What's The Best File Encryption Tool? What's The Best File Encryption Tool? What's The Best File Encryption Tool? Times have changed, and more than a few tools. This is a version of the GREP (General Regular Expression Processor) program, taken from http:// GREP will be familiar to UNIX and OE/MVS users. ![]() How to Convert Your Files to a Different Format A detailed guide to help you convert files to a different format (type) using free tools. You’ll learn how to convert documents, images, videos, music, ebooks and more. How do you turn your favorite MP3 into a ringtone for your mobile phone? What is the quickest way to convert a Power. The fully automatic bibliography maker that auto-fills. It’s the easiest way to generate citations to build a works cited page. How do you turn your favorite MP3 into a ringtone for your mobile phone? What is the quickest way to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a video file? Wix.com offers stunning designs and an easy to use website builder. Sounds good, but is there a catch? Learn more in our detailed Wix review. Point presentation into a video file? How do you convert Microsoft Office documents for reading a Kindle? These are some common questions and what follows is a detailed guide on how you may convert files of just about any format to another format using free tools. If you are not too sure of the file format, see how to open files on unknown extensions. I have covered both web- based and software- based conversion utilities though I prefer the latter option for a couple of reasons – conversion on desktop is often faster, you get to convert your large files offline and, most importantly, you don’t have to worry about privacy issues since there’s no need to upload files to another server for conversion. A. Video Files (including DVDs and Online Video)If you would like to rip your DVD movies into smaller video file for, say, watching on your mobile phone or tablet, Vid. Coder is a good option (see detailed guide). Hand. Brake is also a popular tool for ripping DVDs though new users may find Vid. Coder a little easier to use. Miro and Hamster are simple utilities that can help you convert between all popular video formats . There are built- in presets for i. Pod, i. Pad, Blackberry, and other mobile devices so that makes conversion a lot more simple for newbies. If you are looking for a more advanced video converter than can handle any weird video format and does more than just plain conversion, check out Media. Coder and SUPER . Audio Files Audacity is absolutely the best software program for converting audio files from one format to another. If you include the FFmpeg library in your installation of Audacity, it will even let you extract audio from video files. If an audio format is not supported in Audacity, you may still convert it with media. You may use Audacity to set your favorite MP3 song as a ringtone on your mobile phone but for something more simple, try Audiko. This is an again online tool where you upload an audio file (or specify the URL of a You. Tube music video), choose a fragment and save it as an MP3 ringtone. You may also make i. Phone ringtones with i. Tunes but only for non- DRM music. FLV. to is an online app for downloading and converting Flash video into an MP3 file. Also check out Myna, an online audio editor that you may use to convert audio files or for merging multiple formats into a single format. C. Fonts. When you are switching between a Mac and a PC, the fonts may not be compatible across OSs. Here’s a simple online tool where you may convert your existing font into any other format. The font conversion service supports all the common font formats . The CHM format is supported on Windows only but you may use the HTML Workshop tool to decompile CHML into HTML and CSS file that you may then read in any web browser on any device. EPUB is now a standard file format for e- books and there are quite a few good converters to deal with this format. There’s Calibre that you may use to convert all popular document format into EPUB books or even the revers – converting EPUBs into PDF, Text or HTML files. You may use consider Sigil, a WYSIWYG ebook editor that can convert HTML and text files into EPUBs. Amazon offers a free command line utility for Windows, Mac and Linux called Kindle. Gen that you may use to convert any HTML, XML or EPUB book into a Kindle Book (MOBI). Get Flipsnack to convert your PDF document into a Flash- based flipping ebook. E. Office Documents and PDFs. Use Nitro PDF Reader to convert any of the Microsoft Office file formats – like . The same tool may also be used for convert pages of your PDF documents into text or into image formats. Documents written in Office 2. The Google Docs viewer may be used for converting any of the online documents into PDF. Power. Point 2. 01. Save as Video feature but if you on a different version, read this detailed tutorial for converting your slideshow into a self- playing movie. F. Images, Icons and Animated GIFs. All image gallery tools . Use FFmpeg if you wish to convert videos into Animated GIFs. You can convert your pictures to ASCII art either using degraeve. It will also create an . You may also use favicon. There are several OCR tools available for converting a scanned image or digital photograph into digital (editable) text with Google Docs emerging at the top. G. Web Pages, Blogs and Wikis. You can convert web pages into images using Bounce (online) or, if you want to automate the capture, use Site. Shoter. Convert a web page into a PDF document for archiving with PDFmy. URL or Web. 2PDF. You may convert a blog, or any site that offers a RSS feed, into a PDF newspaper with Five. Filters. There’s also Tabbloid from HP that lets you convert one or more feeds into a PDF magazine for offline reading. The Book. Glutton Converter may be used for converting web pages into EPUB format though you’ll tweak the HTML a bit before submitting it for conversion. There’s another service called 2epub for convert HTML files to EPUB or MOBI that you may transfer to your Sony Reader, Nook, Kobo or Kindle. H. Everything else. Wiki users may use the htmltowiki tool to convert HTML markup into Media. Wiki format. There’s Pandoc for convert files between various markup formats including La. Te. X, Doc. Book, Media. Wiki and EPUB. Also see related guides for merging address books and your email accounts. Use Tweetbook to convert your Tweets into a PDF book. Finally, such a list would be incomplete without the mention of all- in- one conversion services like Zamzar, Convert. Files and You. Convert that seem to handle nearly every file format from music to images to ebooks. These services are like one- stop shops but the downside is that the conversion is not instant and you have to provide your email address for them to send the converted files. Related reading: How to Embed almost anything in your Website. Five Best File Encryption Tools. Keeping your personal data safe doesn't have to be difficult. That's why this week we're looking at the five best file encryption tools you can use to encrypt your data locally so only you have the key. The goal here is to find the best tools you can use to lock down your sensitive files. For those unfamiliar with the topic, we have a great guide on how encryption works, and how you can use it to keep your own data safe. You. If you're looking for a file encryption tool that works like and reminds you of True. Crypt but isn't exactly True. Crypt, this is it. Vera. Crypt supports AES (the most commonly used), Two. Fish, and Serpent encryption ciphers, supports the creation of hidden, encrypted volumes within other volumes. Its code is available to review, although it's not strictly open source (because so much of its codebase came from True. Crypt.) The tool is also under constant development, with regular security updates and an independent audit in the planning stages (according to the developers.). Those of you who nominated Vera. Crypt praised it for being an on- the- fly encryption tool, as in your files are only decrypted when they're needed and they're encrypted at rest at all other times, and most notably for being the spiritual (if not almost literal) successor to True. Crypt. Many of you praised them for being a strong tool that's simple to use and to the point, even if it's lacking a good- looking interface or tons of bells and whistles. You also noted that Vera. Crypt may not support True. Crypt files and containers, but can convert them to its own format, which makes moving to it easy. You can read more in its nomination thread here. It integrates nicely with the Windows shell, so you can right- click a file to encrypt it, or even configure . Files with Ax. Crypt can be decrypted on demand or kept decrypted while they're in use, and then automatically re- encrypted when they're modified or closed. It's fast, too, and allows you to select an entire folder or just a large group of files and encrypt them all with a single click. It's entirely a file encryption tool however, meaning creating encrypted volumes or drives is out of its capabilities. It supports 1. 28- bit AES encryption only, offers protection against brute force cracking attempts, and is exceptionally lightweight (less than 1. MB.). Those of you who nominated Ax. Crypt noted that it's really easy to use and easy to integrate into your workflow, thanks to its shell support. If you're eager for more options, it also has a ton of command line options, so you can fire up the command prompt in Windows and perform more complex actions. It may not support the strongest or most varied encryption methods available, but if you're looking to keep your data safe from most threats, it's a simple tool that can lend a little security that your data. You can read more in this nomination thread here and here. It supports AES (1. It supports multiple authentication mechanisms, including traditional password and PINs, a USB . Either way, Bit. Locker's integration with Windows (specifically Windows 8 Pro) makes it accessible to many people, and a viable disk encryption tool for individuals looking to protect their data if their laptop or hard drives are lost or stolen, in case their computers are compromised, or a business looking to secure data in the field. More than a few of you touted Bit. Locker's accessibility and ease of use, and many of you even praised its encryption for being strong and difficult to crack. Many of you noted that you switched to Bit. Locker after the developers of True. Crypt suggested it. Others, however, brought up the assertion made from privacy advocates that Bit. Locker is compromised and has backdoors in place for government security agencies (from multiple countries) to decrypt your data. While Microsoft has officially said this isn't true and maintains there's no backdoor in Bit. Locker (while simultaneously maintaining the code as closed source. You can read more about the criticism and controversy at the Wikipedia link above, or in the nomination thread here. While you can install the command line version on some operating systems, most people choose from the dozens of frontends and graphical interfaces for it, including the official releases that can encrypt everything from email to ordinary files to entire volumes. All Gnu. PG tools support multiple encryption types and ciphers, and generally are capable of encrypting individual files one at a time, disk images and volumes, or external drives and connected media. A few of you nominated specific Gnu. PG front- ends in various threads, like the Windows Gpg. Win, which uses Kleopatra as a certificate manager. The key, however, is finding a front- end or a client that does what you need it to do and works well with your workflow. The screenshot above was taken using GPGTools, an all- in- one Gnu. PG solution that offers keychain management as well as file, email, and disk encryption for OS X. You can read more in its nomination thread here. Zip (Windows/OS X/Linux). Zip is actually a lightweight file archiver. Even though it's amazing at compressing and organizing files for easy storage or sending over the internet, it's also a strong file encryption tool, and is capable of turning individual files or entire volumes into encrypted volumes that only your have the keys to. It's completely free, even for commercial use, supports 2. AES encryption, and while the official download is Windows only, there are unofficial builds for Linux and OS X systems as well. Most of 7- Zip's code is GNU LGPL licensed and open to review. Compressed and encrypted . Zip also integrates with the shell of the operating system you're using, making it usually a click away from use. It's also a powerful command line utility. Windows has a number of good file archiving and unarchiving utilities, and which one you use. You noted it's fast, flexible, free, and easy to use, and while it may not be the fastest file encryption tool (and it's not capable of whole volume or disk encryption), it gets the job done. Some of you noted that 7- Zip's encrypted volumes are flexible. You can read more in its nomination thread here. First and foremost is Disk Utility (OS X), which is bundled with OS X as a disk repair and management tool. Disk Utility can also encrypt drives and volumes, and since OS X can create a compressed volume just by right- clicking a file, series of files, or a folder and selecting . Plus, it's built in to OS X, so you don't need to install anything else. You can read more about it in its nomination thread here. We covered the meltdown of True. Crypt when it happened, with the developers abruptly abandoning the project claiming that it's no longer secure, in the middle of their independent security audit. The developers suggested switching to Bit. Locker, and pushed out a new version that's widely considered compromised. However, the older version, 7. Even so, security analysts split on whether you should trust True. Crypt or move on to another encryption utility. Many people stand by it even though it's a dead project, others have built their own projects on top of it (see Vera. Crypt, mentioned earlier), and others keep using the last safe version. We can't recommend True. Crypt anymore ourselves, but you can read more in its nomination thread here, and over at Steve Gibson's page dedicated to True. Crypt here. True. Crypt, one of our favorite file encryption tools, has abruptly changed its homepage to a? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker. Title photo by andrey.
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