Elsevier Evolve, Pageburst, and Vitalsource eBooks

This information is for primarily for students. Especially since more and more colleges are slowly migrating towards eBooks. My son started his Respiratory Therapist degree on Monday and some of the books for the program are in .vbk eBook format. Elsevier Pageburst (Vitalsource) books can be viewed online with full functionality using the xScope 6 browser http://www.mediafire.com/?ldi2xlmnxcx084z in landscape mode only, and by setting the User Agent to iPad. The default Android browser displays the books but, for some reason you can't scroll. One copy of Elsevier Evolve books can download to your device of choice (PC, Mac, IPad). I downloaded the books on a PC and printed them (chapter by chapter is the only option) as a PDF using a program called PDF 995 (I have an older version I have been using for years without advertisements) and then copied and added them to the Library on the EE via a USB thumb drive. Unfortunately, you lose hyperlinks and have no Table of Contents when you print the chapters as PDF but, you still have a lot of the other capabilities (e.g. highlighting, annotating etc.). Hopefully this information will be of use to any students who encounter or will use Elsevier eBooks.

Does the PDF995 print it as a PDF image or can you still search?

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

Does the PDF995 print it as a PDF image or can you still search?

Unfortunately PDF 995 prints it as an image. I have two other programs (PDF Converter 6 and ReadIris 12) from which I can manipulate and print to PDF and they perform OCR on the document to make it searchable. However, these programs cost money. If there is a free alternative anyone knows of please share this information.

I found a FREE program (my favorite kind) that prints PDFs and allows Edge users to search within a printed document or book, highlight, annotate etc. It is called doPDF. http://www.dopdf.com/

I printed Egan's Fundamentals of Respiratory Care, 8th Edition which is well over 1,000 pages in about 45 minutes (Elsevier forces you to print chapter by chapter). I then combined the PDFs and transferred the 114MB file (not too big for 1,000 plus page book) to the Edge via USB thumb drive and presto, my son no longer has to carry a 10 pound book. The conversion looks beautiful on the Edge's e-reader. While goPDF makes printed PDFs searchable, it drops hyperlinks. Of course the work around is to highlight and search within the book for desired text which will take you directly to the page with the search result and it works fairly quick. I understand publishers wanting to protect books from pirating but, this is a viable option for those students who are required to buy ebooks and want to port them to their Edge. If you can print it, goPDF will make it useable on the Edge.