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The Best of Sherlock Holmes: e-World > Adobe Reader Tips |
Tips for Using
Adobe (Acrobat) Reader
While Adobe Acrobat Reader (now known simply as Adobe Reader) is very easy to use, it has a number of settings and idiosyncrasies that are not apparent to the casual user. Some of these may be overridden by the creator of a PDF document. However, users can make some adjustments that will often improve their productivity. I've listed some of my top suggestions. These definitely apply when using the e-SHJ or BSJ CD, and are usually appropriate for other PDF documents as well.
Navigation Pane Width in Acrobat Reader 5
Set Preferences in Acrobat Reader 5
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Several toolbar buttons can significantly increase your productivity. On an 800x600 monitor I load all the toolbars (Windows > Toolbars > select each one) except Adobe Online. You can re-arrange them using the toolbar anchor so they all fit into a single row docked underneath the menu bar (as long as you don't expand the buttons with "More Tools"). This uses the least screen space and the toolbars never obscure a document. When you have these toolbars visible you almost never need to use a menu command. You can just click on a button, which is faster and easier.
Pause your mouse cursor over a button and a tool tip will appear with text describing the button function.
Several buttons, including the vital "Search" button, can be collapsed or expanded by using the triangle next to the button. I keep them collapsed to save screen space. When you click on the downward pointing triangle of the "More Tools" button it displays a menu of button choices. If the "Search" button isn't visible it has been collapsed under one of the related searching buttons ("Search Results", "Next Highlight", or "Previous Highlight"). Click on the "More Tools" triangle and select the desired searching button.
Navigation Pane Width in Acrobat Reader 5
Some documents have bookmarks that appear in the Navigation pane on the left side of Reader window. You can adjust the width of the Navigation pane to a size that suits you for displaying bookmarks versus the amount of document area. To adjust the width, drag on the border between the Navigation pane and the document area or drag on the Open/Close Navigation pane button at the bottom of the window on the left end of the status bar. The width remains fixed until you re-adjust it. If you make the width too narrow, the pane will snap shut and you'll need to drag the border to the right in order to "open" the pane.
Assuming the Navigation pane is set to a reasonable width, you can quickly open or close it by clicking on the Bookmarks tab or by clicking (not dragging) on the Open/Close Navigation pane button. If you click on the tab and the pane does not open you need to drag the border to the right in order to set an "open" width.
The Adobe Reader provides two methods of locating text in PDF documents. The "Find" function locates text in a single file. The "Search" (Query) function can locate text across multiple files but requires that the files be indexed using the Acrobat Catalog feature. "Search" is much faster than "Find" and offers more powerful matching options.
It's critical to note that these two methods use different syntax. "Find" will locate any text pattern. For example, the Find text "his" will locate that text pattern in "this" and "history" as well as the word "his." In contrast, Search only locates complete words (except when using wildcards as noted below). Thus a Search for "Beeton" would not locate "Beeton's".
The Search/Query function only matches exact words unless you use wildcards. The Search text "his" will only locate the word "his" and will not match "this" or "history." However, Search does support wildcards, so a Search text of "his*" would locate "his" and "history" and "hissed." Since by default Search locates complete words, it often makes sense to use the asterisk wildcard symbol at the end of your Search text. For example, if you wanted to find any mention of manuscripts, you could use "manuscript*" to locate both the singular and plural form of the word. See also Search Efficiently below.
Your choice of Search term(s) depends on both the quality of your document and the specificity of your search. You can also use Boolean expressions for more comprehensive or elaborate searches.
Document quality matters because text errors can result in not matching an item. If you were searching for a name and it was misspelled in the original document you might not locate it. This is even more likely to occur when the PDF document was created from a scanned original since text recognition errors are fairly common. Thus, when doing a general search you'll get more hits by using fewer letters and ending with an asterisk wildcard. "Beeton's" will only locate the full term, while "Beeton*" will locate the singular, plural, and possessive variants. To get even more hits, "Beet*" will catch some text errors and misspellings.
On the other hand, if your search is very specific, it makes sense to use more letters or even several words in order to narrow your search. If you're trying to locate the article entitled "The Location of The Three Students" you could first try searching on the entire title. Assuming there were no misspellings or text errors you would quickly locate the article. Shorter distinctive phrases should be tried if you don't locate it. "Three Students" occurs very frequently so a better alternative might be "location of the three."
The Search function also supports Boolean expressions. A search for "Beeton* OR Christmas Annual*" will find any document that contains either or both of the terms. The inclusive "OR" operator is very helpful when doing research on a subject with several possible terms, abbreviations, or misspellings/errors. Thus a better search term for "manuscripts" would use "manus* or ms*" in order to capture as many variants and text errors as possible, including the use of the singular or plural abbreviation.
The Adobe Reader Help file (Help > Reader Help) has more information on other aspects of the Search function. However, it does not directly address the text quality issue, so keep the above points in mind. When searching for specific items you can use complete words and even phrases. Your searches will be more comprehensive when you use shorter terms and wildcards, especially on documents with less than perfect text quality.
Set Preferences in Acrobat Reader 5
Some of these preferences can be overridden by settings in a particular document. However, many documents simply use your preference settings so it is helpful to choose the following preferences.
Edit > Preferences > Display
Default Page Layout = Continuous. I find this makes it much easier to read and scroll through pages on screen. Some documents override this setting. The e-SHJ files use your default setting while the BSJ CD files override it to use Single Page layout.
Edit > Preferences > Display
Magnification: Default Zoom = Fit Width. This offers the best trade-off on an 800x600 display for showing the most text while still having it readable when the navigation pane is open. Some documents override this setting. The e-SHJ files use your default setting while the BSJ CD files override it to use Fit in Window.
Edit > Preferences > Options
Use Logical Page Numbers = checked. It's much faster to find a specific page using LPN in documents that include this info. However, if you have problems printing certain pages, you can uncheck this when you need to print. This setting does not affect documents that do not include LPN.
Edit > Preferences > Search
Include in Query: Document Information = checked. Sometimes it helps to use document titles in your searches. It's almost essential when using the BSJ CD. It's rarely useful for the e-SHJ since that product has other navigation options. I never use Word Options or Date Filtering so I uncheck those.
Edit > Preferences > Search
Results: Sort By = Title. I find this useful for the e-SHJ and BSJ CD since this also reflects chronological order for the original magazines. The other possible setting choice would be "score" but I didn't find the Acrobat relevancy ranking to help me that much.
Edit > Preferences > Search
Results: Show First = 250. This insures all items in the e-SHJ and BSJ CD will be shown.
Edit > Preferences > Search
Display: Next Highlight = Show by Word. It's important to use this setting when you also have Default Zoom = Fit Width as noted above. This setting insures that you will see every occurrence of your search word. With the "by page" setting you can overlook some items when a word appears at both the top and bottom of a page.
Edit > Preferences > Search
View Dialog Options: Hide Query Dialog on Search = checked. This automatically frees up screen space. It's easy to re-display the dialog using either the toolbar button or Control-Shift-F.
Edit > Preferences > Search
View Dialog Options: Hide Results Dialog on Search = unchecked. Sometimes I want to retain this dialog and other times I don't want it, so either setting is acceptable. I often move the Results dialog to the left edge of my screen so that most of it is off-screen and out of my way. This dialog is especially useful with the BSJ CD since it shows the magazine year and number. You can re-display the dialog by using the toolbar button or Control-Shift-G.
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The Adobe Reader Help file (Help > Reader Help) has additional information on some topics.
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