®,
the new character-display technology from Microsoft. ClearType displays
crisp, easy to read sans serif characters on the small color LCD screens
of the Pocket PCs.
Microsoft Reader is easy to operate. From the Start
menu, go to Programs and tap on the Microsoft Reader icon. The opening
screen appears briefly and is quickly replaced by MS Reader's Library
screen, displaying the book titles you currently have on your Pocket PC
(see Screen 1). Tap on the desired eBook in the Library and the title
page opens on your Pocket PC (see Screen 2). If you have lots of books,
then use the hardware scroll wheel to navigate through your titles a
screen at a time. Each screen shows nine titles.
Screen 1: Microsoft Reader's Library
screen displays the eBooks you currently have stored on your Pocket PC.
Screen 2: Tap on the desired eBook
in the Library and the title page opens, complete with graphics when they
are included.
Getting an eBook on your Pocket PC is
remarkably easy to do. Once you've downloaded the book from a Web site to
your desktop PC, use ActiveSync to copy it over to your Pocket PC's \My
Documents folder (or the \My Documents folder on a CF storage card). Then,
when you open Microsoft Reader, the title will appear in the list of books
on the Library screen. A single tap of the title will open the book up.
Microsoft Reader makes good use of the
Pocket PC's hardware features to make flipping through your eBook an easy
experience. The hardware "scroll wheel" found on the side of all
Pocket PCs makes it possible to hold the Pocket PC and flip through pages
single handedly. I had no problems doing this recently while riding on the
busy London underground.
You can do more than read the eBooks.
Microsoft Reader lets you highlight text and add bookmarks, notes, or even
insert drawings into the eBooks you're reading (see Screen 3). (An
annotations index lists all of the additions you've made to an eBook.) To
highlight text or insert comments tap and hold down your cursor on the
word you want to highlight or the place you want to insert something. A
menu pops up letting you select what you want to add. You can also do
copies and searches from this menu. Some final advice: keep drawings
simple and don't add too many of them they slow down Microsoft Reader.
Screen 3: Microsoft Reader lets you
insert simple drawings into the eBook you are reading. Keep them simple,
they slow down the program.
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