Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Posts: 57

How can I store adobe .pdf files on my Visor? I have ISilo, Fireviewer, and AvantGo on my Visor. Can I use any of these??

Thanks.

Registered: May 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 87

Unless you've got something that can convert PDF to HTML, I don't think any of the programs you mention will help.

Your best bet is to get InstallBuddy from http://www.backupbuddy.com.

This can convert various files into Palm readable format (Word to iSilo, PDF to DOC, etc.)

It replaces the existing install tool.

Check it out.

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

I've been working on this same issue for days now. The best answer I have so far (and it doesn't work quite right in most cases) is to use Gohtm's free PDF to HTML conversion web site: http://www.gohtm.com/ Then use iSilo to convert the resulting HTML to iSilo's special variant of the DOC format.

What works:

Gothm does a beautiful job of converting PDFs to HTML files. You get one HTML file per PDF page, plus some JPGs for the graphics.

iSilo does a good job of converting most HTML documents into a form readable on your Visor. It's fast and does a good job of converting most images.


What doesn't work:

Gohtm adds a "banner" at the bottom of EVERY HTML page it outputs. This is easy to remove from the .html files with an ordinary text exitor. (I'm working on an Applescript to do this quickly and easily on multiple files at once.)

Gohtm uses frames and Javascript to create a "navigation bar" frame, and a "page/bookmark index" frame for the resulting HTML files. Works great in Netscape or IE, but iSilo does not understand either frames nor Javascript. So if you start your iSilo conversion at the top HTML page you get a empty document!

I have also tried AvantGo and ProxiWeb to view the resulting HTML pages directly. No luck. Neither understands Javascript and AvantGo hasn't got a clue about frames.

One thing that might work is to write a small program or script to create a "page index" HTML page from all the separate HTML pages that Gohtm outputs. Then start the iSilo conversion on that page. It should then pick up all the subpages.

Gohtm also uses HTML layers to "catch" all the miscellaneous graphics that cover the PDF page. It flattens these into one large image that it places beneath the text. Again, it works great on a desktop with a monitor and scrollable windows, but both AvantGo and ProxiWeb just take that image and shrink it to 160x160! Usless. This "shrink" also occurs when I use iSilo to convert each separate HTML page into a separate DOC.

Also, most DOC viewers only do vertical scrolling, oriented mainly towards text. It works great for e-books, but it means that PDFs or HTML pages formated to look correct on normal desktop computers with 640, 800, or higher, screen/window widths, look terrible on the Visor, and most are unreadable.

So that's my input.

If anyone knows how to do this and keep the result basically readable on the Visor/Palm, you could probably make a ton of money on it!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 434

The reason why there isn't money to be made is because Palm and Adobe signed an agreement that will see Adobe providing some level PDF support for the Palm OS. When is the question.

Another solution, for those with a scanner, is to print the .pdf file, scan it via an OCR app., output to .doc, reformat in Word, output as .html, and import via iSiloWeb. Obviously, not many documents will warrant all the work involved; but, for a document of any real size, it is still better than retyping the damn thing . . .

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 170

quote:

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Originally posted by MPM:
I've been working on this same issue for days now. The best answer I have so far (and it doesn't work quite right in most cases) is to use Gohtm's free PDF to HTML conversion web site: http://www.gohtm.com/ Then use iSilo to convert the resulting HTML to iSilo's special variant of the DOC format.

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posts: 85

There is a program at palmgear.com called PDFtoDOC. Do a search and try to find it. I've used it and it works pretty well. You do have to have the full version of Adobe Acrobat though.

RadarGreg

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Inglewood, CA, USA
Posts: 390

quote:

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Originally posted by RadarGreg:
There is a program at palmgear.com called PDFtoDOC. Do a search and try to find it. I've used it and it works pretty well. You do have to have the full version of Adobe Acrobat though.

RadarGreg

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I also use the PDF2Doc plug-in, but does anyone know how to turn off the headers? I have a novel in the PDF format, but when I converted it to doc, it incorporated the header from each page into the document. I'm probably just missing something...