Good Reader with intelligent formatting?

[backhand]

I've been trying to read documents in PalmReader, but because the lines are longer than the T3's width (@480) the end of line carriage return is always interpreted, leaving paragraphs a jagged mess as the end of every line makes for a partial line.

Is there a reader with the option to reformat on the fly to avoid this, disregarding carriage returns and interpreting empty lines as the paragraph separators? Seems to me it shouldn't be difficult to do.

TIA

B

[bryus]

Is the document formatted for Palm Reader, or is just a Palm Doc format? If it is a Palm Doc, there is nothing you can do in Palm Reader. You would need to convert it to plain text, remove the line feeds with a desktop program, and convert it to Palm Reader format with DropBook. Or perhaps you could do something with WordSmith or DocsToGo, but I think that would be difficult and time consuming.

Then you can use full justification. It is under Options, General Preferences. There is a check box for it at the bottom of the screen. You can also set the margin with, if any, that you want on this screen.

[matrix42]

I was kinda wondering what folks think is the best "Palm Doc" reader, PalmReader has it's issues, Docs to Go takes forever to open a "Palm Doc" file, So any thoughts, as there are alot of titles available in that format?

-Scott

[aym]

I personally love PalmReaderPro. It does Palm Docs as well. Among other things, there's a good selection of secured e-books available for purchase, and the DRM is one of the easiest I've used. As long as the user name's the same as you've authorized on the Palm, or you have the credit card # and name it was purchased under, you're set. I personally love the ability to use any free font that was available for the old FontHack (or buy theirs, but there's no need to spend money). I have a nice tiny font and I like the ability to change the colors. You can also read these on PPC, Windows, or Mac, so this reader should be able to move with you as you upgrade. It also does landscape for those whose Palms don't do that naturally, which depending on the machine can make for a comfortable reading experience.

Another thing I like about Palm Reader Pro is that you can get a dictionary and look up words from a highlight-tap&hold move. I find myself doing this constantly now, and I love it. You can also highlight sections, annotate, and add bookmarks - and export your annotations to memo if you want.

MobiPocket is another popular one. There are a good number of available secured books available for this as well, though you have to register a code from the reader on the site where you buy the books and there are a limited number of devices you can have activated at any one time. Personally, I think the font support is weaker - I can use the same fonts as PalmReader but can't choose the pixel size, and the library list and navigation seem less intuitive (MHO). It also does Palm Docs. There are separate tabs for bookmarks, annotation, and highlights, but I haven't found how to do anything but bookmark. You can look things up from a tap and hold, or copy a word to then open an external dictionary. One thing MobiPocket does that the others don't is pull RSS feeds from the Internet and be able to take snapshots of web content. Nice feature.

I know there's one called TiBR (Tiny Book Reader?), but I know nothing about it except I've heard many people swear by it.

I also have recently installed Adobe Reader on the Palm to read certain secured books only available in their format. I don't think it does Palm Docs. It's DRM is HE**. It took me close to an hour going in circles to finally get the desktop authorized, and then you have to open the book and send it to the Palm, which took me a while to figure out. Oh - and one desktop and one Palm. No work and home dual machine support. Then, on the Palm, the reading isn't nearly as nice as the others. No font support (at least once the book's encoded) I can find - and the default is quite big. If you open the reader on the T3 from a 320x480 view of your launcher it gets confused on the page length and page down doesn't work right since the reader itself can't go beyond 320x320 (opening from a 320x320 launcher works fine). It also doesn't repaginate for the Palm. You view about 5 screenfuls per "page", and then you can see a screenful with just a couple words before you click over to the screenful of the next "page". It also doesn't remember anything beyond the page, so you'll possibly re-enter the book a number of screenfuls before you started. There's no way to annotate or bookmark that I've found. Forget about looking anything up - not only doesn't it have a dictionary but it won't let you copy a word to put it into an external pop-up dictionary. You have to type it in. If you really want a book only available in this format it's there but it's definitely a very last option IMHO.

Looking around, it would appear WordSmith also reads PalmDocs, and seems at first glance to be reasonably full featured in view mode. It's also a nice memo replacement and document editor. Worth taking a look at. Only thing I'm unsure about is where on the card it might read docs from. I have docs in /Palm/Launcher and /Books and /eBooks, and it's not finding any of those. The only one it's finding is in RAM. I'd be surprised if there isn't somewhere you can put books on the card, but.... Anyway, worth testing, especially since it's multifunctional.

I hope that gives you some ideas! EBooks are the greatest, as far as I'm concerned.

Aym

[matrix42]

Thanks Aym

I love Palm Reader as well, it does not however appear to support bookmarks in Palm Doc files ( although you can add your own). So I'm having a look at TiBR very nice so far ( also appears to have dictionary support) and supports the elusive bookmarks, as well as fonts from FontBucket!! it also loads the book off the card way faster than Docs to Go. So with Docs to Go, Repligo, PalmReader and TiBR I'm getting quite a collection of readers :-)

-Scott

[Edlin]

I`ve used a few readers, and typically keep TiBR, Palmreader and mobipocket on. I prefer Tibr, and only have the other two for pain in the @ss propierty formats.
Deep Reader formated text the nicest I`ve seen, but isnt colour or hires.

[Palmipede]

Originally posted by Edlin
I`ve used a few readers, and typically keep TiBR, Palmreader and mobipocket on. I prefer Tibr, and only have the other two for pain in the @ss propierty formats.
Deep Reader formated text the nicest I`ve seen, but isnt colour or hires. Afer quite comprehensive tests, I have made exactly the same choice.:)

My prefered ones are Deep Reader & TiBR for standard PalmDoc e-books and PalmReader and MobiPocket for proprietary formats.

Deep Reader is definitely the best one I have never found and I regret, as a lot of users, that its development has stopped.

[ptc]

For Deep Reader fans out there, the developer is at least considering doing updates. He's focused more on games these days (like the brilliant Edge!) but he has set up a Deep Reader forum to discuss issues and request updates. From the main site, click on Forums:

http://www.zanegames.com/

[Edlin]

Originally posted by ptc
For Deep Reader fans out there, the developer is at least considering doing updates. He's focused more on games these days (like the brilliant Edge!) but he has set up a Deep Reader forum to discuss issues and request updates. From the main site, click on Forums:

http://www.zanegames.com/

*smiles*