This is the 27th issue of The Better Mousetrap. Many of you have joined our mailing list after the first issue. So we have archived all the 26 previous issues on our web site. It is easy to review all of them. Just click here for the list or go to the Cheshire Group web site and click on the link that says The Better Mousetrap E-Mail Newsletters.

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HOW TO MAKE A PDF...
and why you should.

“Give me the file,” someone says to you. Well sometimes you can’t. And ironically, it is usually the person least able to accept a special file who is most likely to make the naive request.
     The assumption that all files can be easily shared was bred among users of common word processing programs like MicroSoft Word. Sometimes it is easy to swap files. Sometimes it is even possible to successfully insert simple graphic files into a Word program. But for complex or intensive graphics that have been created in a special, professional program like Adobe PageMaker or InDesign, QuarkXpress, or Adobe Illustrator, it is not possible to “just give me the file.”
    To read or use material created in PageMaker, the user needs to have the PageMaker program. A logo created in Adobe Illustrator is worthless to someone who intends to “just insert it into a Word document.”
     Enter PDF—the common ground of computer users. This is a program from Adobe and it stands for Portable Document Format. It is used to create a file which can be read by Adobe Reader which is a free program available online from Adobe.
     A PDF allows computer users to truly share information. In addition, PDF opens a trove of valuable information on the web to any user. IRS forms, for example, can be downloaded and printed out right from the home computer.
     Here’s how to use PDF. If you are on the receiving end of information, you can simply download Adobe Acrobat reader. It’s free. But you will not be able to edit the material you have downloaded.
     If you are on the transmitting end, however, you will have to buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat. Or you may have a newer model computer that arrived with it built in. But Acrobat is the tool that lets you build a PDF.
     PDF ... it lets you share graphic format and text files with non-compatible pals.

For more information how to obtain and use Adobe PDF contact the Cheshire Group at 978 664-3040 or drop us a note by clicking on this link.

WHAT ADVERTISING DOES...
and doesn't do

Advertising does three things: it informs, it persuades, and it reminds.
     In simpler times, advertising only had to do one job—inform. In economies of scarcity, it was enough to announce that you had button hooks or saddle blankets or buckboard springs; your announcement brought in the buyers who needed those goods or services.
     When techniques of mass production brought times of abundance, advertising—and consumer choices— became more complex. Would you buy your buckboard springs from Acme or Ace? Or would you chuck the old buckboard altogether and get a newfangled truck? At this point, it became advertising’s task to persuade ... to influence your decision.
     But one persuasive effort was never enough. Advertising needed to continually remind consumers that they were satisfied with what they’d bought and who they’d bought it from.
     And what does advertising not do?
     With a few exceptions, advertising does not sell. All it can do is raise awareness so a sale can happen.

UNWRITTEN LAWS OF TECHNOLOGY.
Courtesy of PC World Magazine.

BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW.
Courtesy of Dr Robert Amsterdam.

Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.  
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?