Sunday, October 29, 2017

XODO PDF Reader & Annotator

Reading and writing PDF documents at a Chromebook ... no longer a challenge with XODO, more of a joy :-) 



Whats the issue?


Reading and taking notes at my lecture notes is an essential task for me while I study. Of course, one option would be to print all the lecture notes and make notes on the regular paper. But that doesn't satisfy me as a tech geek. Especially carrying around this thickly printed scripts ... nope, not for me!


Possible Solutions?


There are a few great PDF reading and editing web apps like Kami or XODO, just to name two. Actually, I used both of them and enjoyed both. But XODO got the upper hand to me because of a few nice features.

What is special?


Well, XODO offers a web app PDF reader/editor that allows to load and save directly to Google Drive (where I usually put my documents to). But for me, the big advantage of XODO over others is that they got an Android app.
Right, an Android app ... how does a smartphone app benefit my work for study?
It is the combination of the Android app with my Chromebook, where I can run Android apps. And even further, with the pen, I can use at the Chromebook.

The latest MagPi at the XODO Android app with some notes.

The Android app allows to read and edit documents as well and set the pen for primary input. This way I am able to use the finger to flip pages and the pen to make notes. The documents can be loaded and saved directly to Google Drive as well and when I want to continue working with my documents at another PC or my home setup with a bigger screen, I can just open them in the web app and continue where I left off. Seeing all the notes, drawings or marks I have made within the app as well as edit them.

The latest MagPi at the XODO web app with the same notes.

In portrait mode, it's even fun to read a magazine like MagPi as it is about in original size, but still be able to make notes, mark text and so on.
Oh, and there is something more ... Xodo is free!

Conclusion


Working with PDF documents made easy, that's XODO to me. Especially as it is free for private use, I can't recommend it enough. To be honest, I even prefer it over the official Adobe Acrobat Reader app. There are also tons of features I did not try yet so lots of stuff to explore left over for me.