Goodreader - question

[Brausuk]

hey, i'm using goodreader for 2 days now and since today, whenever i use the typewriter to add an annotation, there's a frame surrounding my the text. callout is not activated and i have no idea how to remove the frame. i attached a screenshot to illustrate the problem.

can anybody help me?

 

[twerppoet]

When you tap the annotation text, you should get a menu. The furthest left option is Boarder. Tap that and turn it off.

 

[Brausuk]

thanks a lot! just noticed that it was quite a stupid question..

by the way, do you know any app that can convert powerpoint presentations and doc files to pdf documents and synch them with dropbox afterwards? neither safari nor goodreader can read the files properly and some of my lectures upload their slides only as power point files. all i could find for free didnt work unless i buy their 'premium version' and before paying money for such a simple task, i'd like to know for sure that it works..


cheers!

 

[twerppoet]

PDF Converter by Readdle can. If you have iOS 8, it can show up as an action extension in Safari. Once it's in PDF Converter, you can easily transfer it to DropBox. I like to use it in conjunction with PDF Expert, by the same developer. For most things, I prefer it for PDF annotation over GoodReader for most thing.

Goodreader, for me, is mostly about the extra tools, like zipping files, renaming files, etc. It's kind of like a swish army knife. You don't get it for the knife.

Alternately, you can use Keynote, Apple's presentation app. It should be free. Keynote will import Power Point files, and it can export them as PDF files. The export to DropBox is easy enough. The conversion may not be 100% accurate, depending on the Power Point.

Another alternative is iAnnotate PDF. I have not used the app myself, but it has a good reputation, and they've recently added the ability to annotate directly on Power Points, bypassing your need to do the conversion.

Since you've mentioned lectures, I'll also plug Notability. You can import PDF files then mark them up while simultaneously recording audio. It's more or less designed for college lecture notes.

All the mentioned apps have DropBox support, either directly, or at least by using the Open In option. Newer apps can use the DropBox iOS 8 extenion instead, which is far more flexible.

And, the question wasn't really stupid. I won't go so far as to say there is no such thing as a stupid questions, but as long as a person asks with the honest intention of learning something, it's never stupid.

 

[Brausuk]

Thanks again for your help!
I downloaded PDF Converter and I'll try out Notability as soon as I'm familiar with goodreader.

However, my problem, converting power point to PDF, is not solved.
As Safari already displays the presentation in a false way, the app cannot show and therefore convert
the file properly.

Could there be anything I got wrong about using PFD Converter?
It's quite annoying to spend money for the app and it doesnt work..
I attached three screenshots to my post to show what's going wrong.

Sorry for having so much questions but it would be great if anybody could help me in order
to get used to the iPad.

Cheers

 

[twerppoet]

Ok. There are 'probably' two issues here. One is that the method I outlined makes a PDF of the website, not the actually ppt file. The other is that your Power Point may have features, fonts, and backgrounds not supported by the built in Power Point viewer Safari uses to display the contents of the file.

The first issue can by bypassed by using PDF Converter app from a slightly different angle. Instead of using the widget I described earlier, we can fall back on the old Open In feature. With the Power Point displayed in Safari, tap in the center of the screen. You should get a couple of Open In options at the top right, just below the tool bar. One will be Open In (some default app), the other just says Open In...

It may take one or two tries (tapping) to get the Open In options to appear. They can be tricky.

Use the Open In option and you'll get a list of compatible apps, including PDF Converter. This copies the actual file to PDF Converter, instead of the website view. Each slide will get it's own page, instead of the continuous view Safari shows, broken in page view lengths.

If I'd been paying more attention when I tested the method I suggested first, I'd have caught this.

The second problem, whether PDF Converter supports all the features of the Power Point you are converting is more troublesome. The above method may or may not correct this. If it does not, I only have two suggestions.

One; get Keynote, and use the same Open In feature to copy the Power Point to Keynote. The Power Point import features Apple has in Keynote are pretty good, and may be superior to PDF Converter's. Once you have the file in Keynote you can export it as a PDF. You can even export it directly to DropBox, provided you have the DropBox app installed.

This also gives you the opportunity to tweak the slides before creating the PDF: delete a few unnecessary ones, or perhaps add some blank ones for notes or supplementary content.

The second is to get the free Microsoft Power Point app for iOS. There should now be a free Office 365 registration option that will unlock most of it's features, including PDF export. I've heard that it's not a very good PDF export, but if neither PDF Converter nor Keynote turn the trick, it might.

That's all hearsay. I've got the Office apps on my iPad, but I only use them in the free mode, to view the occasional document that does not render correctly elsewhere. I've no need to create Office document, and if I did I'd probably just export them from the iWorks apps.

 

[twerppoet]

Here is what the Open In options look like when you get them to appear.