You have probably encountered the problem of the PDF; the data and information are there, but locked in the PDF leaving you unable to filter, sort and work with the data in other ways. This file format can frustrate the savviest of journalists, but there are services available to help. IRE has partnered with Cometdocs.com, an online file conversion and storage tool to better help journalists with PDF files.

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Last week at the 2013 CAR Conference, DocumentCloud's Lead Developer Ted Han joined a panel discussing how to get the widest impact out of a software project. 

Reporter's Lab has a thorough write-up of the panel, addressing the questions how much code is really re-used, and how to measure the success of a software project.

Success for an open-source project is different from a commercial one. As Han said during the panel, the big difference between commercial and open source start-up projects is “less a question of how you operate and more a question of your values.” 

The ...

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Those interested in taking the mapping classes (to qualify for the Esri ArcView software) at the 2013 CAR Conference must show up for the Friday morning session beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the Keeneland room. Slots in the class will be distributed until they are gone. If more than 24 people want to take the course, additional slots will be handed out for the Sunday morning sessions at that time. If 24 or fewer people show up on Thursday, there will not be a Sunday class. (Sunday sessions would begin at 9 a.m. and end by 11 ...

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Microsoft gave Excel, its spreadsheet program, an extreme interface makeover as part of the overhaul of its Office 2007 software suite. Excel users accustomed to the menus and wizards of old will no doubt find the Ribbon\Tab\Button interface daunting at first. But, after spending time with the program, most journalists doing CAR will find that the interface provides a quicker way to find key functions. Here are some things you need to know about Excel 2007 to get up and running. 1. Office Open XML (.xlsx) is the default file format in Excel 2007. If you create any ... Read more ...