Adobe Acrobat 2.0 for PPC- does it have any actual use?

[emuelle1]

Does anyone actually use Acrobat 2.0? I must admit, I've never really been able to use it at all on my Pocket PCs. I tried to read a newsletter that I get in .pdf format. The first few pages will normally work in reflow, but after that forget it. Most documents, in order to see, I have to zoom in and scroll right to left to read a line.

I may not have it actually installed in RAM. I think I installed it in Built-In-Storage. I've heard this may have an impact, but it's only slightly less functional than it was when I used to install it in RAM on my old PPC.

Does anyone get any practical use out of it, or is there a viable (preferably free) alternative? I have uBook, but some of the formatting it applies to .pdf documents makes then tough to follow. It likes to take out spaces and run words together.

[Jason Dunn]

My experience with Adobe Acrobat reader is the same as yours - most pages don't reflow properly, and it's a huge RAM hog. I don't know of any really good PDF readers. Maybe ClearVue would be a better solution?

http://www.westtek.com/pocketpc/pdf/

[Darius Wey]

Ditto on most of the above. While I haven't really experienced any reflow problems, I've found the program to be a complete memory hog (both on RAM and storage space) and sometimes, it even refuses to load.

ClearVue PDF is a great alternative, as Jason suggested: http://www.westtek.com/pocketpc/pdf/

There's also PocketXpdf (freeware), though I can't really comment on it as I haven't tried it: http://pocketxpdf.sourceforge.net/

Finally, RepliGo 2.0 is worth a look if you don't mind dealing with another format (the full version includes a desktop converter for document to RGO conversions, including PDF). The RGO file format tends to be highly-optimised: http://www.cerience.com/products/repligo.htm

[emuelle1]

Thanks. I'm becomming convinced that the only reason Adobe is still in business is because they held the monopoly on their expensive .pdf software. Now that a lot of good freeware alternatives are coming out, and Microsoft will finally include .pdf convesion in Office 12, we'll see if Adobe doesn't lose some market share.

You're right about a memory hog. A couple of times I fired it up only to find that all of my RAM was gone. I couldn't even close it except be soft-resetting.

I'm going to uninstall this piece of trash. Thanks for the alternatives. I'll give the freeware one a shot and if it's any good I'll report on it.

[axe]

does anyone know if PocketXpdf can handle password protected PDFs? I find that v2 of Adobe reader doesn't handle PDFs as well as v1 did. I almost always have to open the app, then open the PDF. This could be the memory it requires or a bug. who knows, but I too would love to hear of a viable alternative.
I've used ClearVue's reader back when Adobe's was in v1 because I wanted Printing (HP mobile printing) and it was ok, but I got away from it when v2 came out because CV didn't handle passwords. that being the case I didn't want to have two applications loaded that did essentially the same thing and have never upgraded CV. It may now, who knows.
AXE

[haesslich]

PocketXPDF's missing the ability to view graphics, IIRC - outside of that, it's small and fast, which makes it superior to the Adobe Reader 2 in two key areas. Heck, it took up 8-11MB on my first PocketPC, which is why I had to upgrade... not that I've regretted doing so.

Is ClearVue WM5 compatible yet?

[pocketpcadmirer]

I have never been a great fan of adobe reader. It just tooooo slow.
instead I would recommened you repligo..excellent software..fast too..keeps the default format..better incase of emergency,you can download desktop viewer too on other computer.

Sunny :D

[Sven Johannsen]

Thanks. I'm becomming convinced that the only reason Adobe is still in business is because they held the monopoly on their expensive .pdf software. Now that a lot of good freeware alternatives are coming out, and Microsoft will finally include .pdf convesion in Office 12, we'll see if Adobe doesn't lose some market share.
You are missing something here. MS including pdf as a native format doesn't reduce Adobe market share, but rather legitimizes their format, and increases their stronghold. You can be sure Adobe is collecting royalties for the use of their format.

[emuelle1]

They can keep the royalties. .pdf isn't a bad format, but the bloatware that Adobe has become is something that I welcome replacements for. Thankfully, some open source and freeware apps are now available on the desktop.

[SteveHoward999]

Thanks. I'm becomming convinced that the only reason Adobe is still in business is because they held the monopoly on their expensive .pdf software. Now that a lot of good freeware alternatives are coming out, and Microsoft will finally include .pdf convesion in Office 12, we'll see if Adobe doesn't lose some market share.



They just bought Macromedia. Watch FlashPaper kill pdf!

[Darius Wey]

Is ClearVue WM5 compatible yet?

Yes, v3.x was recently released to support Windows Mobile 5.0, as well as add all sorts of other goodies.

[haesslich]

Is ClearVue WM5 compatible yet?

Yes, v3.x was recently released to support Windows Mobile 5.0, as well as add all sorts of other goodies.

Got any reviews? Most of the ones I've seen are from 2003. :D I'm tempted to shell out the $9 for it, but I'd like to know more about the software before installing it. Reflow was a nice concept, but it doesn't work on half the stuff I've tried to open... and those items were text-only, without columns or graphics.

[Darius Wey]

Got any reviews?

Not that I know of. 8) There is a front-page thread here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45239) - based on the responses there and from what I've heard elsewhere, most are happy with the product's features and the company's enthusiastic support. Of course, a free trial version is available if you wish to test it yourself.

[lithium]

I just started using ClearVue Suite 3.0, of which the .pdf viewer is a member. A shortcoming is I didn't see a way to skip to a page number, beyond using the scroll bar to flip through pages sequentially.

[haesslich]

Figures... I JUST missed the sale. :P

Ah well. Here goes with the Trial version - it can't be any WORSE than Adobe anyways.

EDIT: Trying to open up a 469KB PDF file with no graphics, and only text, ClearVue gave me an 'internal error' when I selected said file. It causes no problems in Adobe Reader 2. Trying PocketXPDF now with this - ClearVUE does render the pages better (they're more readable during full-screen zooms, for example), navigation could be improved - the d-pad on the PDA doesn't seem to work with ClearVue PDF Viewer, and there's no full-screen mode that I've found so far. It also seems to render pages somewhat more slowly than Reader 2 did... but it does a MUCH better job in rendering the page in the process. I just wish it didn't take so long to change pages - or even parts of the page for that matter, as I find that it takes a while to render what's not on-screen at the moment when I scroll to the left or right.

Edit #2: Pocket X PDF is doing a much better job for me than ClearVUE did, at least for now - it's fast, light, and while it takes a while to load a larger PDF file, it doesn't take forever to redraw parts of the page if I move left or right along it. :D It's pretty basic, and won't handle some of the things Reader does (encrypted and similarly 'special' PDF files), but it's not bad for the price tag.

[pocketpcadmirer]

Hi haesslich !!

Can I know which ver of clearvue are you currently using ?? I've just bought clearvue professional ver and it handles everything with ease..I am very happy with my purchase

<off-topic>
The ability to carry the ppt docs and edit them perfectly is nicely done too
</off-topic>

Sunny :D

[haesslich]

Hi haesslich !!

Can I know which ver of clearvue are you currently using ?? I've just bought clearvue professional ver and it handles everything with ease..I am very happy with my purchase

<off-topic>
The ability to carry the ppt docs and edit them perfectly is nicely done too
</off-topic>

Sunny :D

Clearvue PDF Viewer (not-Pro) 3.0 from the website, using the Trial version. I threw a simple 498K PDF file at it, which contained only text, and it gave me the 'internal error' prompt. Adobe Reader 2 and xPDF opened the same file without any problems. I had to use the CAB files to install this (required ENU was installed before putting in Clearview PDF, both on the built-in storage) because I've never been able to get ActiveSync 4.x installed properly on my machine. - ActiveSync's installer keeps saying the operation was interrupted.

It opens up PDF files okay, but it takes a while to render each page, or even parts of a page; when I tried to move to the next column on a page, it ended up taking as long to render that section of page as Reader 2 did to do the cover for the same thing... which was already rather slow.

[pocketpcadmirer]

Well,I threw on it a pdf file(1.4mb) about "why developers should choose windows mobile?" and for every refresh it took like 4-5 secs to redraw the screen..but I'm okay with that.. I currently use XDA mini which is fast.

But as I said ago i really prefer my old and faithful repligo to take my pdf documents on the go

Sunny

[PPCRules]

does anyone know if PocketXpdf can handle password protected PDFs?
New version of PocketXpdf last week. Lists as new:
- CAB-file for automatic installation
- Support for password-protected PDFs
- New zoom tool - drag a rectangle around the area to zoom
- Text search
- Outline view (for PDFs that support it)
- Improved scrolling (including optional page change)
- Reduced size of the binary (UPX-compression)

Has anyone tried it out yet?

[Paul Martin]

On my PPC 2002 device, Adobe v.2 kept crashing, so I went back to version one. Mostly, though, I use Repligo. I don't think PocketXpdf is PPC2002 compatible, so until I upgrade, I'll go with v.1 and Repligo.