Last time, we looked at 5 useful online tools for businesses, and since then I've come across more that I thought you might find useful and one upgrade from a tool that I outlined in the last post. One of the latest fads for Internet based businesses is to give an online service away for free and earn your profit from advertising. I'm not sure how viable this strategy will be in the long term, but it's certainly beneficial to all us in the mean time.

1. Docx Converter

In one of the more recent versions of Microsoft Word, for some reason Microsoft decided to change the file format that Word documents were saved as. So if you have an older version of Microsoft Word, and someone sends you a document in the new .docx format, you are unable to open it. Microsoft Office is an expensive piece of software to purchase, so instead of being forced into purchasing it before you're ready because of file format issues, you can simply use the free online .docx converter. It allows you to convert .docx files to regualr .doc files and a large variety of other formats as well.

2. Temporary Email

Guerrilla Mail is a service that allows you to create a temporary e-mail address (for an hour or so) to register for something online. One of the big problems that comes with using free services on the Internet is that the site operators always want you to register or sign-up with an email address and validate the existance of that email address. Unless you are positive the site is very reputable, you can't be sure they won't sell your email to spammers. Enter the temporary email address, with the help of Guerilla Mail, you can create an email address in about 10 seconds, and then reload the page to check for the registration / validation email and follow it through (if needed). Then after an h our has passed, the email account deactivates and no longer exists and you haven't had to give out your real email address to anyone!

3. Online PDF editing tools

Last time we discussed the free doc to pdf service available online. However, what if you already have a pdf file and need to make some edits. You can either purchase expensive software that will allow you to edit pdf files directly or you can use PDF Escape, an online PDF editor for free. While some of the features are still in development / not working very well, there is a lot of handy little features that are fully functional in the beta. Specifically I found the edit existing text feature to be problematic, but if you need to edit existing text, you could always drop a white block over the text and then put in a new text layer (two features that do work well). Right now PDF Escape is a useful online tool, but as the product nears completion and becomes fully functional it will definitely be a service to have in your inventory of useful online tools.

4. Google Docs

Don't have Microsoft Office, but need to view / edit word documents, excel files or power point presentations? No problem, with Google Docs on the web, you don't have to spend money on Microsoft Office for occasional Office document viewing and editing. Google Docs is a free and functional document editor that can open and edit many different file formats including Microsoft Office ones. In addition when you are finished editing the document you can save it in other formats if you'd like. You can also store and share your documents online with other users easily. Google Docs isn't as fully featured as the complete Microsoft Office suite but it's pretty decent for the price.

5. The Google "Yellow Pages"

Google Local Business Center is basically Google's version of the yellow pages, only the integrate listings right into relevant searches, and it's free to be listed. If you've ever searched Google and seen this near the top or at the top of your results page:

Then you've seen some Google Local Business listings in a search results page. It lists you in a yellow pages like directory that can often times insert your site right into the results pages for search terms relevant to your business (something people often spend lots of time and money accomplishing) and best of all it's free. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes to sign up, there is really no excuse to not have your business listed.

And so we reach the end of the second Online Tools for Business, we hope you find these tools useful in the everyday operation of your business. Now we're back to our offices to find more great tools that can help your business!