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quixotic78 · 03-06-2011, 01:28 PM

Hello, I bought an Entourage Edge (eDGe?) last week, and I have some questions about its PDF capabilities that I haven't been able answer to yet myself. I've read many posts on this board both before and after my purchase, so I'm optimistic that you guys and gals will be able to give me answers.

(1) Highlighting. I get the sense that highlighting leaves much to be desired, not because of limitations in the EE, but rather because of Adobe. To wit, I like how highlighting automatically adds an entry to the Book Info page (is that the same as the Table of Contents page?). But (a) in every PDF I've tried, it highlights the entire line even if I select one word and (b) the automatically created entry in the Book Info page has no spaces, so instead of "and base was added until a precipitate formed" I get "andbasewasaddeduntilaprecipitateformed," which is pretty illegible. So my questions: I pretty much have to live with this limitation, yes? There's no clever workaround or promised fix on the horizon? (I know I can underline or "downlight," but those don't generate the neat excerpts I like in the Book Info).

(2) Searching across multiple PDFs. Is there a way to search for a word or phrase in every PDF in my library? Through some 3rd-party app, perhaps? I'd love some sort of list of all hits across all PDFs, but I'd settle for it bringing up one hit at a time that I have to cycle through with the click of a button.

(3) Organizing my library. I'm new to this whole library concept. I understand that I have to add a PDF to my library to enable annotations and the like, and that's fine, but it leads to a very haphazard library. The content presets (images, music, movies etc.) aren't useful in discriminating between 50 PDFs. Is there a way to add a folder, so I can put these 75 PDFs for this project in one folder and these 50 PDFs for a separate project in another? Is that done with tags instead? If so, is there a way to add, e.g., the "Project One" tag to 50 PDFs at once?

(4) Searching through annotations. I saw someone (LutzS) posted a utility that translated handwritten annotations into OneNote files, but I'm not familiar with OneNote so I'm not sure what that gets me. I'd like to be able to search through my annotations (ideally, through both the PDF and the annotations at once) and find a word. Is that possible?

(5) Searching through Notes. As best as I can tell, the difference between an Annotation and a Note is that an Annotation is handwritten and visible on the PDF (if you have Annotate checked), whereas a Note is entered with a keyboard and only shows up as a little icon, which can be clicked to expand on the LCD side (giving you more space beyond what is in the margin). Is my understanding correct? Are those attached Notes searchable?

(6) Are there any browsers with a scrollbar on the right-hand side, to scroll through the page? Or is it par for the course for Android-based browsers that you scroll with your finger and risk clicking a link?

(7) Is there a standby function for the EE? I seem to recall if you close it, it will go into Sleep mode, but I let it Sleep overnight and came back to a 5% battery. And of course I can turn it off, and wait the 70-odd seconds for it to come back on -- which isn't a dealbreaker, but I'd like to know if there's option C.

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but I *really* want to like this thing and I'm not there yet. Seriously, I'm looking forward to showing this thing off to my co-workers, especially the guy who brandishes his Ipad

But I'm either not competent enough with the EE yet to brag, or I overestimated its capabilities.

My current MO for reading lots of scientific papers is to print them, highlight them, write on them with a pen, and write a quick summary on the top of the paper after I'm done, but that leads to stacks and stacks of papers with no way to search at all. I've tried going digital before on my PC, but I just can't read PDFs on a monitor (a limitation I haven't encountered with the E-ink screen, thankfully). But if I can't search through my PDFs, then the only thing I've gained by dropping $500 for my EE and my penabled pen is some portability and the satisfaction of saving some trees -- which are both nice, but not fully what I want. So any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

03-06-2011, 01:28 PM	#1
quixotic78 Edge User	Questions from a new EE owner about PDFs Hello, I bought an Entourage Edge (eDGe?) last week, and I have some questions about its PDF capabilities that I haven't been able answer to yet myself. I've read many posts on this board both before and after my purchase, so I'm optimistic that you guys and gals will be able to give me answers. (1) Highlighting. I get the sense that highlighting leaves much to be desired, not because of limitations in the EE, but rather because of Adobe. To wit, I like how highlighting automatically adds an entry to the Book Info page (is that the same as the Table of Contents page?). But (a) in every PDF I've tried, it highlights the entire line even if I select one word and (b) the automatically created entry in the Book Info page has no spaces, so instead of "and base was added until a precipitate formed" I get "andbasewasaddeduntilaprecipitateformed," which is pretty illegible. So my questions: I pretty much have to live with this limitation, yes? There's no clever workaround or promised fix on the horizon? (I know I can underline or "downlight," but those don't generate the neat excerpts I like in the Book Info). (2) Searching across multiple PDFs. Is there a way to search for a word or phrase in every PDF in my library? Through some 3rd-party app, perhaps? I'd love some sort of list of all hits across all PDFs, but I'd settle for it bringing up one hit at a time that I have to cycle through with the click of a button. (3) Organizing my library. I'm new to this whole library concept. I understand that I have to add a PDF to my library to enable annotations and the like, and that's fine, but it leads to a very haphazard library. The content presets (images, music, movies etc.) aren't useful in discriminating between 50 PDFs. Is there a way to add a folder, so I can put these 75 PDFs for this project in one folder and these 50 PDFs for a separate project in another? Is that done with tags instead? If so, is there a way to add, e.g., the "Project One" tag to 50 PDFs at once? (4) Searching through annotations. I saw someone (LutzS) posted a utility that translated handwritten annotations into OneNote files, but I'm not familiar with OneNote so I'm not sure what that gets me. I'd like to be able to search through my annotations (ideally, through both the PDF and the annotations at once) and find a word. Is that possible? (5) Searching through Notes. As best as I can tell, the difference between an Annotation and a Note is that an Annotation is handwritten and visible on the PDF (if you have Annotate checked), whereas a Note is entered with a keyboard and only shows up as a little icon, which can be clicked to expand on the LCD side (giving you more space beyond what is in the margin). Is my understanding correct? Are those attached Notes searchable? (6) Are there any browsers with a scrollbar on the right-hand side, to scroll through the page? Or is it par for the course for Android-based browsers that you scroll with your finger and risk clicking a link? (7) Is there a standby function for the EE? I seem to recall if you close it, it will go into Sleep mode, but I let it Sleep overnight and came back to a 5% battery. And of course I can turn it off, and wait the 70-odd seconds for it to come back on -- which isn't a dealbreaker, but I'd like to know if there's option C. Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but I really want to like this thing and I'm not there yet. Seriously, I'm looking forward to showing this thing off to my co-workers, especially the guy who brandishes his Ipad But I'm either not competent enough with the EE yet to brag, or I overestimated its capabilities. My current MO for reading lots of scientific papers is to print them, highlight them, write on them with a pen, and write a quick summary on the top of the paper after I'm done, but that leads to stacks and stacks of papers with no way to search at all. I've tried going digital before on my PC, but I just can't read PDFs on a monitor (a limitation I haven't encountered with the E-ink screen, thankfully). But if I can't search through my PDFs, then the only thing I've gained by dropping $500 for my EE and my penabled pen is some portability and the satisfaction of saving some trees -- which are both nice, but not fully what I want. So any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.