Subscribe to our newsletter!
We'll email you when we add new wallpapers to the site. 
|
TomeRaider 3.1.10 for Palm OS and TomeRaider for Pocket PC version 3.2.03
TomeRaider is an eBook/Reference Viewer for Windows, Pocket PC, Palm
& EPOC devices. The software is a unique blend of database &
document reader, made by Proporta & known for its impressive
compression & speedy context searches. There are tens of thousands
of pre-formatted documents available for TomeRaider - a repository
for databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, &
more, all pre-formatted for TomeRaider or other PDA formats.
Proporta has just released TomeRaider 2.8 for Palm OS, Pocket PC,
Symbian or Psion EPOC. The new version compresses any Memoware file
to a fraction of its original size. The new Proporta Aroma Search
Algorithm is supposedly 4,000 times faster than previous versions.
New features include support for bold, italic, underline, list
formatting & hyperlinks. Background page caching, smoother auto
scroll & a revised GUI.
|
|
The Binocular icons pull up a detailed Search function screen.
Quickfind function (obscured above by the 'drop-up' menu for choice
of fonts) presents a small field in which you can enter a word to
search for in the right-hand, record/chapter name column. This is
especially handy in longer material, such as novels or reference
texts.
Other options:
-EDIT: open record/chapter you select
-RECORD: jump to next record
-BOOKMARKS
-VIEW: font size, cleartype options
-TOOLS: 'about' info & registration
Opening documents takes a few seconds with TomeRaider, typically because TomeRaider documents are by their nature much larger than a typical eBook (often including several books in one .TR ducument), but once inside, searches are near instantaneous & I experienced no hangups in regular reading or scrolling through a record/chapter quickly. A scrollbar (visible in the badly cropped screen capture above, witha pologies ;-) lets you zoom quickly through the biggest of documents. There is, however, no auto-scroll function (a must for me, when reading eBooks).
Here we see the Search screen. Choose whole or partial words,
whether to search subject/record/chapter title only, or entire
documents, 'find next' through document if there are multiple
entries & the search term will be highlighted in red for contrast to
the black text on white background (unfortunately, those are the
only color schemes available in TomeRaider.
Format your own Documents:
Using the pre-processor availaible TomeRaidIt, I was able to quickly
& easily grab a selection of public domain HG Wells novels from
Project Gutenberg & combine them into one .TR omnibus. The
TomeRaidit desktop program was quick & problem-free, & I managed to
turn eight .txt file novels into an HG Wells collection in mere
minutes. Check the screen capture below if you're curious about how
well TomeRaider compresses .txt files.
Notes:
-Twice while using TomeRaider with various files my beloved hp
Jornada froze, & I had to perform a soft reset. In order to provide
a proper review, I hard-reset my device, reloaded all my bits &
continued the review. It did freeze once more, but that was over the
course of dozens of reading sessions I enjoyed with Mr. Wells.
-I enjoy reading in landscape mode, & own a copy of Nyditot. While
TomeRaider doesn't include a landscape option, I can report it works
perfectly well with Nyditot.
Pros:
-1000's of free Docs available
-Hi compression ratio
-Format your own material
-Speedy search function
-Multi-platform support!
Cons:
-No autoscroll
-No landscape mode
-No way to change background/font colors
Conclusion:
I'm a big fan of TomeRaider. It can whip through very large
documents easily (making it IDEAL for larger works & reference
material) & it has excellent search functionality & compression
ratio. Perhaps most importantly, the documents I choose to keep will
not be held hostage over time to any one handheld platform, &
there's no shortage of new books/reference texts for voracious
readers like me to choose from.
There are places to improve: I'd like to see a way to change
background or font colors, as there are in other eBook readers. I'd
also like to see the longish wait that occurs each time I open
TomeRaider disappear (even if progress is zippy after that). An
autoscroll would also serve the program in good stead. But despite
these few gripes, I am still very impressed with Proporta's
TomeRaider!
A big problem with eBooks is that when a timid but curious casual
reader decides to dip his feet in, he can have a hard time finding
enough free content to get him hookedenought to pay for his next
fix. That's a shame that keeps the big Publishers from coming on
board in droves & it's been rectified by TomeRaider.
Sure the program costs a bit more than...well, any other eBook
reader out there, but it comes with a free trial to prove why it's
worth it for the reader that uses volumes of eBooks, or references
big enough to choke other readers. And, did I mention it works on
almost every handheld, as well as your windows desktop? That's worth
the extra cost alone!
 |
 |
More Stories Like This...
PocketPC: Essential Softwares
Palm: Essential Softwares
