I have been a fan of the Documents To Go application since the days when you could only view files, no editing was supported.  I was impressed when editing capability was added to the application several years ago, and was very happy when I saw the announcement that version 8 would now include native PDF support. I had viewed PDF's on Palm OS and Pocket PC devices before using the free Adobe Reader software.  I soon tired of this as viewing PDF's on PDA's with the Adobe Reader required that you submit the PDF file to a desktop application for handheld conversion, and the reader was very slow in rendering the converted file on the PDA screen. I soon stopped PDF viewing on PDA's altogether.

Documents To Go 8 Premium does not require a conversion step by a desktop program like the Adobe Reader does; Documents To Go 8 can read a PDF file natively, which is great for reading emails with PDF's attachments. I upgraded one of my version 7 Documents To Go to Documents To Go Premium version 8 and gave the PDF application a test drive. I chose a PDF file that came with the new T|X entitled "T|X Getting Started" as my test file.  Since I was using the Palm T|X as my test PDA, it was appropriate to use that file.  The file is 176 pages, and is 2.35 megabytes in size.  Some of the page are complex, multicolumn pages with ample graphics.

How did Documents To Go Premium version 8 fare?  OK, but there are some noticeable problems displaying complex multicolumn pages.  When displaying the Page Layout view (full page), you have your choice of many zoom sizes. When you select the 100% view, which I needed to actually read the words, you better get your stylus or navigator button ready because you will be doing constant horizontal scrolling.  Similar to horizontal scrolling while web browsing, horizontal scrolling within a PDF file gets old very fast. Overall, the file was displayed close to the way it would look on a PC or Mac, except there were random spaces added within words and/or in between words in the same sentence on some complex pages. Although the extra spaces got annoying after awhile, you could at least read the document. The average page took 4 to 5 seconds to display on the T|X.  Annoying yes, but considering the pages were being displayed natively, I could live with the render time.

The real problem happened when switching to Word Wrap view, which would be my primary choice because you do not have to horizontally scroll in Word Wrap view. In Word Wrap view, some sentences had extra spaces added, but a paragraph would not necessarily be displayed in the correct order.  After the first part of a paragraph, white space would be added, then the next part of the paragraph may appear at the bottom of the page, and then continue after the added white space. The first paragraph in the screenshot should read "Reduce cable clutter by synchronizing wirelessly.  Imagine your desk and workstation without cable clutter.  Wireless technology on your handheld replaces many of the connecting cables with a wireless connection for tasks such as synchronizing."  As you can see in the picture, the paragraph was broken up, and was extremely difficult to follow. The missing words "replaces many of the connecting cables with", which were replaced by white space, do appear at the bottom of the page, too far down to be included in this screenshot.  Don't get me wrong, most less complex pages displayed OK; however, there were other complex pages that displayed similar to the example shown which hampered the reading of complex PDF documents on a PDA with Documents To Go 8 Premium.

Overall, Documents To Go Premium version 8 is an excellent first start for displaying PDF files natively, and for non-complex documents, the current version is satisfactory.  However, for complex documents, the rendering, particularly in Word Wrap view, needs some work.  If the rendering problems are corrected in a future update, Documents To Go Premium version 8 could be an excellent application for reading PDF documents on a Palm OS PDA.

Final Grade: B - due to the rendering problems with complex pages

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