PDF and ebook .epub files are popular ways to access information. However, managing these files can be an issue and it’s one that Adobe Digital Editions can help you solve. It's a free application that can be downloaded from www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions. When you install it, you’ll be prompted to enter your Adobe ID. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for one or skip it at this stage. The program needs access to your internet connection to install correctly, so make sure your firewall gives it access.
Once it’s open on the screen, you’re ready to get started. Be aware that double-clicking a .pdf file in Windows Explorer will open it in Adobe Reader, so if you want to use Adobe Digital Editions, open it first and click Library —> ‘Add Item to Library’. You can then add a .pdf file from your computer to the library. You can also drag and drop PDFs from an open folder directly into the library, which is handy if you have lots of them. To remove a PDF document from the library, click it and press Delete.
You have two views available: Library View and Reading View. In Library View, you’ll select what to read and double-click it to move to Reading View. In Reading View, you can view the document in different ways by selecting an icon on the toolbar: ‘Double Pages’, ‘Single Page’, ‘Fit to Width’ or ‘Custom Fit’. If you choose ‘Double Pages’, every time you click the arrow key you’ll move to a new double-page spread. On a large monitor this will work well, but on a smaller monitor you might prefer to use ‘Custom Fit’ to see more detail. You’ll see a small navigation panel, which you can drag on to control what you see on the screen. You can also scroll through the document by scrolling with your mouse wheel or clicking on the scrollbar.
You can copy text from a .pdf file by selecting it on the screen and pressing Ctrl-C to copy it to the Windows clipboard. Switch to the application to paste the text into and click Paste or Ctrl-V.
You can find content inside a book by typing the search content in the box and then clicking the ‘Find Previous’ and ‘Find Next’ buttons to move through the document from this point forward or in reverse.
To get help and details of shortcut keys to use with the program, press F1 to go to the online help page. While Adobe provides a small library of free downloadable ebooks at http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/library/?PID=4166869, you’ll find many thousands available on the web.
Add bookmarks and notes with Adobe Digital Editions
