Broken PDF ebooks (with adobe reader)

odalanizi · 03-16-08, 02:49 PM

Hey all,

on my x51v I have adobe reader, and it reads many books very well. I like it when it has all the text to fit the screen and is readable.

some books, for some reason are unreadable... for example they're way too "zoomed out" as in the text'll appear as lines untill I zoom in, in which case the text'll be out of alignment and I'd have to scroll left/right to read everything which is bad! I just want to scroll up/down...

Has anyone encountered this? and how can I fix it so the book is good?

Also, it never works for converted PDF's... for example, I go to project gutenberg, load a book in HTML, convert it to PDF, then upload it to pda... won't work!

Julie · 03-16-08, 03:23 PM

The books have to be "tagged" so they can be reflowed to fit the pocket pc screen. There's a conversion option you can set in ActiveSync to do this when the PDF is being synced to your computer or if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you tag the books there before you move them to your Pocket PC. See this link for more information:

From My Pocket: Adobe Reader for Pocket PC

odalanizi · 03-17-08, 07:47 AM

Hey there,

Yeah, I thought about it and apparently that's what happens when you transfer with Activesync, right? It adds "Reflow" and "Tags" ??

I can't use activesync right now, as I have a 3300 battery (cant fit the cradle) and I just broke my bluetooth so I can't sync :P

so I've got an SD card I can transfer the books onto, and I'm travelling soon! I need the books! please tell me what to do ??

PS. the link you gave me refuses to work... it keeps saying NETWORk ERROR

psionandy · 03-17-08, 07:59 AM

Link works fine from here.... I think the tagging only works if you have the acrobat software for ppc installed on the PC... And for conveting, I'd recommend the mobipocket format over PDF...

Julie · 03-17-08, 11:26 AM

If you don't sync your data, then you need the full version of Adobe Acrobat so you can tag the files there. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, you'll need to purchase it.....but it's cheaper to just buy a new bluetooth dongle for your computer so you can get ActiveSync to tag the files when you sync them to your pocket pc.

saint-francis · 03-17-08, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by psionandy

Link works fine from here.... I think the tagging only works if you have the acrobat software for ppc installed on the PC... And for conveting, I'd recommend the mobipocket format over PDF...

Is there reasonable software that converts .pdf to mobipocket format? I have many many books in .pdf already and I'm not going to re obtain them all in a different format. In caft I'm not sure many of them are available in any other format. Also I like to OCR may rather extensive library and the format I choose to back them up to is .pdf due to is compatibility across many platforms.

Julie · 03-17-08, 04:34 PM

If your PDF books are not encrypted with DRM, you can use Mobipocket's import option (this is available in the desktop version only) to get them into into the Mobipocket format. PDF don't format beautifully into Mobipocket, but the files are okay.

If the PDF books include DRM encryption, then you're stuck with Adobe Reader since there's no way to strip out the DRM.

odalanizi · 03-17-08, 08:05 PM

I really don't see what's wrong with Adobe reader, I haven't tried anything else for the record -- but so far Adobe reader has worked perfectly (Aside from the tagging issues) and I really enjoy it!

PDF is also my favorite (and perhaps the most popular?) file format.

Furthermore, So that's it, no other solutions other than having to Activesync? well thanks!

saint-francis · 03-18-08, 09:32 AM

IMO Adobe reader mobile is garbage. I just installed it again after not using it for about a year and I found the same problems. If I switch the screen to landscape view Adobe reader doesn't adjust properly and the only way to close it is to soft reset = garbage. It seems that converting my .pdf books to mobipocket format is far superior.

psionandy · 03-18-08, 10:09 AM

For reading fiction, then adobe is a very bad ebook format... for looking at documents/manuals where layout is important then it is useful.. which is why I use both.

Julie · 03-18-08, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by saint-francis

IMO Adobe reader mobile is garbage. I just installed it again after not using it for about a year and I found the same problems. If I switch the screen to landscape view Adobe reader doesn't adjust properly and the only way to close it is to soft reset = garbage. It seems that converting my .pdf books to mobipocket format is far superior.

I use Mobipocket too, but PDF files are quite pervasive. Using Mobipocket does not necessary replace the need for a PDF reader.

I think Adobe Reader is a fine PDF reader. The only thing about it is that it takes quite a bit of memory to run, probably because it is so feature rich compared to the other PDF readers.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, even though I think you are being quite harsh.....Did you know that Adobe Reader has a rotate option in it than when used, rotates the screen to landscape perfectly? Have you tried using that option? I know when I place my pocket pc in landscape view, PDF files do not convert properly, but the rotate option within Adobe Reader rotates the screen beautifully.

saint-francis · 03-18-08, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Julie

The only thing about it is that it takes quite a bit of memory to run, probably because it is so feature rich compared to the other PDF readers.

Well I got the 128 MB RAM upgrade recently.

Originally Posted by Julie

YDid you know that Adobe Reader has a rotate option in it than when used, rotates the screen to landscape perfectly? Have you tried using that option?

No I don't think I have. Thanks for the tip.

Sorry if I'm too critical. It's just that for several years I have wanted to read my .pdf's on my PPC and it has always been difficult. :(

psionandy · 03-18-08, 11:29 AM

Now a couple of years ago, a solution to this would have been repligo (at 29 dollars) to convert pdf (or any other format) into repligo... and read that light weight one on the pda.

Now it seems it isn't there anymore and they want 100 dollars for a pdf only solution

Julie · 03-18-08, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by saint-francis

Sorry if I'm too critical. It's just that for several years I have wanted to read my .pdf's on my PPC and it has always been difficult. :(

Give it a try again! I've read many complaints about Adobe Reader for Pocket PC that center around trying to read untagged files and I've read the landscape complaint too. But I tag all my PDF files either by syncing them to my device and letting ActiveSync tag them or by tagging them directly in Adobe Acrobat (I own the application and use it for quite a few things), and this makes a world of difference. Even so, there are some files - mostly articles that have been scanned to PDF - that cannot be tagged, since scanned files (unless OCR is applied to them afterwards) are really nothing more than pictures. Also PDF files that include extensive diagrams and tables just cannot convert well to the smaller pocket pc screen.

I prefer Mobipocket too, but books, articles, and files are not always available in this format. I can convert many PDF files to Mobipocket format, but that's not always convenient and many of the files I've converted don't really look that great afterwards. I've read quite a few PDF formatted library books on my Pocket PC and I've found Adobe Reader to work quite well.

Because of the memory requirements of Adobe Reader, I try to remember to use Adobe Reader's exit option (versus tapping the X at the top of the screen) when I stop reading, but I do perform soft resets ever so often to free up memory - not just because of Adobe Reader but also because other applications don't always release memory properly.

saint-francis · 03-18-08, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by Julie

Adobe Reader has a rotate option in it than when used, rotates the screen to landscape perfectly? Have you tried using that option?

How exactly does one engage this option? I can't seem to figure it out. There are options under "options" for rotating. One is for slide shows so that isn't directly relevant. The other seems to do nothing when selected.