MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - the eeeNote

sarah11918 · 07-21-2011, 02:39 PM

OK, so here's my pdf experience, including getting the pdfs on to and the resulting documents off of the Eee Note.

Eee Synch Software (Windows only)

The software installed on an older tablet PC running Windows 7 with no problems. It launches every time the Eee Note is connected via USB. No problems.

In order to put content on to the Eee Note, you have an option using this program, under the "Content Management" tab, to choose "IMPORT." So, you import a PDF (or any file, really) to the Eee Note via this method. The Eee Note will import the file, and then automatically based on the file type, file it itself as a "book" or "music" or "photo" etc. type of file to be accessed by the Reader, Music Player or Gallery etc. function on the device.

Downloading PDFs through the built-in browser
More excitingly for me, who is normally on a Mac, you can also download pdfs from the included default browser. When you click on a link to a pdf, it will ask you whether you want to save it to the device. When you do, it will become a "book." Unfortunately the browser is exactly the kind of sluggish browser you'd expect on a device like this, so the browser is serviceable but not exactly a pleasure to use. But if it gets me PDFs then I'll take it. (Note, if you do the whole convert to English and install community apps thing, you'll get Lightweight 2 which is a much smoother browser, and the one I prefer to actually use. But, while that browser will download PDF files to the Eee Note, I can't get the Eee Note Reader to "know" that they're there for opening.) So I know in the worst case, I can upload pdfs I want to edit to my website and download them from there. This makes me happy.

Annotating (handwriting mark up) of PDFs using the Reader
When you have a PDF open in the Reader, you have 3 annotation options: pen, highlighter and eraser. You can't change the qualities of any of these, so you get a standard pen width/colour, standard highlight (medium translucent grey) of fixed width and a fixed eraser tool. They all work, but are only visible at the zoom level in which they were created. I tested by trying 3 different zoom levels and making 3 different markups. Leaving and returning to the PDF, all notations remain intact but only one was visible at a time, depending on the zoom level I viewed the PDF at. The writing is smooth, the contrast is fine and as long as you're in good light, everything is visible. Panning around while zoomed is quite smooth, so it doesn't feel like a hardship to be zoomed in to read and need to scroll around. (Tested on a 17 page PDF) Of course, there are other features besides the handwriting available (bookmarking, selecting text etc.) but I'm just focusing on handwriting right now.

The only way the device can export these markings (except for some programs being worked on by the community right now) is by taking a snapshot of the page. This is why I say that the best use of the "Write in Reader" function is if you only need these markings visible on the Eee Note itself. If you have to zoom in to write, when you go back to full page, you won't see your writing. And the snapshot is literally a screen shot, not a representation of what might be lurking there. If you can't see it on the screen, it won't show up in a snapshot. What you would have to do is zoom to make the markings visible, then snap the screen. Of course, you might not get the whole page visible when you do this, so it doesn't work as a full-capture option.

Best use of this feature is:
- you are just making simple markups (highlighting some passages, making notes in the margin) and you don't care about finer control of pen type/size/colour
- you have a large PDF that you want to keep as one big document vs. a short document OR only a few pages you care about marking up, and you don't mind if these pages are separate from the pdf itself (OR you're happy to combine/rework these pages back into the original PDF on your computer)
- you will view the PDF mostly on the Eee itself, and mostly at the same zoom level each time. (In other words, if you are going to have to zoom in to read a 2 column PDF, then no harm in only having annotations at that zoom, since if you ever go back to read, you'll be at that zoom anyway.)

Editing PDFs in Notes

The Notes function has more control over pen tools, though it does not have a bookmark function. It does, however, have an "Insert" function and this is where you can get a little creative.

If my PDF is something like a math worksheet, and I want to handwrite in solutions, I probably want more control over the pen functions so I can vary the shades of color etc. So what I will do is take a snapshot from the Reader of the unmarked pdf, then import that snapshot into a new Note. The snapshot image will be a bit smaller than the original (there will be a border of white-ish space around the snapshot) but not unusably so.

Essentially, I have the same page image, just in the Notes program instead of the Reader program. Now I can annotate with a variety of pen tools. (And you cannot zoom in Notes, so what you see is always what you get.) But the cool thing is that because you are working in a "Note" (instead of a "book") you can export to Evernote. Notes appear to be the only things you can send to Evernote. (Otherwise, any snapshot from the Reader, which then becomes a photo in your photo album) could just be sent to Evernote directly.)

Note that because each import is a separate snapshot of each page from the original PDF, you will probably not want to do this for longer documents, or for documents that are more intended to be "read" than "written on"

Best Use of this feature is:
- you need your marked pages sent off of the Eee Note, and would find Evernote a convenient way to do that (but don't need an entire, long document's worth.) e.g. filling out a 2 - 4 page form
- you want more control over the pen tools for your mark ups (i.e. a basic, fixed pen and highlighter tool aren't enough)
- the entire page is legible (font is large enough) at 100% zoom OR you don't need to retain the original page divisions (e.g. it's OK to zoom in to particular sections, and have them become their own pages in your Note)

Getting marked up pages off the Eee Note using Evernote

Only Notes can be sent to Evernote. This process seems to work very smoothly, although it took a while to figure out how to do it. You can't be *in* the note; you have to be in your main list of notes. Then, you can select an icon beside each note that gives you options such as rename or delete. One of those options is Send to Evernote. Even when my wireless has been disconnected (I find it doesn't stay connected consistently), the device tries to send and in fact also automatically tries to connect to the network if it's disconnected. So that works quite well.

A new note shows up within a few seconds on my computer's Evernote app, and the note is a gif. I have no problems printing this to pdf the way I'd print anything to pdf, and the result is a slightly smaller than full page size pdf image. But of course, it's an image, so you'd need a program that could recapture ink strokes or OCR to try to then make the PDF searchable or handwriting recognizable. I just don't happen to have anything that does that.

So that's pretty much my M.O.

There are no dead spots on the writing surface. The ink keeps up with my handwriting no problems. I like the feel of the screen. The panning while zoomed is very slick, much better than say the Entourage Edge.

As I wrote above, if you were going to use this simply to replace a spiral bound notebook, I think you'd be very happy. After all, paper doesn't have handwriting recognition, and whatever you write has to be retyped or scanned/photocopied to be sent to someone else.

If you were going to mostly make this a dedicated device and not try to integrate your work with a computer (again, like a paper notebook), it should more than suit your needs. If you only ever need to see your annotations on this machine when you go back to reading your "books" (pdf and epub are just generically called "books"), then this would be absolutely fine for that purpose. You could bookmark a page to remind yourself there's an annotation at a different zoom level, or at 100% zoom, make a mark on the page saying which zoom level the actual annotation is written at. If you don't have to worry about printing it out as an entire document, markings visible, then I would think this solution would work just fine.

It's not, by any means, a pdf workhorse like a tablet PC or the Entourage Edge for document creation. To make notes for yourself, though, it's great.

I hope that's informative and helps people make a decision! If there's anything specific you'd like to know, I can try to figure it out.

07-21-2011, 02:39 PM	#133
sarah11918 Tablet Enthusiast Posts: 335 Karma: 30400 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Aura One (formerly: Asus Eee Note, enTourage eDGe EE, Nokia N810)	OK, so here's my pdf experience, including getting the pdfs on to and the resulting documents off of the Eee Note. Eee Synch Software (Windows only) The software installed on an older tablet PC running Windows 7 with no problems. It launches every time the Eee Note is connected via USB. No problems. In order to put content on to the Eee Note, you have an option using this program, under the "Content Management" tab, to choose "IMPORT." So, you import a PDF (or any file, really) to the Eee Note via this method. The Eee Note will import the file, and then automatically based on the file type, file it itself as a "book" or "music" or "photo" etc. type of file to be accessed by the Reader, Music Player or Gallery etc. function on the device. Downloading PDFs through the built-in browser More excitingly for me, who is normally on a Mac, you can also download pdfs from the included default browser. When you click on a link to a pdf, it will ask you whether you want to save it to the device. When you do, it will become a "book." Unfortunately the browser is exactly the kind of sluggish browser you'd expect on a device like this, so the browser is serviceable but not exactly a pleasure to use. But if it gets me PDFs then I'll take it. (Note, if you do the whole convert to English and install community apps thing, you'll get Lightweight 2 which is a much smoother browser, and the one I prefer to actually use. But, while that browser will download PDF files to the Eee Note, I can't get the Eee Note Reader to "know" that they're there for opening.) So I know in the worst case, I can upload pdfs I want to edit to my website and download them from there. This makes me happy. Annotating (handwriting mark up) of PDFs using the Reader When you have a PDF open in the Reader, you have 3 annotation options: pen, highlighter and eraser. You can't change the qualities of any of these, so you get a standard pen width/colour, standard highlight (medium translucent grey) of fixed width and a fixed eraser tool. They all work, but are only visible at the zoom level in which they were created. I tested by trying 3 different zoom levels and making 3 different markups. Leaving and returning to the PDF, all notations remain intact but only one was visible at a time, depending on the zoom level I viewed the PDF at. The writing is smooth, the contrast is fine and as long as you're in good light, everything is visible. Panning around while zoomed is quite smooth, so it doesn't feel like a hardship to be zoomed in to read and need to scroll around. (Tested on a 17 page PDF) Of course, there are other features besides the handwriting available (bookmarking, selecting text etc.) but I'm just focusing on handwriting right now. The only way the device can export these markings (except for some programs being worked on by the community right now) is by taking a snapshot of the page. This is why I say that the best use of the "Write in Reader" function is if you only need these markings visible on the Eee Note itself. If you have to zoom in to write, when you go back to full page, you won't see your writing. And the snapshot is literally a screen shot, not a representation of what might be lurking there. If you can't see it on the screen, it won't show up in a snapshot. What you would have to do is zoom to make the markings visible, then snap the screen. Of course, you might not get the whole page visible when you do this, so it doesn't work as a full-capture option. Best use of this feature is: - you are just making simple markups (highlighting some passages, making notes in the margin) and you don't care about finer control of pen type/size/colour - you have a large PDF that you want to keep as one big document vs. a short document OR only a few pages you care about marking up, and you don't mind if these pages are separate from the pdf itself (OR you're happy to combine/rework these pages back into the original PDF on your computer) - you will view the PDF mostly on the Eee itself, and mostly at the same zoom level each time. (In other words, if you are going to have to zoom in to read a 2 column PDF, then no harm in only having annotations at that zoom, since if you ever go back to read, you'll be at that zoom anyway.) Editing PDFs in Notes The Notes function has more control over pen tools, though it does not have a bookmark function. It does, however, have an "Insert" function and this is where you can get a little creative. If my PDF is something like a math worksheet, and I want to handwrite in solutions, I probably want more control over the pen functions so I can vary the shades of color etc. So what I will do is take a snapshot from the Reader of the unmarked pdf, then import that snapshot into a new Note. The snapshot image will be a bit smaller than the original (there will be a border of white-ish space around the snapshot) but not unusably so. Essentially, I have the same page image, just in the Notes program instead of the Reader program. Now I can annotate with a variety of pen tools. (And you cannot zoom in Notes, so what you see is always what you get.) But the cool thing is that because you are working in a "Note" (instead of a "book") you can export to Evernote. Notes appear to be the only things you can send to Evernote. (Otherwise, any snapshot from the Reader, which then becomes a photo in your photo album) could just be sent to Evernote directly.) Note that because each import is a separate snapshot of each page from the original PDF, you will probably not want to do this for longer documents, or for documents that are more intended to be "read" than "written on" Best Use of this feature is: - you need your marked pages sent off of the Eee Note, and would find Evernote a convenient way to do that (but don't need an entire, long document's worth.) e.g. filling out a 2 - 4 page form - you want more control over the pen tools for your mark ups (i.e. a basic, fixed pen and highlighter tool aren't enough) - the entire page is legible (font is large enough) at 100% zoom OR you don't need to retain the original page divisions (e.g. it's OK to zoom in to particular sections, and have them become their own pages in your Note) Getting marked up pages off the Eee Note using Evernote Only Notes can be sent to Evernote. This process seems to work very smoothly, although it took a while to figure out how to do it. You can't be in the note; you have to be in your main list of notes. Then, you can select an icon beside each note that gives you options such as rename or delete. One of those options is Send to Evernote. Even when my wireless has been disconnected (I find it doesn't stay connected consistently), the device tries to send and in fact also automatically tries to connect to the network if it's disconnected. So that works quite well. A new note shows up within a few seconds on my computer's Evernote app, and the note is a gif. I have no problems printing this to pdf the way I'd print anything to pdf, and the result is a slightly smaller than full page size pdf image. But of course, it's an image, so you'd need a program that could recapture ink strokes or OCR to try to then make the PDF searchable or handwriting recognizable. I just don't happen to have anything that does that. So that's pretty much my M.O. There are no dead spots on the writing surface. The ink keeps up with my handwriting no problems. I like the feel of the screen. The panning while zoomed is very slick, much better than say the Entourage Edge. As I wrote above, if you were going to use this simply to replace a spiral bound notebook, I think you'd be very happy. After all, paper doesn't have handwriting recognition, and whatever you write has to be retyped or scanned/photocopied to be sent to someone else. If you were going to mostly make this a dedicated device and not try to integrate your work with a computer (again, like a paper notebook), it should more than suit your needs. If you only ever need to see your annotations on this machine when you go back to reading your "books" (pdf and epub are just generically called "books"), then this would be absolutely fine for that purpose. You could bookmark a page to remind yourself there's an annotation at a different zoom level, or at 100% zoom, make a mark on the page saying which zoom level the actual annotation is written at. If you don't have to worry about printing it out as an entire document, markings visible, then I would think this solution would work just fine. It's not, by any means, a pdf workhorse like a tablet PC or the Entourage Edge for document creation. To make notes for yourself, though, it's great. I hope that's informative and helps people make a decision! If there's anything specific you'd like to know, I can try to figure it out. Last edited by sarah11918; 07-21-2011 at 02:45 PM.