Create PDF file for Blackberry?

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I’ve missed the boat a bit on Blackberries so I dont really know where to go with this question so came here.

I have a (rather large 15Mb) pdf file that sits on a website. People with good download capacity and bandwidth seem to find that no hassle to download and that’s good if that’s what they want. I just never thought about wanting or needing the file in other formats.

But I have had a request for it to be downloadable to a Blackberry. How do I do this? Do I need different software? Or is it up to the Balckberry owner to deal with this?

For a gadget girl, this one has passed me by and I am clueless.

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Putting pdf blackberry in Google came up with quite a few hits – happy searching…

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

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Hi Ed,

Thanks for the tip … but I had aleady done that. Most of these links describe PDF viewers for Balckberries.

I dont have a Blackberry, so I dont want to view the PDF files.

I want to be able to create files for viewing on Blackberries held in other people’s hot little hands. The specific example is a brochure about birding hotspots in and around the town I live. Visitors to town may want to download the file to their Blackberry before they come to visit so they know where to go once they are here.

Johanna

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After some more research, I found this page . It would seem that it is the responsiblility of the user to have the appropriate software.

See, I told you that these gadgets passed me by ….

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Good spot Joh, I have sent this onto our Blackberry lady in the office who has been inundated with requests for this

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You didn’t mention this, but your thread got ME to wondering about “smart phones” other than Blackberries. I have a Palm Treo 680 bought only a short time ago and haven’t encountered the need for viewing a PDF yet, so I opened the user manual. Unless I’m reading it wrong, it looks like the included software will do it, so I’m going to give it a try. I’ll let you know here, just in case you do get the question from someone.

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Followup. I put a couple of PDFs on the 2 gig memory card in my Treo 680 (one is the manual for the device). It seems the Palm includes something called Documents To Go from DataViz. I found them here: Documents To Go. It appears that someone purchasing the basic version pays $30 USA. This is the first time I’ve fired up a PDF on my Treo and the text is unreadable as it comes. I don’t know if I’ll spend any time trying to “zoom in” or not, but maybe the software link will come in handy for you.

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I have never before copied a PDF file to my Windows Mobile 6 device. I just tried and ClearVue PDF is preloaded – and works reasonably well.

It’s a bit of a pain scrolling across the page, but switching the device to Landscape mode made it quite usable.

StuartR

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Stuart,

That is what I was thinking would happen. The particular PDF that I am taking about was contstructed specifically to be A3 size folded into DL (half and then thirds). It is a BIG file and I really wonder why anyone would bother to try to read something like that on a hand held device. (Particularly after I offered to put a paper version of the document in the snail mail for the requestor – an offer that was refused. Go figure!)

I am pleased that my thread has started some discussion that has meant we have all learned something.

Johanna

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… if page size is the concern then perhaps you could “reprint” the PDF via a virtual printer driver. The one I’ve found to be the most useful in terms of page (re)sizing is the doPDF. I guess all you can do is give it a whirl

Alan

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Thanks Alan,

I will try that and run it past my Blackberry user

Johanna

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For many years I have used a product called Repligo for viewing documents on my PocketPC. Repligo allows for documents to be dynamically reformatted on the flly to suit the cramped screen. I believe they do something for the Blackberry. http://www.cerience.com/%5B/url%5D

Regards

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Jo

I guess you might be after smaller page sizes at the same resolution? If that’s the case, what might be a good size and orientation for this gadget to display well? I might have a go at rejigging it myself.

Alan

PS I have also not kept up with the latest in gadgetry. I don’t think my mobile can even show pictures:

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Hi Alan,

Thank you for the offer, but I am not sure that it will be worth the effort.

When I was creating the document, I often only had access to A4 printers. While I could proof a copy at A4 size, I needed both my glasses and my magnifying glass. (Although it did look kinda cute!)

I will create a simple text only file that I will convert to pdf to put on the site and label it accordingly. And if I have a link to an email address to request a paper copy of the brochure I think that will cover most situations.

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We have several Blackberrys here at the office on an Blackberry Enterprise Server. The BB server software converts email attachments including PDF files to they can be opened on the Blackberry. There’s a trick on the receiving end to getting them to be readable. If you want to post the link or send me a link I’d be happy to test opening one via an website link. My son also have a Blackberry except on a personal BIS plan. I could ask him to test it too if you’d like.

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Thanks Daisy,

The link is Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists Then click on Bird Routes.

I appreciate this.

Johanna

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It opened but in the process removed all the formatting. All that remains is just text. It’s not pretty. Would it even be possible to make a text only version for mobile web users? I wish I could take a photo of what my phone’s screen shows. It essentially looks like this:

[indent]

---

12
11 10 9 6 8
16 13
15
14
4 3
2 1
13. Willbriggie Swamp (Note Private Property.
Access to this wetland may be arranged by
contacting Ag Reserves Australia Ltd (Kooba
Station 69605200)) Willbriggie Swamp is a small

---

[/indent]

And so on, scrolling down. The map and photos didn’t follow. Only long unformatted text. Heading home now. I’ll check back later tonight.

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Thanks for trying, Daisy.

The original file was created in Pagemaker 6.5 and then converted to PDF. It does not surprise me that you have unusable information on your screen.

I will create a text only version (minus the formatting as well) and make that available.

Johanna

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You must have made some changes to it overnight. Today the map is still at the top but the images are missing from the columns. Yesterday I accessed via a link through my Blackberry’s browser. Today I did a test where I attached and emailed it to myself. When I do that it does stay in tack and I can see images. I can’t read the columns, though, because the document is rather wide and I can’t seem to get my Blackberry to both zoom and then scroll left and right. Perhaps if it were just one column and the entire document size was overall smaller it would be readable this way. I also pulled out my old webcam so here’s two screenshots.

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Hi Daisy

I have not made any changes yet. I’ll have to check what it is that you are seeing.

When we received approval to use the bird images from the publisher, we were specifically excluded from using them in an electronic version. So to keep the flow and spacing of the document, I simply pasted a similar shape over top of the images to block them out when I created the pdf version. Anyone downloading should not have seen the images.

Johanna

Edited later: I have checked the versions of the document. The one on the site is the latest and it should never have shown the bird images.

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Just an update.

I stripped out the text from the original Pagemaker file and created a text only version in Word.

I created a PDF file of the straight text using Foxit PDF printer. That all brought the file size down to 60 odd Kb.

I put it on line and let the Blackberry user know. She has just emailed me with effusive thanks and she has let me know that she is delighted that she could easily download the file and can read it clearly on her little device.

So thank you Daisy and everyone else who helped. Consider this to be the passing on off the effusive thanks.

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