I’m not a big fan of ebooks. To be honest, they’re just glorified PDFs and look terrible onscreen. So, I tend to avoid them. However, I came across this jewel in Adobe’s lab site and it’s terrific.

What does it do?

Adobe Digital Editions is a rather slick ebook reader that lets you read and manage eBooks, both online and offline, with support for PDF and XHTML-based content.

You can use it to download and purchase digital content, which can be read both online and offline. Transfer copy-protected eBooks from your PC to other computers. Organize eBooks into a custom library and annotate pages. It also supports eBook formats, including PDF/A and EPUB.

FAQs

• Digital Editions is built from the ground up as a lightweight, rich Internet application (RIA).
• Download is only 2.5 MB including Adobe Flash Player 9 and takes less than two minutes to install over a broadband connection.
• With an RIA service model, you always have the latest version of Digital Editions, giving you the advantage of new features and security enhancements.

What is Adobe Digital Editions?

Digital Editions is Adobe’s new rich Internet application (RIA) specifically designed for digital publishing. It lets you easily acquire, manage, and consume eBooks and other kinds of digital publications.

How does Adobe Digital Editions differ from Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Reader supports a variety of workflows beyond consuming eBooks and other commercially-published content, such as interactive forms, digital signatures, and other workflows that involve integration with other office applications. This means that Reader’s functionality is not optimized for consumer-level eBook reading. Likewise, Adobe Acrobat offers advanced document generation and collaboration functionality.

Digital Editions extends the eBook capabilities (integrated in Reader and Acrobat) via a simplified, content-centric user interface. Digital Editions is distributed as a web-based RIA, ensuring that users will always have the current up-to-date version of the software.

Does Digital Editions replace Adobe FlashPaper?

For some, it might. Digital Editions delivers a lightweight Flash-based user experience for document viewing, and adds native PDF and XML document viewing capabilities, so that translation of content to SWF format is not required.

However, initially Digital Editions will not operate inside the browser, and requires a Player Add-in installation. Customers who require in-browser operation with the standard Flash Player may wish to continue to utilize FlashPaper, which remains a component of the Adobe Contribute product.

Interface designed for digital reading

I have to admit that I really love the ui. It’s clean, well-organized, and is an improvement over Adobe Acrobat. (Try it and you’ll see.)

• It’s expressly designed for reading digital publications.
• Use the Reading View to view bookmarks, annotations, and a table of contents.
• Display PDF files in a double-page, single page, or fit-to-width view — or specify your own custom fit.
• Increase and decrease text size with EPUB content.
• Fast, free download and installation

Stand-alone installer

You can distribute Digital Editions internally on an intranet site or a local network.

Content portability

Manage digital publications across multiple computers and devices using your Adobe ID and a simple authorization process. Digital Editions also provides support for content portability on mobile devices, so you can take your eBooks with you wherever you go.

Markup features

Add bookmarks to PDF or EPUB documents so that you can quickly navigate around a document. Highlight text and add comments for future reference within your digital publications.

Support for PDF and EPUB

Native support for PDF/A and EPUB formats. PDF/A is the ISO-approved standard for the long-term preservation of electronic documents. EPUB is an XHTML-based file format designed to reflow text according to screen and font size, which makes it optimal for reading content on mobile devices.

Borrowing eBooks

You can borrow eBooks from many public libraries for use with Digital Editions.

File organization

Organize digital publications and manage devices in the Library View. Sort by title, author, and publisher, and view the covers of your favorite eBooks. Create custom bookshelves to further organize and manage your content.

Multiple platform support

Digital Editions runs on many platforms for reading digital publications on laptop and desktop computers. In addition, it allows support for the Sony® Reader.

Multimedia support

Supports embedded SWF files so you can include multimedia experiences in digital publications.

Easy eBook creation

With Adobe InDesign® CS3 software, you can create content and output it to both the PDF/A and EPUB formats supported by Digital Editions.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

Copy protection

It works in conjunction with Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology (ADEPT), a hosted service that provides publishers with copy protection in both retail and library environments.

Multilingual support

English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional.

Issues

Why do some PDF documents look different in Digital Editions beta than they do in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader?

It uses Adobe PDF technology that has been optimized for small code size and lower system requirements.

This technology is optimized for performance and on-screen readability, rather than graphics-arts or prepress-level fidelity. Some minor differences in graphics and font rendering are therefore to be expected.

In addition, the Digital Editions PDF implementation does not support several enterprise-oriented PDF features. These features are not typically used in PDF-based eBooks and, if present, are ignored, but could cause certain documents to render incorrectly.

Which PDF 1.7 features are not supported by Digital Editions?

PDF interactive forms, JavaScript, digital signatures, 3D, and annotations are not supported by Digital Editions.

Links:

Adobe Labs – http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/

You can read more detailed and technical FAQs over here and then

FAQs – http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/faq.html

Download a nice collection of free ebooks from the site here.

Free ebooks – http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/library/

Let me know what you think. What’s not to like?

Yesterday we looked at a new Microsoft Office to iPhone app which lets iPhone & iPod touch customers edit Microsoft Word files, synchronize their files and send & receive attachments. So, since we’re here I thought it best to give a list of what else it can do.

For mobile or home users who want to use Word documents on iPhone or iPod touch, it offers quiet a range of features: Here goes.

• Advanced viewing and editing features
• Touch navigation
• Cut/copy/paste
• Text selection
• Predictive text entry
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Bold, italics, underline
• Embedded pictures
• Tables
• Word count
• Password-protected files
• Edit in landscape view

Most of this is made possible thanks to InTact Technology, which ensures that all original file formatting is retained once a file has been edited and forwarded on.

Documents To Go also uses Apple’s built-in viewing technology for dealing with other important files such as Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and Apple iWork.

This feature keeps files in one central location and makes managing and using them simple and straightforward.

Want to know more?

Documents To Go is available at $4.99 from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/

I don’t have an iPhone but if I did this new Microsoft Office to iPhone app might be worth investing in. It lets iPhone & iPod touch customers edit Microsoft Word files, synchronize important desktop files and send & receive Exchange attachments. DataViz, who develop Microsoft Office compatibility solutions, released its mobile Office suite application, Documents To Go, on the Apple App Store.

Documents To Go includes a desktop application that provides Windows and Macintosh customers with the ability to transfer files to their device using a Wi-Fi connection.

Customers can “set it and forget it” by adding entire folders or select single files within a folder. More importantly, during synchronization, Documents To Go checks to make sure all documents on the iPhone are current. If any changes are made on either the desktop or iPhone, Documents To Go will automatically make sure the latest copy is on both the desktop and iPhone or iPod touch.

Receive, Edit & Send Microsoft Exchange Attachments

Documents To Go with Exchange Attachments includes a built-in email client which allows customers to download, view, edit and send Word attachments while on the go.

This integrated portion of the product uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology, which DataViz has licensed from Microsoft, to provide secure, wireless synchronization with Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 e-mail.

Customers can make changes to their Word documents and immediately reply back with the updated files.

In addition, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other attachment types can be viewed as well as attached to new e-mails sent from within Documents To Go.

Pricing & Availability

Documents To Go and Documents To Go with Exchange Attachments are available at $4.99 and $9. from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/

It’s hard to keep up with all the new product releases from Adobe. This one is worth a look if you develop ebooks or want to read them offline.

Adobe Digital Editions lets you read and manage eBooks and other digital publications with some very slick management features.

The user interface is fantastic. Adobe has built Digital Editions from the ground up as a lightweight, rich Internet application (RIA). Digital Editions works online and offline, and supports both PDF and XHTML-based content.

The download is only 2.5 MB including Adobe Flash Player 9.

With an RIA service model, users always have the latest version of Digital Editions, taking advantage of new features and security enhancements. http://labs.adobe.com

What is Adobe Digital Editions?

Adobe Digital Editions is a new rich Internet application (RIA) designed for digital publishing. It allows users to easily acquire, manage, and consume eBooks and other kinds of digital publications.

How does Adobe Digital Editions differ from Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Reader supports a variety of workflows beyond consuming eBooks and other commercially-published content, such as interactive forms, digital signatures, and other workflows that involve integration with other office applications.

This means that Reader’s functionality is not optimized for consumer-level eBook reading. Likewise, Adobe Acrobat offers advanced document generation and collaboration functionality.

It extends eBook capabilities (integrated in Reader and Acrobat) via a simplified, content-centric user interface. Digital Editions is distributed as a web-based RIA, ensuring that users will always have the current up-to-date version of the software.

Does Digital Editions replace Adobe FlashPaper?

Maybe. Digital Editions delivers a lightweight Flash-based user experience for document viewing, and adds native PDF and XML document viewing capabilities, so that translation of content to SWF format is not required.

However, initially Digital Editions will not operate inside the browser, and requires a Player Add-in installation. Customers who require in-browser operation with the standard Flash Player may wish to continue to utilize FlashPaper, which remains a component of the Adobe Contribute product.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/faq.html

Issues

Why do some PDF documents look different in Digital Editions beta than they do in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader?

Digital Editions uses Adobe PDF technology that has been optimized for small code size and lower system requirements.

This technology has shipped in hundreds of millions of mobile phones and other embedded devices. It is optimized for performance and on-screen readability, rather than graphics-arts or prepress-level fidelity.

Some minor differences in graphics and font rendering are therefore to be expected.

In addition, the Digital Editions PDF implementation does not support several enterprise-oriented PDF features. These features are not typically used in PDF-based eBooks and, if present, are gracefully ignored, but could cause certain documents to render incorrectly.

Which PDF 1.7 features are not supported by Digital Editions?

PDF interactive forms, JavaScript, digital signatures, 3D, and annotations are not supported by Digital Editions.

Try it: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/