Microsoft Reader - more text on screen

[BigMrC]

Does anyone know if you can get more text appearing on the screen with ms reader? It's a bit annoying when trying to read - there seems to be a lot of empty space around the text, they could cram more text into one page and not have to change pages so often. Or is there an alternative that's better?
thanks

[Rok]

You can't change the appearance of MS Reader. And, AFAIK, there's no alternative for the .lit format. Sorry. As for readers in general, check out iSilo, MobiPocket Reader, Palm Reader and Tome Raider. They're not inter-compatible though. It really depends on what you need.

For medical books for instance, I found MobiPocket to be the best - Franklin offers a great selection of eBooks for it.

Cheers,
Rok

[gorgoroth]

Best thing you can do is to download clit (find it on google using lit and clit as search). You will be able to convert lit to html, and using any other program, including mobipocket readerworks, you will be able to read it with something else than this utter crap that is called reader.

And you will discover that you can read a 2 Mb ebook without hanging your PPC...

[BigMrC]

I bet I get some interesting search results searching for clit on google!! Thanks I'll check out the alternatives mentioned - the scrolling on palm reader looks like a good feature.

[Steven Cedrone]

I bet I get some interesting search results searching for clit on google!! Thanks I'll check out the alternatives mentioned - the scrolling on palm reader looks like a good feature.

You might find it easier (and see less "nastiness") if you search on "convert Lit" instead...

That being said, I think Reader is a great Ebook Reader. I really like it...

Steve

[qmrq]

That being said, I think Reader is a great Ebook Reader. I really like it...

Have you tried alternatives?

[Steven Cedrone]

Have you tried alternatives?

Sure have... I've tried them all...:wink:

Although I like the features available with the other Ebook readers, I still go back to reader...

Just my personal preference...

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

I have to agree with Steve -- the typography on MS Reader is excellent, better than all the other readers I've tried on Pocket PC -- that is, Palm Reader and Mobipocket. I'll try ubook one of these days, but it didn't support ClearType the last time I checked. In particular, I personally like the margins and the justification without too much whitespace. I've gotten used to Palm Reader by turning off justification, and it's OK, but if it wasn't for the MS DRM (and the reactivation fun) -- and if all the books I was looking for were in .LIT format -- I'd use MS Reader exclusively.

--janak

[Tye]

uBook doesn't support ClearType directly but it has a very powerful font engine that I think works just as good as ClearType. You need to tinker with the settings but that doesn't take too long.

It's absolutely my favorite ebook reader. It has a ton of options and reads most of the major ebook formats, except for .lit files. However... It does an API set that someone could use to program for .lit files. I'd do it myself if I was a programmer. Any takers???

For short term you could use clit to convert to another format and still use uBook.

You really should take a look at uBook again...

[Janak Parekh]

OK, I'll give it a shot when I have a minute. ;)

--janak

[Rok]

and if all the books I was looking for were in .LIT format -- I'd use MS Reader exclusively.

Again, it's not only a matter of preferrence, but usage as well. Do you think MS Reader (in its current form) could handle a, say, 13 meg Stedman's Medical Dictionary? Or a 16 meg Merriam-Webster's? I higly doubt it. It choked on much smaller titles when I tried it.

Otherwise, glad you like it. To each his own. As they say, variety is a spice of life :mrgreen:

Cheers,
Rok

[Janak Parekh]

Rok -- agreed on speed. Even a big novel, like Cryptonomicon (which I did read using Reader) slows down when you set up bookmarks. I just meant that I prefer the typography, not necessarily the program itself.

--janak

[Rok]

I just meant that I prefer the typography

Well, other readers let you specify a custom font (so you could use the same Frutiger Linotype, if you like it). I use Verdana in MobiPocket Reader, size small, ClearType enabled, and it actually looks a lot better than MS Reader (to me). Not to mention the speed - everything is close to instantaneous (full-text search included), even with humongous medical ebooks loaded on a SD card... MS Reader was driving me crazy. It's about as fast as a drunken snail on a salted sandpaper :devilboy:

Cheers,
Rok