CollegeSource has been working on a major improvement for viewing course catalogs. Due to the increasing use of alternate PDF readers by modern operating systems, the availability and stability of Adobe Reader has become a challenge for CollegeSource Online and TES users in recent years. To solve that challenge, CollegeSource has embedded a reader in the product that will go live on January 30th, 2015.
What does this mean to you?
- Same great service. You will still be able to open, search, copy, and print text. All the usual bookmarks and links will be there (though they may be marked a little differently).
- Ability to view catalogs on mobile devices. The catalogs can now be viewed on a mobile device!
- No Adobe Plug-in. You will not need Adobe Reader or the Adobe Plug-in.
This is a screen shot of a catalog in the new CollegeSource Online reader. Some devices will arrange the catalog pages vertically, so that you scroll up and down to move through them, while other devices (usually mobile phones and tablets) will arrange them like a book for sideways scrolling.
Differences from the old reader are primarily found in the menu bar. Moving from left to right:
The sidebar icon allows you to hide or show the left-hand pane, containing bookmarks and thumbnails to help you navigate through the catalog. Note: the page number links are still active but are no longer highlighted or underlined.
The page navigator in the center of the top menu allows you to quickly move forward, backward, or jump to a specific page. When viewing a catalog each page will now load individually. This may cause a page to appear blank for a second or two when you first jump to it.
The zoom and page fit tools allow you to enlarge or shrink the document to a percentage, page width, or full page view.
Two icons control the mouse function. The hand allows you to click on the page and slide it up, down, left, or right. The insert icon allows you to select text within the document. Use the Ctrl+C (Windows) or Command+C (Mac) keys to copy the text.
The search feature has been moved from the left menu in the old reader to the top menu. This allows you to keep the bookmarks pane open while searching.
The print icon allows you to print a page or page range from the document. After you click the print button, you will be prompted to enter a range. The default is the current page (one page only). You can indicate a range of pages with a dash: 1-4. You can indicate non-sequential pages with a comma: 7,10. Or, you can combine the two: 1-4,7,10. Keep in mind that printing more than one page requires a short load time for additional pages to be rendered for printing, and this can become a long wait if a large number of pages are selected. We do not recommend trying to print more than a dozen pages at a time.
The new viewer takes advantage of HTML5 technology, allowing us to display course catalogs directly in an Internet browser. If your browser does not support HTML5, you will need to switch to one that does.
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