tt4t_017 Happy Holidays

It’s Friday, December 21, 2007 and welcome to Episode 17 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Just a quick podcast to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays.

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Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week

My Technology pick of the week this week is a website that allows you to convert file types to different formats. Periodically I find the need to convert a document, image, audio, or video file format to something else. You know, you get that email attachment from someone or you download a file from the Internet but your computer will not open it. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you cannot open a file because you do not have the proper program or plug-in loaded on your computer give the zamzar website a try. There are dozens of file formats that Zamzar can convert and links are provided in the show notes to this website as well as a listing of conversion types. It is not an exhaustive list of conversion formats but this website has come in handy for me in certain situations in the past.

http://www.zamzar.com/

http://www.zamzar.com/conversionTypes.php

For example, you need to convert a Quicktime Movie file to a Flash Video file or you need a quick way to convert a Word document to Adobe PDF format or visa versa. Zamzar can do this type of conversion for you. Depending upon file size it may take some time to do the conversion, especially for video file formats. As with most Web 2.0 companies there are paid subscriptions that will give you online storage as well as increased speed for converting file formats. You simply browse and upload your file to the website, provide an email address and select the type of format you want your file converted to. You will receive an email from zamzar letting you know when your file has been processed with a link in the email so you can download the converted file. That’s it! I tried this out with a Microsoft Word document and in a matter of seconds I had a link to the converted PDF file, very simple.

Show notes for Episode 17 and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for this episode of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.