Amazon Kindle pdf management?

[speakerwizard]

Hi guys, I bought a relative a kindle and now have the job of loading it up etc, I have 2 questions really as i have not worked with pdf's much.
1) what is a good application or method of changing pdf meta-data etc, and
2) Is there a good PDF (and maybe other e-book formats) management software or even sync software for mac? thanks

[sishaw]

With the new software update, the Kindle can read .pdf files natively. Annoyingly, it can't (or at least I haven't figured it out) zoom, so, depending on your source document, you can wind up with some very small print.

The easiest thing to do, from any computer, is email the .pdf file to the Kindle address on your "manage your Kindle page" on Amazon.com. You (or your relative) will have to authorize your "from" email address.

[SteveSparks]

Originally Posted by sishaw

With the new software update, the Kindle can read .pdf files natively. Annoyingly, it can't (or at least I haven't figured it out) zoom, so, depending on your source document, you can wind up with some very small print.

The easiest thing to do, from any computer, is email the .pdf file to the Kindle address on your "manage your Kindle page" on Amazon.com. You (or your relative) will have to authorize your "from" email address.

The kindle does not have Zoom, the pdf support is lame.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by sishaw

The easiest thing to do, from any computer, is email the .pdf file to the Kindle address on your "manage your Kindle page" on Amazon.com. You (or your relative) will have to authorize your "from" email address.

If a cable is handy, drag and drop is probably a good way to go.

If you use a program like Papers on the Mac side, it might also be helpful (if you're talking about journal articles, here...).

[sishaw]

Originally Posted by SteveSparks

The kindle does not have Zoom, the pdf support is lame.

Yep, you're right. I've been holding out hope that there was some magic combination of button presses I haven't discovered, but the lack of zoom is a real problem if your original document has small or dense print.

I think for the Kindle, given the kind of really basic user interface it has, the best thing would be some kind of toggled step zoom. For example, one press of the button would zoom 25%, another press would zoom 50%. The the 4-way switch could be used to navigate the document.

[sishaw]

Originally Posted by mkrishnan

If a cable is handy, drag and drop is probably a good way to go.

If you use a program like Papers on the Mac side, it might also be helpful (if you're talking about journal articles, here...).

Well, it's all a matter of personal preference. I have the cable, but I find emailing easier. Some people might like using the cable.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by sishaw

Well, it's all a matter of personal preference. I have the cable, but I find emailing easier. Some people might like using the cable.

I can understand that... I have a cable for my iPhone, but when I want pictures on the web, I usually e-mail them to my Photobucket account.

Now, if you e-mail a document that's already in PDF format to the Amazon address, you do have to pay ($0.15 per megabyte; I don't know what the UK rate is -- this suggests it's $0.99USD in all other markets, but I'm not sure if that's meant to indicate countries where the Kindle is not officially supported, or...), right?

[mac.by.jake]

I just messed around with my kindle 2 and a recent set of pdf docs. I find that the support is pretty good. There are zoom options and options to move the orientation of the screen. The best feature I've seen is moving the text to actual size and reading with the 5 way button. The page scrolling is pretty intuitive and the size of the text is great.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by mac.by.jake

I just messed around with my kindle 2 and a recent set of pdf docs. I find that the support is pretty good. There are zoom options and options to move the orientation of the screen. The best feature I've seen is moving the text to actual size and reading with the 5 way button. The page scrolling is pretty intuitive and the size of the text is great.

To be clear, some (or all, rather) of those features got added in the newest 2.5 update that came out in June; the previous posts in this thread all refer to the previous firmware, which did not have any pan/zoom features. Sounds like the 2.5 options are a great improvement.

[Stewart21]

Originally Posted by speakerwizard

Hi guys, I bought a relative a kindle and now have the job of loading it up etc, I have 2 questions really as i have not worked with pdf's much.
1) what is a good application or method of changing pdf meta-data etc, and
2) Is there a good PDF (and maybe other e-book formats) management software or even sync software for mac? thanks

Download Calibre and use that to convert the PDF's to a more friendly format. Also allows you to move books to and from the Kindle or most other e-readers and tablets including the iPad.