Customers would occasionally ask if I had written about a particular topic in this past, and I would have to dig through folders, opening PDFs one by one, trying to find that relevant issue. Periodically I could uncover what they were looking for, now and then I couldn’t. Team members would ask about previous company announcements or policy explanations, and again, it would involve hunting through unorganized P
This text was a comfortable size. The margins were appropriate for mobile reading. I could scroll naturally without having to zoom or pan. The diagrams were yet there, but they were embedded in a way that made sense on a little screen. Instead of fighting with the document, I could merely st
I opened the pdf to epub converter, intending to merely email it to my friend or send it via text message. But in my morning pre-workout fog, I somehow ended up uploading it to this conversion tool and converting it to EPUB format instead of just attaching that file to a mess
What began as a mistake – converting my workout plan instead of just sharing it – ended up dramatically improving my workout experience. I’m now more consistent with my exercise, better at tracking my progress, and more prepared for each gym session. All since I accidentally tried using a document in an unconventional for
That experience taught me that as educators, we need to believe not just about what content we provide to students, but how we provide it. The best-curated readings in the world are useless if this format makes them difficult or unpleasant to access. Meeting students where they are—with materials that perform on that devices they really use and in formats that fit into their real lives—isn’t only convenient, it’s essential to effective teach
What’s been particularly lovely is how this has evolved from a static document into something collaborative. When someone makes a recipe and finds a variation that works well, they add a note. When we cook as a group for family holidays, we pull up this cookbook on a tablet in the kitchen and follow along together. This physical recipe cards are still stored away for safekeeping, but this digital version is what we truly use in our daily cooking li
When I distributed the first EPUB course packet, that student response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Students reported actually being able to examine comfortably on their phones during subway commutes, while waiting between classes, or during lunch breaks. One student told me she’d in the end examine all the assigned articles for the first time all semester given that she could access them on her phone during her daily commute instead of having to wait till she was at her desk in that even
That week, during my trip, I received more reading done than I had in the previous month combined. I study during my flight. I examine while waiting for my rental car. I read in that hotel room in that evenings when I didn’t feel like firing up my laptop. This materials were simply there on my phone, straightforward to access whenever I had a spare ten minu
A few months later, I saw a physical copy of that identical comic at a friend’s house. When I appeared at those double-page spreads on paper, finally seeing them as the artist intended, my jaw dropped. They were stunning – entirely gorgeous compositions that I had completely missed when wrestling with the PDF format. I realized I’d been cheating myself out of properly experiencing incredible artwork since of that technical limitations of how I was read
This difference was remarkable. When I opened that converted version of a comic, I could study it panel by panel, with each panel displayed at the right size to study that text clearly while even now seeing this artwork properly. More importantly, I could easily zoom out to witness the full page layout and appreciate that composition, then zoom back in to continue reading. This format adapted to how I naturally desired to per
If you’re taking an online course or educational program and that materials are in PDF format, I’d strongly recommend converting them to a more mobile-friendly format. It completely changed my ability to engage with the content. Look for converters that preserve that structure of that documents while making them reflowable for various screen si
This physical act of navigating became exhausting. I’d zoom in to peruse a panel, zoom out to see the page layout, zoom in to the next panel, zoom out again. My thumb was constantly working, and instead of getting lost in that story, I was hyper-aware of that mechanics of reading. Instead of flowing naturally from panel to panel across this page, I was treating each panel like an isolated im
Students complained about the same issues repeatedly. They couldn’t peruse the PDFs comfortably on their phones during commutes or between classes. The text would require constant zooming and scrolling, making studying feel like a chore rather than an engaging intellectual activity. Some students said they avoided reading course materials completely unless they were at their computers with a proper screen, which meant they were missing opportunities to use little pockets of time throughout the day for productive st