the podcast you have selected (ending in "/rss.xml") into the box. Then click on "OK".
2. OR go online to the iTunes Store (the button is on the left sidebar in iTunes.) You will see "Podcasts" on the top right. Under that is "Kartegorien". Click on "Bildung" and, on the right, click on "Alle anzeigen". Browse, scroll down, select what you want and click on "Abonnieren" next to your selection(s).

The latest episode of the podcasts you subscribe to will automatically load whenever you press "refresh" in your podcast directory. When you subscribe, the whole archive becomes available. To download an old, archived episode you must click on the "get episode" button. Podcasts are free, but to browse the archive or download transcripts, you may have to become a premium member. This is often free, especially if you subscribe to the print publication (e.g. Business Spotlight or Spotlight); just register on the publication's website.
Save the mp3s you want to listen to onto your mp3 player using your player software. Every player is a bit different.

Converting your old cassettes to MP3 files

If you are like me, you will have a collection of ancient records, cassetttes, CDs and now MP3 files.

A while back I decided it was high time to get all my audio recordings into one format, namely MP3.

OK, but how do you do that? That's a good question, but converting an analogue audio signal to a digital one isn't as difficult as I'd first thought.

What you need is:

a cassette recorder

a computer with a sound card

a cable to connect the cassette recorder to your sound card

a free program like Audacity which can be used to record and edit sound.

Plug the cable into the 'Line out' socket of your cassette recorder and stick the other end into the 'Line in' socket on your PC's sound card.

Open Audacity and select the input type 'Line in'. This tells Audacity to record from the 'Line in' socket on the sound card. To do this, open the 'Edit' menu and then select 'Preferences'. A new screen appears - click on the "Device" selector to chose your input (in this case, soundcard) and change the "Channels" selector mono or stereo recording as appropraite.

Next click on the red record button in Audacity and press the play button on your cassette recorder.

After you have recorded the cassette or the tracks you wanted to record, press the yellow stop button on Audacity.

Easy, wasn't it?

Now all you have to do is convert your file to an MP3 format. To do that, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Export as MP3'.

The MP3 file you have saved to your computer can also be converted to WAV file and burned to a CD.

YouTube for teaching English

Jamie Keddie has created TEFLclips, a site with free lesson plans for using YouTube videos in TEFL. Geared to very different levels and target groups, he pairs videos with pdf lesson plans and worksheets.

He has also created a nice video on how to download YouTube videos and organize them in your iTunes:



So the site he recommends for conversion is www.savevid.com.

His site is more than "simply" a free resource for the busy teacher. Jamie Keddie is exploring media with this project, and if you study his lessons carefully and try them out yourself, you can learn a great deal about the didactic potential of video. He explains:

"For the language teacher, YouTube may be the single best source of material the classroom has ever seen. The question, “How can we use YouTube in the classroom?” encompasses many others including:

* How can we use moving images in the classroom?
* How can we use audio in the classroom?
* How can we use film in the classroom?
* How can we use art in the classroom?
* How can we use technology in the classroom?
* How can we use music in the classroom?
* How can we use adverts in the classroom?
* How should we use and approach news and current affairs in the classroom?
* How should we approach the subject of the media in the classroom?
* How can we organise class film-making projects?

This website has been set up in order to address some of these questions." TEFLclips: About

Jamie Keddie has just won an ELTon from The British Council for TEFLclips. Visit his website at http://www.jamiekeddie.com. Thank you to Dagmar Taylor for recommending this teacher and his site. Have a look and tell us what you think.
Technical problems with downloads? Ask Auntie Web.