I began this assignment with
enthusiasm. As I write this I must confess my enthusiasm has been greatly
curbed. My experience with electronic publishing left me less than awed and
inspired. As a matter of fact, the process was rather torturous.
My first task was to download the
Adobe eBook reader. I logged onto the Adobe site and began the download. As I
do not have access to a cable modem, the download process took over twenty
minutes. While this is a one-time time waster, I was unable to do much else
while this process took place. Once the download completed, I then had to go
through the process of registering for everything so that I would have access
to book downloads. I was told that I would have to restart my computer to
activate the reader. I chose to do this at a later time as I had several
programs open and running.
This download completed, I moved on to downloading
the Microsoft reader. I know, this wasn’t following directions, but I decided
if I’m downloading one, why not do the other.
I logged onto the Microsoft site. This
download also took over twenty minutes to complete! Again I had to go through
the verification process. As I clicked on library, to see what was available,
my computer decided to restart!
I
have Windows XT, so I had to login again. I had to sign-on to AOL again, as
that connection was lost.
I opened the two programs to take a
look at what was available. I played with the features of both and then decided
to see what was available to download.
I opened the Adobe bookstore. This
took me to a main title page. I began to surf through the different sites, but
found only two titles from Adobe to download for free. Adobe does offer books
for a relatively small price, but for now I only want free materials. While I
enjoy Mark Twain’s work, I prefer EA Poe so this is what I downloaded. I also
searched for titles to download for the Microsoft reader. My thought was to
find something encoded for both readers so I could compare the two. I was
unable to locate anything. I’m sure there are titles encoded for both readers,
but as I had spent over two hours searching, I decided not to pursue this any
farther.
I found both readers to be easily
used, with very little need for direction. There are features both have such as
page locators on the bottom of the screen, highlighting, and annotating. The
Adobe program is easier to utilize for highlighting and annotating as there are
icons for these functions rather than having to highlight with mouse and then
right-click to enable highlighting as has to be done with Microsoft. I did
discover that if I have downloaded text for Adobe Acrobat, the functions
allowed such as highlighting and annotating are not allowed through Adobe eBook
Reader. The feature that Adobe has that Microsoft doesn’t is the one that
allows me to open other files. I haven’t found a way to do this with
Microsoft. Each program allows you to
enhance the font size and clarity. I found that Microsoft’s print did appear
clearer to me on the screen than did Adobe. The plus for Adobe in this respect
was I had a nav bar on the right to click on to make changes rather than having
to return to the main screen or title for access to these features.
Overall, either program is acceptable
- I saw very little difference. The only significant difference may be the
availability of titles for one format. As I searched I found many titles
available in Acrobat Reader and Microsoft eBook Reader format. I found few
titles available in the Acrobat eBook Reader.
Some final thoughts: I don’t think I
would make use of this particular technology for myself for personal use. I
would much rather curl up on the couch and immerse myself in the pages of a
tome rather than try to read from a sterile computer screen. There is something
so intimate about holding a book and becoming involved.