I like to make the websites that I develop easy to maintain - I don’t really want to charge people to update pages of their web, even though this was a lucrative route for some providers (I have heard stories of $100 a page!). I prefer that the website owners have control over their own web as much as they are technically capable. This is why I am now using Content Management Systems (CMS) as much as possible. These days there are many online tools available which make this process easier.
Here are some tools :
Spell checking:
If one is typing straight into the CMS, Spellbound is a good option for firefox users. I have been using for about a month now in firefox. It was recommended by Lorelle at wordpress. What I like about it is that it spell checks as you type - no extra work required for us! Unfortunately I do not know of a similar one for Internet Explorer.
PDF writer
A pdf writer is very useful for presenting an external document on your website. It enables you to maintain it’s original presentation. There is no need to get into problems trying to get rid of all it’s weird formatting tags either to incorporate it into your web. PDF documents are also more universally accessible than word or excel documents - not everyone uses Ms Office!
For a PC tool, I use www.pdf995.com/. It has a free version if you do not mind putting up with a sponsor page when you use it. It is also pretty reasonable to purchase a full version - I have the full suite.
Alternatively there are some web based PDF conversion tools that allow you to convert from various formats to a PDF file without having to have software on your PC. Very useful if you are using some one else’s PC or on the road at an internet cafe! Here is one, called PDF online. Click on the doctypes to convert a document of that type.