Acrobat Reader 2.0 and ebooks -- a joke on us!

[Kurt Hunciker]

I just spent an hour attempting to read an ebook I purchased from Fictionwise with Acroabt Reader for Pocket PC 2.0. All I can say is that, after a highly frustrating experience, I realized that it is impossilble.

Before I purchased the ebook, I installed Acrobat Reader 6.0.2 for the PC and sought to activate it for Adobe's digital edition files. (Like Microsoft Reader, it is necessary to have the PC version installed and activated to download ebooks intended for use with the Adobe Pocket PC Reader.) I dutifully downloaded and installed Acrobat Reader 6.0.2 and then went to Adobe's activation website.

The activation web page attempted to download and open a file in the PC Acrobat Reader to complete the activation. The only problem is that, although Acrobat Reader launched, nothing happened. Fortunately, after trying and failing several times, I found the solution at Fictionwise's help pages, which stated:

Critical Adobe Reader Fix: We strongly recommend you change the way your computer downloads Adobe Reader 6.0.2 files so that you get a 'save dialog' that will allow you to save the special Adobe ETD file to your My eBooks folder.

To do this on a WinXP computer, go to Start, then My Computer, then select "Tools" then select "Folder Options" then select the "File Types" tab. Let the File Types load (it takes 15 seconds or so). Scroll down to the .etd file type and click Advanced. Check both the boxes on that page (to show extensions and to "Confirm Open after download"), then click Okay on those windows to close them. After doing this, you can download the Adobe ETD file, save it in your My eBooks folder, then open the file. The ETD file will then launch Adobe Reader 6.0.2, obtain your eBook license, and finally download your eBook.

This fix, although directed to downloaded ebooks, solved the activation problem. As far as I can tell, this issue is not referred to anywhere at Adobe's own website or in the instructions for the PC Acrobat reader :evil:

After implementing Fictionwise's fix, I finally was able to download the e-book and read it on my laptop.

Now came the Pocket PC part. The Pocket PC Reader 2.0 instructions state: In Adobe Reader, choose File > Digital Editions > My Digital Editions. From there, a user is supposed to click to a URL that will activate the Pocket PC Reader.

However, no such menu or submenu exists in the PC Acrobat Reader :evil: :evil:

The activation page for the PC version of Acrobat also has a link to activate the Palm version, but that link does not work with the Pocket PC version.

In sum, there simply is no way to read a digital edition of an Acrobat file on a Pocket PC.

Coda: I checked out Adobe's forum on the Pocket PC Reader. I realized that I am not alone -- there are a number of angry e-book readers out there. The sole response I found by an Adobe employee is:

Thanks for all your feedback.

We appreciate and thank you for your interest in eBooks on Adobe Reader.We also understand the problem you are facing.Once again all we can say at this point is that we are looking into this issue.

[Kati Compton]

Was the :bangin: smiley part of their response, or did you add that?

[Kurt Hunciker]

I put the emoticon in, but I did not realize that it could lead a reader to think that the emoticon was in the original message. I have now removed it and toned down my original message.

(The complaints have been ongoing at the Adobe forum for more than a month, with at least one of the posters pointing to web pages on Adobe's web site that state ebooks can be read with handheld devices. Nevertheless, Adobe has not changed the Acrobat Reader instructions or its own web site to reflect the inability of Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC to work with ebooks.)

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.ef38cea

[xendula]

Maaaan, what a horrible experience!! I've never installed Acrobat Reader on my PPC because of all the complaints I heard. There are good readers out there - PDF is great for the exchange of documents by email, but that's about it.
Critical Adobe Reader Fix: We strongly recommend you change the way your computer downloads Adobe Reader 6.0.2 files so that you get a 'save dialog' that will allow you to save the special Adobe ETD file to your My eBooks folder.

To do this on a WinXP computer, go to Start, then My Computer, then select "Tools" then select "Folder Options" then select the "File Types" tab. Let the File Types load (it takes 15 seconds or so). Scroll down to the .etd file type and click Advanced. Check both the boxes on that page (to show extensions and to "Confirm Open after download"), then click Okay on those windows to close them. After doing this, you can download the Adobe ETD file, save it in your My eBooks folder, then open the file. The ETD file will then launch Adobe Reader 6.0.2, obtain your eBook license, and finally download your eBook.
You MUST be kidding me! Who would ever be willing to go through the hassle of doing all of that just to download a book?! ?! 8O I know I wouldn't.

[Janak Parekh]

Maaaan, what a horrible experience!! I've never installed Acrobat Reader on my PPC because of all the complaints I heard. There are good readers out there - PDF is great for the exchange of documents by email, but that's about it.
And even then, Adobe 6.0+ is horribly slow and has about the worst UI of any document-exchange program I know. I use Acrobat because I have to, not because I want to, and I don't bother with Acrobat on the Pocket PC. :|

--janak

[Darius Wey]

I agree. There are plenty of other good eBook readers out there so you don't have to limit yourself to PDFs. Repligo is always a good solution for converting PDFs to something more manageable. The RGO file format is compact and easy to use.

Until Acrobat Reader is easier to use and more optimised for the Pocket PC, I wouldn't make it my primary e-doc reader.

[tanalasta]

is always a good solution for converting PDFs to something more manageable

I've said before I like iSilo (probably coz i haven't got repligo installed). But IMHO, very few ebooks are worth purchasing. The activation, re-activation, frustration and cost simply make it less worthwhile than the plain ol' hardback copy.

What really frustrates me is the fact that I've managed to use iSilo to create a pda version of texts to which I have an online subscription I have or CD-ROM which are easier to use/read and a lot faster and user-friendly than the commercial "pda" ebook version that costs $60US or more.

[xendula]

I use Acrobat because I have to, not because I want to, and I don't bother with Acrobat on the Pocket PC. :|
Same here. PDFs don't even really seem to be made for screens, as the pages correspond paper pages rather than screen pages. If I need to do a lot of reading I usually just save everything into a lit-book. Other than that, html still seems to be the best option.

[Jorgen]

PDFs don't even really seem to be made for screens,

Very true. PDFs are formatted for a given paper size, not formatted for screens and the format is therefore not an ebook format as such.

Jorgen

[Kurt Hunciker]

Adobe has developed a fix which allows ebooks to be read using the Pocket PC 2.0 Reader. For the fix to work, it is necessary first to install the new Acrobat 7.0 or Acrobat 7.0 Reader on a PC used for ActivSync.

See the postings below from the Adobe Support forums:

EVERYBODY - Link to DRM Activation with the Adobe Reader 7.0 Beta

Jon Townsend - 11:28am Nov 19, 2004 PST

Hi

Tried and tested!!!!!!
You have to re-activate the pc version and then activate your pocket pc!!!

Happy again!

http://ftp.pconline.com.cn/pub/download/200409/AdbeRdr70_enu_full.exe

Make sure you check your firewall settings as mine block Adobe Reader 7 as it was a new application.

ENJOY EVERYBODY!!!!!!!

Well done Adobe, about time but you got there!!!!!!!!!!

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Thomas H Moon - 5:27am Nov 20, 04 PST (#1 of 3)

I still can't activate my pocket pc. I activated 7 but still don't have the option for pocket pc. I also still have 6 pro installed, do I need to uninstall first?

Tom

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Jon Townsend - 1:43am Nov 21, 04 PST (#2 of 3)

Hmmm, yeah uninstall reader 6 (i didn't need to though) and re-activate reader 7.
Once this has been done open reader 7: click File\Digital Editions\My Digital Editions and then click 'Send to media device' (far right hand side) and then follow the prompts. It should authorize your device from there, but do check your fire wall settings.

[Menneisyys]

If I need to do a lot of reading I usually just save everything into a lit-book. Other than that, html still seems to be the best option.

IMHO .LIT is the worst option because of many facts:

- no zoomable pics (as opposed to both uBook and, particularly, Mobipocket Reader)
- lame reader (no built-in landscape, long boot-up time with large libraries etc)
- HTML-based with a non-sophisticated, non-block-based unpacking algorithm (as opposed to both uBook and, particularly, Mobipocket Reader - the latter uses 4k blocks, so its memory consumtion is always very small, even with 100-200 MByte compressed HTML input)

Some 1.5 years ago I've written some stuff about E-book readers. The library I've developed is designed to work with Mobipocket's MWC, but the article itself has a lot of info on E-readers too. Check it out at http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/mwc . Please note that the article hasn't been updated for 1.5 years ("fortunately", not much has been changed in the meantime, MS Reader-wise) and is a bit messy, but may still have some interesting info.

[Menneisyys]

Same here. PDFs don't even really seem to be made for screens, as the pages correspond paper pages rather than screen pages.

True for QVGA machines. On VGA machines, in Landscape and using fine-tuned manual zooming, most books I've tried are very well readable. Up to now, I've used RepliGo a lot but now that I have a decent VGA PDA (PL720), I barely convert anything to RepliGo.

Furthermore, I've managed to shave off quite a bit of the Acrobat Reader 2.0 memory consumption. Just remove all the 4 API files (they take 2.7Mbytes!) in the /plugin directory - it's very rarely that you would need them. Most PDF books don't use them at all.

[ChristopherTD]

FWIW, the latest version of MS Reader does have zoomable image support...

[Menneisyys]

FWIW, the latest version of MS Reader does have zoomable image support...

Thanks, that's great news. Hope it's as good as that of Mobi, pic dragging-wise.

[hpf]

I just spent an hour attempting to read an ebook I purchased from Fictionwise with Acroabt Reader for Pocket PC 2.0. All I can say is that, after a highly frustrating experience, I realized that it is impossilble.

...

Now, you can ask Fictionwise tech guys to give you the eBook in Mobipocket format... you are sure you will be able to read it on your PDA.

[Ketsugi]

My university lecturers like to release lecture notes in PDF format (especially my Japanese language notes), and being able to pull up the notes wirelessly on my Pocket PC is always great, even when I have my laptop sitting in my bag next to me.