Guides
Practical, step-by-step answers to common file problems — from garbled Korean text in Excel to sending e-books to your Kindle.
Are online file converters safe?Is it okay to upload a contract or an ID card to an online converter? The difference between server-based and in-browser conversion — and how to verify it yourself.Read guide →Why your CSV shows garbled characters in Excel (and how to fix it)When non-English text in a CSV turns into symbols like "é" in Excel, the file isn't broken — Excel guessed the wrong encoding. Here are three reliable fixes.Read guide →CSV vs XLSX — when to use whichBoth hold tables, but CSV is plain data while XLSX is an Excel workbook. The differences, when to choose each, and how to convert without damaging your data.Read guide →E-book formats compared — EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and PDFWhat's the difference between EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and PDF, and which devices open them? A quick comparison and a guide to choosing the right format.Read guide →Excel removes leading zeros from your CSV — how to keep themZIP codes, phone numbers and IDs lose their leading zeros, and long numbers turn into 1.23E+19. Here's why Excel does it and how to keep your data intact.Read guide →How to extract text from a PDF — and how to spot a scanned PDFCopying from a PDF often breaks lines, and some PDFs won't let you select text at all. Learn the difference between text and scanned PDFs, and how to extract text cleanly.Read guide →How to open JSON data in ExcelReceived a JSON file from a developer or a service export? Here's how to turn it into an Excel table you can sort, filter and chart — no coding required.Read guide →Markdown basics — a 10-minute cheat sheetA handful of symbols like #, * and - is all it takes to write formatted documents. The Markdown syntax you will use every day, with examples.Read guide →Converting PDF pages to images — which DPI, JPG or PNG?72, 150 or 300 DPI? JPG or PNG? A practical guide to resolution, image size and format when turning PDF pages into pictures.Read guide →How to combine phone photos and receipts into one PDFExpense reports and applications often need several photos as one PDF. Here's how to get the order, orientation and page size right.Read guide →How to send an EPUB to your Kindle — and why MOBI no longer worksAmazon's Send to Kindle now accepts EPUB and no longer accepts MOBI. Here's how to send books by email, app or web, and how to convert old MOBI files first.Read guide →How to split, extract, delete and rotate PDF pagesNeed to send only part of a PDF, get under an upload limit or fix a sideways scan? Four PDF page tools and the page-range syntax, explained with examples.Read guide →Text encodings explained — UTF-8, legacy code pages and the BOMMost garbled text in Notepad, Excel or e-books comes from encoding mismatches. Learn what UTF-8, legacy code pages and the BOM are, and how to read the clues in garbled text.Read guide →How to turn a TXT novel into an EPUB e-bookA plain-text book becomes far more pleasant to read as an EPUB with chapters and a table of contents. Here's how to convert it step by step, including old encodings.Read guide →How to convert Word documents to MarkdownMoving meeting notes or manuals from Word into Obsidian, GitHub or Notion? Here's how to convert them and how to prepare your Word files for a clean result.Read guide →