Watermark is OK but why no bookmarks?

[hdrider67]

I love being able to buy Runequest on PDF and I am totally OK with watermarking it with my name but why no bookmarks?

The first two MRQ books I bought from rpgnow didn't come watermarked and I was able to bookmark them (I guess the DRM is new on this product line)


Does anyone from MP watch the board that might be able to help? I can prove ownership if neccessary.

My kingdom for the TOC as bookmarks! LOL

 

[Magistus]

That watermark comes from Drive Through RPG, not Mongoose.

 

[Imajica]

I, too, find the lack of bookmarks confusing. However, if you've got the patience and a full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can always bookmark the file yourself - time-consuming and a pain in the backside, but at least it can be done.

Much prefer the watermark to the old DRM that DriveThru used to use - I can now read my PDFs on Linux rather than having to use a hamstrung Windows machine. DRM nearly put me off PDFs of RPGs completely.

Several PDFs I've got (Mostly White Wolf ones, I think) not only have the TOC as bookmarks in Acrobat but also have the TOC within the file itself hyperlinked so you can switch off the side panels and still use the links from the TOC and the index. It just takes a little more work on the part of those creating the PDFs.

 

[hdrider67]

My bad. I thought the DRM was a Mongoose requirement. I was hoping to send you guys my PDF and maybe get it bookmarked.

 

[hdrider67]

I, too, find the lack of bookmarks confusing. However, if you've got the patience and a full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can always bookmark the file yourself - time-consuming and a pain in the backside, but at least it can be done.

Imajica,

How are you doing this? I have a full version (7) and tI can't get bookmarks to work. Are you using 8, and does it allow bookmarking of protected files (It's stupid of Adobe to not allow bookmarking)?

 

[Imajica]

Hmmm. Didn't think I was doing anything strange here...

However, now that I come to try that on today's download of Hawkmoon I see you're right - I can't make changes to the file with Acrobat 7. I'll try it with Acrobat 8 later on when I've got access to that machine.

Hang on. I'm running Linux here. There's a way round everything.
1. Open the file in KPDF
2. Print to PDF from the Print menu - save the file wherever you like.
3. Add the bookmarks into the new PDF you've created as it's your PDF.

The new PDF retains the watermark of the old one so you know precisely where it came from but it allows you to bookmark the file in Acrobat 7.

That's how I did it.

And if you're not running linux, go to www.kubuntu.org and download one of their LiveCDs for the purposes of doing the conversion.

 

[hdrider67]

Hmmm. Didn't think I was doing anything strange here...

However, now that I come to try that on today's download of Hawkmoon I see you're right - I can't make changes to the file with Acrobat 7. I'll try it with Acrobat 8 later on when I've got access to that machine.

Hang on. I'm running Linux here. There's a way round everything.
1. Open the file in KPDF
2. Print to PDF from the Print menu - save the file wherever you like.
3. Add the bookmarks into the new PDF you've created as it's your PDF.

The new PDF retains the watermark of the old one so you know precisely where it came from but it allows you to bookmark the file in Acrobat 7.

That's how I did it.

And if you're not running linux, go to www.kubuntu.org and download one of their LiveCDs for the purposes of doing the conversion.

That's awesome!

Thanks a bunch. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

 

[Imajica]

Glad to help.

 

[hdrider67]

Glad to help.

I decided I couldn't wait three days. I used a kubuntu CD and I'll be darned if it didn't work even better than I expected. I even got to keep the text (Windows PDF printing invariably ends up as images).

Anyway, they came out great.

Thanks again!

 

[Imajica]

Score one for Linux!

Now the next step is to install from that Kubuntu CD alongside your Windows (dual-boot) and only go into Windows when you absolutely must!

 

[hdrider67]

Score one for Linux!

Now the next step is to install from that Kubuntu CD alongside your Windows (dual-boot) and only go into Windows when you absolutely must!

I have a laptop that I upgraded the drive on a few months back. I ended up installing kubuntu onto the old 20GB drive just for kicks. Now all I need to do is get the wireless card working and I'll be set.

I was surprised how much faster this flavor of Debian runs than my previous installations. Yesterday turned out pretty well indeed.

 

[Imajica]

And for my next command-line trick...

pdftohtml -c -i <insert pdf name here>

Creates an entirely printer-friendly version of your book without all that ink-sucking artwork and backgrounds! Sweet!