BP2_Embedit.in

I have been playing around with a Web 2.0 tool called embedit.in - which has this tagline "the best way to show documents on your website" on their home page.  This a great tool because it allows anyone to easily embed any file type into a website without having to know HTML code or any other tricks.  The tool also allows you to mark up the original document with a red pen tool - you can highlight specific sections to draw the attention of the audience.

In this example I have embedded the PDF instruction sheet for one of the first assignments I have in my large lecture sections of an undergraduate course in organizational behavior.  Notice how I was able to highlight the due date and also point out that students are supposed to bring a hard copy of the assignment with them to class.  See for yourself how easy it is to use the scroll bar on the right side of the embedded document to move through each section of the document.  You can also use the tools at the bottom of the document to zoom in to a specific section of interest, quickly jump through pages, share the document, download it or print.  By the way, when you embed a document, you have control over making it public, as well as allowing printing or downloading.



Let me show you how easy it was to embed this document into my blog.

The first step was to go to the embedit.in website at http://embedit.in which is shown in this screen shot:

When you click on the SELECT FILES... tab you get a dialog box asking you to browse your computer for the file you wish to upload to embedit.in.  In my case I selected a PDF called Corrected guidelines for d2l profile and self assessment and was immediately taken to the embedit.in editing screen which you can see below.  Please note the areas in the document that I highlighted - due date and instruction to bring a hard copy of the assignment to class. 

Another cool feature is that you can decide if you want to embed the file like I've done above, show a thumbnail or just include a link to the file.   Here are screen shots that show how easy it is to change the way you share the file with viewers.

In this screen shot I used the red markup tool to draw a circle around the Thumbnail option and drew an arrow to show you how that changed the appearance of the document.



In this screen shot I selected the radio button next to Link and drew a red circle around it with an arrow to point out how the document looks when it is linked. In this example I also highlighted the tab that allows you to copy the code to the clipboard. I then switched back to my blogger editing screen, selected the EDIT HTML tab and pasted the code into my blog post.



It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use the embedit.in tool, capture the screen shots and create this blog post. I was amazed at how easy the tool is to use and am looking forward to exploring how to use it with other file types. Obviously I can also use some practice with the markup tool - but I found it was easier to use if I used the two-finger swipe on the MacBook Pro touchpad and enlarged the screen a bit. One of the downsides, however is that the site uses flash to embed the documents, so I wasn't able to use it on my iPad - oh well, maybe someday...

I will continue to explore creative ways to use embedit.in and share them with you in future posts. By the way, just in case you were wondering, the application is free, at least for now - the inventor, Increo Solutions, was recently acquired by Box.net - a company that "provides a web-based service where you can easily access, manage and share documents, media and all of your content from anywhere." (http://www.box.net/increo). Sounds like another interesting company to explore - maybe for my next Web 2.0 tool review. Bye for now. I hope you have fun using embedit.in.