Copyright © 2001 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
This document provides information for the Adobe® Acrobat® eBook ReaderTM.
Product Description
Supported Platforms
Installation and Certification
New Features and Defects Fixed
Known Defects and Limitations
Customer Support
Trademarks and Legal Notices
The Acrobat eBook Reader is a software program for reading high-fidelity electronic books on your laptop or desktop PC. The Acrobat eBook Reader offers a complete eBook experience:
The Acrobat eBook Reader is available for Pentium-class computers running Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows NT 4.0.
The Acrobat eBook Reader requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later to be installed on your computer. Internet Explorer does not have to be your preferred Web browser. Internet Explorer is available from the Microsoft Web site.
Download the Acrobat eBook Reader installation program. When you download the installation program, you can either run it from its current location or save it on your computer. If you save the installation file on your computer, make a note of the name and location of the saved installation file. Begin installation by locating and opening the file. Follow the instructions in the installation program.
You must be a member of the local Administrators group to install the Acrobat eBook Reader on a computer running Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0. If you do not have administrative privileges, you can download the installation file to a directory on your computer. Someone who has administrative privileges can then log on to your computer and install the Acrobat eBook Reader by opening that file. After the Acrobat eBook Reader is installed, you do not need administrative privileges on Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 to use it. On Windows 2000, however, you need power user privileges, and on Windows XP you must be an administrator or standard user (not a limited user or a guest) to use the Acrobat eBook Reader.
If you are installing the Acrobat eBook Reader for the first time, you must restart your computer to complete installation. Do not run the Acrobat eBook Reader until after you have restarted your computer.
When you first run the Acrobat eBook Reader, it opens to the Library. You will see an image of the cover of Getting Started with the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader. Double-click the cover image to read the book, which tells you how to use the Acrobat eBook Reader.
In some previous versions, the Acrobat eBook Reader was called the Glassbook® ReaderTM. An additional product, the Glassbook® Plus ReaderTM, included the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. If you already have the Glassbook Reader, the Glassbook Plus Reader, or a previous version of the Acrobat eBook Reader installed, you can install this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader and preserve your existing eBooks and documents. If you have the Glassbook Plus Reader installed, the Acrobat eBook Reader will use the American Heritage dictionary instead of the dictionary that accompanies the Acrobat eBook Reader.
If you have acquired eBooks and want to preserve them, you must use an upgrade procedure to install this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader. Follow these instructions:
After you perform an upgrade installation, your computer may have two desktop icons, one for the Glassbook Reader and one for the Acrobat eBook Reader. Your computer may also have two corresponding sets of commands on the Windows Programs menu. Both sets of icons and commands correctly start the Acrobat eBook Reader. You may safely remove the Glassbook Reader icons and commands.
After you perform an upgrade installation, you may have problems in the following circumstances:
Contact Acrobat eBook Reader Customer Support for assistance if you have any of these problems.
When you first run the Acrobat eBook Reader after upgrading from the Glassbook Reader, the Glassbook Plus Reader, or a previous version of the Acrobat eBook Reader, a brief procedure upgrades the format of your Library.
The directory in which you installed the Acrobat eBook Reader has a subdirectory named Data. The Data directory contains eBooks you acquire and information required for reading them. If you have acquired eBooks using the Glassbook Reader, the Glassbook Plus Reader, or a previous version of the Acrobat eBook Reader, you should back up the Data directory soon after installing this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader. You should then back up the Data directory regularly.
Before you can download any eBooks, you must certify your Acrobat eBook Reader. You are prompted to certify when you first click the Bookstore button. Certification attests that your copy of the Acrobat eBook Reader is genuine and trustworthy. When you certify, the Acrobat eBook Reader uses an Internet connection to contact a certification authority on the Web. This process takes only a few moments and does not transmit any personal information about you.
You must certify this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader after performing either an original installation or an upgrade installation.
If you purchase eBooks before certifying, the Acrobat eBook Reader does not download the books you purchase. To acquire your eBooks, click the Bookstore button. In the Acrobat eBook Reader Certification dialog box, click Certify Now. After obtaining a certificate, the Acrobat eBook Reader downloads any eBooks you have already purchased.
If you purchased an eBook before installing the Acrobat eBook Reader, you were unable to download the book. However, you should have downloaded a small file containing information that allows the Acrobat eBook Reader to download the book after installation. You should have saved this file with a file-type extension of .etd. After installing the Acrobat eBook Reader, locate and open this file. The Acrobat eBook Reader then downloads your book.
The Fit Width button can make books with large pages easier to read. When you click the Fit Width button, the Acrobat eBook Reader expands to fill the desktop and enlarges the page until it just fits horizontally inside the display area. If necessary, a vertical scroll bar appears. Click the Single-Page View button to restore the Acrobat eBook Reader to its previous size.
Single-Page View, Two-Page View, and Fit Width are mutually exclusive page-viewing options.
Publishers of eBooks can use Adobe® Acrobat® to set options in an eBook PDF file that cause the Acrobat eBook Reader to open the eBook in either Fit Width or Two-Page View. To set these options in Acrobat:
If an eBook PDF file contains both Fit Width and Continuous-Facing open options, the Acrobat eBook Reader opens the eBook in Fit Width view.
If an eBook page becomes too long to fit in the display area as a result of zooming in or entering Fit Width view, a vertical scroll bar appears. If the page becomes too wide to fit, you can click the Hand Tool button and then drag the page left or right as well as up or down. Click the Hand Tool button again to stop repositioning the page.
Maximizing the Acrobat eBook Reader no longer obscures the Windows task bar.
The following programs are not compatible with the Acrobat eBook Reader:
Adobe recommends that you remove these programs before you install the Acrobat eBook Reader.
The Acrobat eBook Reader's security implementation does not allow you to execute program debuggers on your computer while the Acrobat eBook Reader is running.
If the color palette of your display uses 256 or fewer colors, the colors that appear in the Acrobat eBook Reader may be incorrect, backgrounds may look grainy, and the text of buttons and labels may be difficult to read. To solve this problem, set your computer display to use more than 256 colors.
To prevent unauthorized reading or copying of eBooks, the Acrobat eBook Reader does not allow you to read the same eBooks from more than one computer or to copy eBook and data files from one computer to another. If you want to move eBooks from one computer to another, you can use the Acrobat eBook Reader to give or lend eBooks to a device that also has version 2.1 or later of the Acrobat eBook Reader installed.
If you change your hardware configuration, such as replacing your computer processor or hard disk, the Acrobat eBook Reader may not allow you to read eBooks that you have already downloaded. Contact Acrobat eBook Reader Customer Support for assistance.
If you use the Acrobat eBook Reader behind an Internet firewall, you may have problems if proxy settings in Internet Explorer are incorrect. Regardless of whether you use Internet Explorer as your preferred Web browser, the Acrobat eBook Reader uses proxy settings in Internet Explorer. If you see error messages about your proxy server when you certify the Acrobat eBook Reader or download eBooks, verify that the proxy settings in Internet Explorer are correct. Consult your network administrator if you are unsure about the correct proxy settings.
The Acrobat eBook Reader uses PACE InterLok products as part of its security implementation. PACE periodically updates the drivers for the InterLok products. If your Acrobat eBook Reader has an outdated driver, you may have problems with your computer. For example, it may crash or may have difficulty restarting or coming out of hibernation or standby.
You can download updated PACE InterLok drivers from the PACE Web site. If your computer has problems that may be caused by an outdated driver, download and install the latest driver from the PACE Web site.
An outdated PACE InterLok driver in this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader may cause problems with restarting your computer if it runs Windows 2000 or Windows NT and the system drive (usually C:) is on an NTFS partition. To solve this problem, download and install the latest driver from the PACE Web site.
If you have the Acrobat eBook Reader installed and you upgrade your computer's operating system to Windows XP, you must install the latest version of the Acrobat eBook Reader after you install Windows XP. Follow the procedure for an upgrade installation. After reinstalling the Acrobat eBook Reader, you must recertify it.
The directory in which you installed the Acrobat eBook Reader has a subdirectory named Data. The Data directory contains eBooks you acquire and information required for reading them. You should back up the Data directory regularly. If your eBooks or the associated information is lost or damaged, you can restore the backed-up Data directory.
After you restore a backed-up Acrobat eBook Reader Data directory on Windows Me or Windows 98, restart your computer.
After you restore a Data directory that you created using the Glassbook Reader, the Glassbook Plus Reader, or a previous version of the Acrobat eBook Reader, you must reinstall this version of the Acrobat eBook Reader. Follow the procedure for an upgrade installation. After reinstalling the Acrobat eBook Reader, you must recertify it.
If you restore a Data directory that you created using the Glassbook Plus Reader, you will no longer be able to use the American Heritage dictionary that accompanied the Glassbook Plus Reader. You must use the dictionary that accompanies the Acrobat eBook Reader (for some languages).
If you restore a Data directory that you created using a different computer or a different processor, disk, or operating system on the same computer, an Update Reader dialog box appears when you next use the Acrobat eBook Reader. Follow the procedure in the Update Reader dialog box to contact Acrobat eBook Reader Customer Support for further instructions.
On Windows Me or Windows 98, you must restart your computer after you perform either an original installation or an upgrade installation of the Acrobat eBook Reader and after you restore a backed-up Acrobat eBook Reader Data directory. If you do not restart your computer, the computer may later crash when you are using the Acrobat eBook Reader. You may be able to recover by restarting your computer and then reinstalling the Acrobat eBook Reader. Use the procedure for an upgrade installation, and be sure to restart your computer after you have reinstalled the Acrobat eBook Reader.
If the publisher allows, and if you have the necessary hardware and software support, you can hear the spoken text of an eBook by clicking the Read Aloud button. This feature is supported only on computers running Windows 2000.
Read Aloud is supported only for text in Roman alphabets.
When you install the Acrobat eBook Reader for the first time, the installation program offers to restart your computer. If you accept the restart option on a computer with an AMD Athlon processor, the computer may fail to restart, and you may have to use the computer's restart switch to restart.
To purchase and download eBooks using Web Buy, you must have Adobe® Acrobat® ReaderTM with Web Buy installed on your computer.
If you try to use the Acrobat eBook Reader to display an eBook you purchased using Acrobat Reader with Web Buy, the eBook may fail to open because it has an invalid license. To recover, open the eBook in Acrobat Reader. If it has an invalid license, Acrobat Reader prompts you to obtain a new one. With a valid license, you can then use the Acrobat eBook Reader to display the eBook.
Some eBooks you purchased using Acrobat Reader with Web Buy may have problems when displayed in the Acrobat eBook Reader. When you click the Rotate button, the eBook may not rotate. This limitation applies to any PDF file that does not allow editing.
You may encounter problems with giving or lending books over an infrared (IR) connection. If the IR connection fails during a Give or Lend operation, the results are unpredictable. To minimize the chance that the connection will fail, be sure you establish the IR connection before you try the Give or Lend operation. We recommend that you send a test file over the IR connection to be sure it is working. If a Give or Lend operation over an IR connection fails for any reason, take the following steps to recover:
You cannot give or lend a book that has an expiration time.
If the receiving Acrobat eBook Reader has not been certified, giving or lending a book may fail with a network error.
If you give or lend an unencrypted PDF document, the document remains usable in the sending Acrobat eBook Reader. You can give or lend an unencrypted PDF document repeatedly.
When you click the Rotate button and then print part of a book, you can print only the current page. You cannot edit the start and end pages in the Print dialog box.
You may not be able to print a PDF document that contains rotated pages.
The Acrobat eBook Reader can open PDF documents that contain Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (128-bit) security settings. One such setting specifies that only low-resolution printing is permitted for the document. When the Acrobat eBook Reader opens a document that contains this setting, it does not allow any printing.
You cannot print eBook pages on some printers that do not use the PostScript® page description language. Printing may appear to succeed, but no pages appear in the printer's document queue. This problem occurs with some HP LaserJet, Epson Stylus inkjet, and Epson impact printers, and possibly with other printers.
When you click the Rotate button and an eBook page is too long to fit inside the display area, no vertical scroll bar appears. To move the page up and down, click the Hand Tool button and then drag the page.
Book titles containing special characters such as trademark symbols may not be displayed correctly in some dialog boxes, such as Download, Delete, and Book Information.
If the text of a bookmark contains special characters, these characters may not be displayed correctly in the Bookmarks dialog box.
If you use the Find command on the menu to search for a word or phrase in single-page view, the word or phrase you find may be highlighted only on alternate pages.
In the Acrobat eBook Reader Library, the Page Down shortcut for the Next Page command does not work until you click the Library background.
In the Acrobat eBook Reader Bookstore, the Esc shortcut for the Stop command does not work.
On small displays, such as laptop computers, the Acrobat eBook Reader window may be too small horizontally to display all the text in some dialog boxes. Resize the window, expanding it horizontally, to make more text visible.
Maximizing the Acrobat eBook Reader window while a dialog box is open may adversely affect text display.
If you have questions about or problems with the Acrobat eBook Reader, please visit the Acrobat eBook Reader Customer Support Web site.
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Acrobat eBook Reader, Acrobat Reader, Adobe CoolType, Glassbook, Glassbook Reader, Glassbook Plus Reader, and PostScript are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
See the file Legal.txt for additional legal information.