Adobe Acrobat e-Book Reader: When You Can't Wait for What You Want
Written: Feb 24 '02 (Updated Mar 06 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A great tool when you have to the book right away.
Cons: Big program and big files.
But worth it for me.
The Bottom Line: Not a regular Adobe Reader, but a souped up version and a better choice. An essential for a grad student overseas. And it's fun!
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| naphtalia's Full Review: Adobe Acrobat Reader |
As a graduate student living in a foreign country, my access to university libraries is quite limited. Even when I can use the university libraries where I am, the resources they have available are often either 1) not available to me, 2) not in English, 3) simply not what I need. I find myself relying more and more on books ordered over the internet. This is not always ideal, however. Since I'm looking for fairly specialized material, it often is not in stock. It was very pleased, therefore, to find some of the books I sought were available not just from bookstores on the internet, but by download over the internet. It was this discovery that caused me to download my copy of the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader. I have version 2.2, Build 203.2, dated October 25, 2001. This is a specialized Adobe Acrobat Reader for books and not the standard vanilla Adobe Reader. However, I see it like getting a car with all the extras. There is nothing that the vanilla version can do that this one can't. However, this one has the full bonus package, too.
The program itself is a big one and took quite a while to download. A quick look at the still zipped installation program shows 9.2 MB. Unzipped, the Adobe e-Book Reader folder shows nearly 32 MB. Once I had it downloaded and installed, however, the rest was quick and easy.
To date I have downloaded 29 books. Seven of these books were books that I needed for my dissertation. All of them were listed at Amazon as having an expected shipping date of 2 weeks or more from the time of order. I had each of these within an hour. Of the remaining 22 books, 18 were free downloads from Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. (They have slightly different freebie ebooks, so it pays to check both sites.) The biggest book I have is 1650 Kb. The smallest comes in at 848 Kb. Most books seem to run about 1200 Kb.
The books are in PDF (portable document format). There are also articles available, including some from professional journals, in this format. This format allows things to be read as they are printed. Thus rather than scrolling down endlessly as with some web pages, it is possible here to actually turn pages. It is also possible to correspond with someone who has the hard copy of the document and have a common point of reference. (A must at times for a graduate student.) Also, Mac and Windows machines can both read these documents. This makes things quite convenient.
Because the documents here tend to be in the hundreds of pages, this does lack one feature that the standard Adobe Reader has. This feature is the "thumbprint" of the page for selection. The standard reader allows you to see an image of the page before opening it. Since the standard Adobe Reader is usually used for smaller graphical items, this makes sense. Certainly, when you are looking at page after page of just text in this format, it would not make sense to include thumbprints for all 500 pages of a book.
The E-book reader solves the problem of teeny tiny and unreadable font in a couple of ways. First, it allows you to zoom in and zoom out. I tend to like a slightly magnified view. One or two clicks on the magnifying glass greatly improves readability for me. Although this might prevent my looking at the whole page at a time, most of the time, bigger is easier on my eyes. The reader also has a "cool text" function. Open the book of your choice. If the print isn't clear, press the cool text function and 8 different versions of the same sentence come up. Pick the clearest and then hit okay. Another 8 versions will pop up. Pick the best of those and hit okay. Suddenly, you will find the text is much clearer. The machine will remember your choice for that book. If at some point you don't like the settings, you can repeat this, as often as necessary. I find that when my eyes are tired, I sometimes will magnify the page more than others, and then need to readjust the cool text settings. The cool text process must be repeated, for each book. As it takes a matter of seconds, however, it is not problem.
The e-Book reader also gives three options of how to look at the book. I can use a single page view which covers about half my computer screen with the reader (really nice for taking notes while running word pad along side.) I can also look at two pages at once. This is, of course, essential, when looking at graphs and tables that can run across pages. Finally, my usual choice, to look at a single page that is set to fit the width of my screen. This makes it look very much like a word document. It is quite easy to read this way. I also have the option to rotate the views 90 degrees which can allow me a much better perspective on certain portions of a document or certain graphics.
Perhaps one of the nicest functions of the e-Book Reader is that it lets me highlight text. Highlight options include four different colors so that I can differentiate topics within the same text. I can also add my own notes within a text. (All this can be erased as I choose.) I can add bookmarks to each text to hold onto particular quotes and help to find them again. Each eBook you download comes with its own set of permissions to give, lend and copy it. Unfortunately, most do not allow any of these functions and so are set up so that portions of the text cannot be blocked and copied. This means that I have to retype quotes from the book for my research. However, I do understand this situation. Other texts do allow copying of portions of text to the clipboard. This is especially nice when working with classics of literature, many of which are available for free download.
Another function is that this reader allows me to search for key words or phrases within a text. Simply open a book, then hit the search button and type in your word or phrase. The reader will identify each occurence of what you want.
The reader also includes its own Merriam Webster dictionary which can be helpful at times when reading technical materials and needing a definition. However, this is a fairly basic dictionary and will probably better serve the needs of younger students than those dealing with highly technical materials.
The books I am reading all immediately open to where I left off in them. This is a nice function. I can also skim to any page by using the bar at the bottom of the page to move ahead. Active links in places like tables of contents and where there are references to pictures or graphs allow me to move quickly from where I am to where I want to be. This is especially nice in a book of essays or where I am having to go between text and graphs that may be on subsequent pages.
Some books also have a function which includes audio so I can hear portions of the book read. This has only been available on one book I've downloaded thus far, but it was terrific to hear the person being quoted actually speaking.
All these functions can be accessed using an easy to navigate tool bar, or you can learn to use them by hitting hot-keys. (For example: ctrl-o opens files that aren't in your library.) The Adobe Acrobat e-Book manual that comes when you download the program is short and easy to read. It gives good instructions for the product.
Besides books, the program allows viewing of other PDF files. Simply hit the Library button. You will get a graphic with the covers of all the books you have downloaded. The button itself will change to read "Other Files." Using this tool, you can access any PDF file on your hard drive and proceed to use this reader like any other PDF reader.
Living in Poland, finding English language books is a challenge. The Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader may not solve all my problems, but it is a start. The Acrobat eBook Reader is free. (A nice plus for a starving student.) I found my copy at Amazon.com, but I have since seen it available at other locations. There's a lot of good information out there that is available for this reader including many of the classics of literature and (for good or bad) IRS forms. The IRS forms are all free. There are many free book titles available for this format. Check all the Amazon sites. You'll find other free books at http://bookstore.glassbook.com/store/free_title_list.asp. And of course, if you want to pay money, there is even more available at all these sites. For those books that must be paid for, the cost seems comparable to the hard back editions.
You can find more information about the e-Book Reader, the Adobe Reader, and all of Adobe's other products at the Adobe website - http://www.adobe.com. There are even links for programs which will allow you to create your own PDF files and publish your own e-Books. And of course, from here you can find links to many more sites where you can find e-Books to for sale and for free.
Recommended:
Yes
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naphtalia
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