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I downloaded WP-34s manual and reading it. I would like to put it on my book reader, because it is much easier for me to read things on bookreader than on a laptop. Unfortunalely for me, the manual is formatted for A4 and when squeezed on a smallish screen of a reader it is hard to read.
Is it possible to release a manual formatted for A5 instead of A4? For reading on a laptop it will not make much of a difference.
I volunteer to do the reformatting, I just need a source file for the original. sourceforge does not seem to have a source file for doc, just the pdf.
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This is a noble offer by Andrew. Please consider giving him the source file.
thanks.
hpnut in Malaysia
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The decision for A4 was taken very early. A lot of formatting you may not be aware of would change if A5 were chosen (think of font sizes, tables, lists, graphics, formulas, etc.). I sign off recommending the printed edition - works without batteries, preserves the formats (guaranteed!), and is easier to handle than a laptop indeed.
d:-)
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If anybody's interested, I can make it available on Kindle as well. Will need some work though.
d:-)
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Walter, I understand that reformatting the manual is not trivial and requires effort. That is why I volunteered.
As far as printed edition goes, it too may benefit from smaller format. After all, one of calculator's strong point is its portability. Shouldn't the manual be portable too? For example, I have an HP35s manual, which is half letter size, and HP50g manual, that I had to print on a letter paper from PDFs and bind at local Staples. I claim that there is noticeable difference in convenience. HP50g's is quite unwieldy and cumbersome to read and HP-35s's is comfortable.
If you remain unconvinced, I still respect your decision to stay with A4. In this case I would like to do a reformatting just for my own personal use. I promise not to distribute the source or modified version (in case this is your concern).
(I saw you mention Kindle edition in later post. I do not own Kindle, is it going to be in some proprietary formats that only Kindle can read?)
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Andrew,
Quote:
I do not own Kindle
You really don't need the Kindle hardware- just use the Kindle App for the PC/Phone/Tablet/etc.
I just re-read your original post and see you have a reader. just not the Kindle version.
Bill
Edited: 27 May 2013, 4:54 p.m.
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I just wanted to show support for this re-format. I have loaded the .pdf of the manual onto my Kindle, and it doesn't read very well. It's largely a function of the crappy way that Kindle handles pdfs, but the larger relative font size would make the manual much more useable on similar devices.
BTW, I think the manual is terrifically written and very thorough, so please don't take this as criticism. I just wanted to make you aware that the OP isn't the only user who has encountered this issue.
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Thanks for your kind words.
I'm writing the 43S manual (very early version) - following this discussion here, it will be on A5 pages. It's based on the WP 34S manual, of course, and I can tell you the reformatting is a real lot of tedious work. Many objects cannot be simply reduced in size but have to be split in parts, partially deleted, etc. When I'll have prepared that I may return to the WP 34S - certainly not earlier though.
d:-I
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BTW, have you considered writing the manuals in LaTeX? This could solve some reformatting issues and generally produces great output (especially math formulas). Also tables can be made in flowable versions.
LaTeX is a bit cryptic, but for my thesis work I used LyX, which provides a GUI to LaTeX.
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What are you using to create the manual?
A good tool should be able to encode the rules for the changes in formatting and handle it for you.
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From the looks of it, I would bet it is Microsoft Word.
So, nobody is going to handle anything for anybody.
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Andrew, you won.
d:-)
@Pete: Yeah, exactly that's how I explained the irrealis to my kids.
d;-)
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Word is pretty powerful - are you sure it can't handle the formatting changes you desire automatically?
(I will not expect macros to be required :D )
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Unless I have missed some really good tricks in last 15 years: No, it does not in real life.
d:-/
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I always thought stylesheets were made exactly for this. Whereever possible you should avoid hard formatting and use styles instead. Simple concept since the days of Word for DOS. Which was even more flexible in this regard as it also supported character styles.
Dieter
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Hi,
I also have a question regarding the manual: What font are you using for the keystroke sequences in the "Keys to press" - column of the IOP?
When I copy them, they behave like characters, but don't make much sense if inserted elsewhere.
Adobe Acrobat does not give an identifiable font information, although I see some curious embedded font names there.
Thank you!
Andreas
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There I use mainly Luiz Vieira's KeySet font of 2004. The largest part of the remainder is WP 34S Solid Font Regular plus some Arial.
d:-)
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Also found Luiz Vieira's KeySet font under
http://web.archive.org/web/20061005093132/http://www.hpcc.org/datafile/V23N5/luizfonts.zip
So far no luck bringing it to work under OS/X though.
Thanks!
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Give FontForge a try! OS/X complains about illegal data structures in Luis' fonts. FontForge might be able to import and reexport the fonts so that they work with OS/X.
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Found my way with some online converter. Very useful font indeed.
I'm very impressed by the willingness of everybody on this forum to help and inform.
So: Thank you once more!
a.n.
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Andrew,
If you have the full version of Acrobat, you can crop the margins from the pages. This will make the printed page slightly larger. I do this quite often to documents, so when printed "fitted to page", the text is larger. Even a small amount, such as half an inch per side, can make quite a difference.
On version 3.1 of manual, I could crop 0.75 inches from the top and 0.5 inches from each of the remaining three sides, making a sheet size of 7.27 x 10.44. When cropping, be careful of documents that have different page sizes and orientations within the document. The WP-34S manual does have some landscape pages within it.
Bill
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Bill,
the reader I have, has a feature "crop margins", where it shows only non-empty portion of the pdf page on its screen. That helps, but not by much -- the remaining area is still too large for the small screen. I am afraid, the only option for me is to reformat the document.
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