How do I distribute a PDF file formatted for the PDA?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Great question... wish everyone who generates pdf's would ask it.

What do you use to generate your files?

Depends a lot on what's in the files and how it's structured... scanned
text, images, etc.

It would help if you could either post a sample file in the
microsoft.public.pocketpc.binaries section, provide a link to one or
send one to me privately.

Short answer, if the contents are primarily ascii text and you use full
acrobat, select advanced/accessability/makeaccessable and that (called
"tagging") should address most pocketpc readability issues.

To test tagging, generate a tagged document, then open it using reader
on the desktop, select view/reflow, then increase the text size to 200%
and close the window so that only about 6 words per line are visible...
if it's readable by only scrolling down for each screen, success.

Also, suggest providing your students ppc acrobat reader version one
rather than the current version as there are significant problems with
version two unless you need the drm and possibly form capabilities in
the newer versions.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

In my mind the simplest would be to drag the pdf to a PPC via ActiveSync on
a machine which has been used to install the Adobe PDF reader on a PPC. This
will invoke the tagging wizard, and tag the file as it is copied. The
resultant file on the PPC is now tagged, and could be distributed in
whatever manner you chose.

--
Sven
MVP - Mobile Devices
"Deiser" <doomerang01@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1121705799.936872.192350@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I have several regular pdf files. However, I want to convert them to
> the PDA form and make them available for download to a hundred
> students. Does anyone know of a mechanism that would allow me to
> distribute a converted PDF for PDA file?
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

The key point to note in Sven's post is that the file _on the PPC_ is
tagged, not the original file on the Sync computer.

While the activesync "Tagger" may be the most convenient for small
single files transferred to a single ppc, for distribution to a number
of ppc's, "pre-tagging" a pdf using standard acrobat or above will save
much time and effort. In addition, the activesync "tagger" is very
primitive by comparison and often aborts and has problems tagging large
pdf's.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

I have just d/led the Abobe Acrobat for PPC.
I have some powerpoint presentations I use for teaching apprentices and
tried to convert them to PPC format. I have setup a program from Program995
to convert the ppt files to pdf and everything works and looks fine on the
PC in acrobat but when I copy the files, with activeSync, the files look
nothing like they do on the PC. I get a dialogue box stating something like
"the file is not tagged and may not appear the same" (understatement)or some
such blurb, can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Adrian

"Deiser" <doomerang01@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1121705799.936872.192350@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I have several regular pdf files. However, I want to convert them to
> the PDA form and make them available for download to a hundred
> students. Does anyone know of a mechanism that would allow me to
> distribute a converted PDF for PDA file?
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

see the second post in this thread for a better explanation.

key question... what do you use to prepare the pdf's?

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

also... "slides" are probably "images" not text... if so, the only thing
the pdf can do is to shrink them to fit the ppc screen, or allow you to
scroll around the image when it is rendered large enough to read.

The key to a powerpoint/pdf success is going to be to preformat it to
work on the ppc realestate.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Yea, I didn't make that clear. I normally go with the assumption that most
don't have the full copy of Adobe 5 (or is it 6) or better that does
tagging.

Bev, is it just a matter of telling Acrobat 'tag this', and it does it, or
do you have to manually help it understand where to place the tags? I
haven't had too much trouble with the AS tagger myself. I have a significant
bit of trouble with the reader on my X50v though, it won't open any .pdfs
and doesn't show anything in the file list. I'm not alone on that either.
Tried lots of stuff, and have given up for the moment. Clearvue and Repligo
get me by.

--
Sven
MVP - Mobile Devices
"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" <BevNoSpamBevHoward.com> wrote in
message news funhbAjFHA.2904@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> The key point to note in Sven's post is that the file _on the PPC_ is
> tagged, not the original file on the Sync computer.
>
> While the activesync "Tagger" may be the most convenient for small single
> files transferred to a single ppc, for distribution to a number of ppc's,
> "pre-tagging" a pdf using standard acrobat or above will save much time
> and effort. In addition, the activesync "tagger" is very primitive by
> comparison and often aborts and has problems tagging large pdf's.
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

>> simply a matter of saying "tag this?" <<

Acrobat unfortunately has a raft of possibilities to twart access using
a pocketpc, from additional protections put in place by the generator to
the generator having placed tagging on only a portion of the entire
document.

In general, using full acrobat, all that is necessary is to select

advanced/accessability/makeaccessable

The tagging process then encompasses the entire document, so, when the
file is saved it's done for any method of pdf distribution... for
example, a properly tagged file can be placed on the internet and is
fully accessable when it is downloaded directly to the ppc.

Point of history... this capability exists, not for PPC users, but to
give visually and hearing impaired readers the capability of zooming to
readability or to allow screen scrapers to gather text before rendering
it into speech, etc. Another reason that anyone generating pdf's for
public consumption should make the minimal effort necessary to tag all
pdf's.

I've also run across documents that have "some" tagging in place, and,
when that happends, the AS tagger will abort the attempt and full
acrobat will normally report that the file has tags and also refuse to
complete a tagging attempt.

Another "confuser" is the widespread use of "scanning to pdf" including
converting fax documents to pdfs. These appear to be text, but are
actually just images of text, so there is no way to reformat the words
to render them readable without horizontally scrolling every line. An
easy way to check a document is to use the "text selector" and if it
fails to mark text, the text is probably an image.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]