An Innovative approach to reading Ebooks using Zoomtext

If you people have been busy collecting Self Improvement material for a reasonable amount of time, then it is quite possible that most of you have a large no. of ebooks (like me).

The problem with ebooks is that most of us find it rather inconvenient to read those on our PC/notebook screens and thus we dont read them (and just keep on collecting!). Recently some companies have come up with ebook readers (like Kindle) but those have their own problems ( price, not supporting usual formats, not for all ebooks).

So for quite some time, I have been proactively looking for some utility which could help make reading ebooks on my notebook less of a pain in the ass. I couldnt find much and those that I managed to find were limited by format support problems (eg. ybook http://www.spacejock.com/yBook.html)

Very recently, I managed to find a software - ZoomText which essentially is a magnifier/reader for visually challenged people. I downloaded it and it looked good but simple zooming didnt provide much help at all ( we could have directly zoomed our pdf itself. right )

But as I explored the software even more I found one of its features - line (zoom). What line zoom essentially does is it zooms only a (vertically limited) region of about three lines in a (normal) pdf. Using this feature I read a 150 page ebook (The way of the Superior Man by David Deida - recommended) and I found the experience much more pleasant than normal ebook reading. (I tried taking a picture but simple printscreen doesnt show the magnified features. So I have tried to replicate the way it looks using paint. See the image. It looks almost like this using Zoomtext at 1.25X (which I used).



Positive Points vis a vis normal ebook reading :
1) I did not get lost in the 'sea of words' that a normal pdf page is. I only had to concentrate on three lines at a time.
2) No eye strain (obvious)
3) Better comprehension (atleast I felt so)
4) Faster reading
5) You can also use this feature for reading anything (including online articles) since it is completely independent of format.

I was initially apprehensive about its usefulness, therefore, I used it on my own first and now after having used it once I can really recommend it to you folks. I uploaded the software today itself. Here is the link:
http://www.selfmadevip.com/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=4776

I have not yet explored all its features as yet. If you guys find something interesting or some other insights please then let me know.

Just try reading a small ebook using this. I think you will be impressed.
Note: The first time I started Zoomtext after installing, my notebook restarted automatically. I dont know what that means. But since then it has been behaving as usual (normal). To be on the safe side please scan using your antivirus softwares first and then install.

shantnu

To use the line (zoom) feature:
start zoom text -- > 'Type' ---> 'line'

Thanks for the tip, shanty!

some of the e books I have would hsve cost me a small fortune if I had bought them in a shop. If its a book I really want to read I will print it out. Even if its 500pgs. The price of a folder and A 2 for the paper, some of the ebooks would cost A 90 in the shops.
It is just to easy to collect them on your hard drive never to be read

Hi guys, just my humble insight. ( my first post yea )

I've had the same problem like sky for some time. The greatest way for me to read an ebook i on my cell. I have Nokia 9300, which has a very wide screen ( google for pics ), and it supports pdf. Some newer books can't be read that easily, because the pdf software is having problems with them, but most can be read by opening them in acrobat and saving as pdf 4.0. Cell phone can be found on ebay pretty cheaply.

Great thing about it is that you can use it on the go, while waiting for food in restaurant, while waiting for a bus/train, literally everywhere.

btw Nokia E90 is even newer cell phone, and even though I don't have it yet, I think it should be even better choice because it's newer and faster. It should be available on ebay at $150 or less.

I already read many ebooks using this method: Dale Carnegie - How to win..., few books from bandler, Strauss - The Game ( 3 times ), Green - Art of Seduction, Everything from DeAngelo and lot more...

Few books won't work, mainly those with big graphics inside, because my 9300 is too slow, but E90 should not have those problems. Try googling those models for pics...

Hope this helps anyone... ( I apologize for my english, I'm not native speaker )

the new amazon kindle reads pdfs so maybe its worth getting one to read ebooks when you are on the train