Recommended books about pdf

Absolutely ALL About Free eBooks, Audiobooks, PDFs, MP3 music, JPEGS, Email, calendar, SMS Texting, Mp3 Music, Text to Speech, GPS mapping, web browsing, Shopping, Accessories and Personality on Your cool new Kindle. The only eBook your Kindle really needs.


FREE UPDATE 090208 -- re-download and get the update for free. See below:


It's NOT another tiny user guide, but a big, very fun read, over 45,000 words and 100 pages, yet fully up-to-date as of September 2008 and covering everything you'll really want to do, read and listen to in comfort: buy security cases, newest lights, covers, and accessories. Cope with and Fix all the Kindle's little quirks, how to read in bed or on the beach, where and how to get a thousand e-books into your free library, use RSS and subscriptions for free, where to check scores and stocks, get web resources and conversion software, or completely personalize Kindle to be totally tech-chic and make it Yours... Oh, sure, and how to show it off with a killer demo as well.

(What did we add in the latest update? Some pesky typo corrections; a better way to get GMAIL; Yahoo mail and calendar, more on how to put quick jumplinks in your very own documents; and whoa! --more Pirates? Run! Wake the garrison!)

If you've already bought this eBook, the updates are yes, FREE to you. Either re-download in your Amazon Media Library with your PC; or on your Kindle, just go to Content Manager from the home menu. Find this eBook and check it. then (gasp!) remove from Kindle. No worries, mate, it's still there, only now it's marked at Amazon instead of on your Kindle - they still know it's yours. Check it again and move to Kindle memory -- it's BAACK ..updated.

Yes, this one eBook really DOES have everything about the Kindle carefully explained in it, plus indexes, hyperlinks, and a sense of humor too. (Buy it right now, or we'll make the ship's cat walk the plank..again)

I expected great things from this book but was sadly disappointed. The cost was way too high for the shortness of the book, and a lot of those pages were given over to humor when I would have preferred more solid information for my Kindle. Since buying this I've learned that the author has a "business" style book for the Kindle that might have been a better match for me, but I don't want to have to risk another $9.60 to find out.

This isn't a boring manual. It's smart very informative and laugh out loud funny. I have actually laughed out loud while reading this book. Buy this book and master your Kindle.

You tried out your Kindle, saw its quirks, wanted to fix them then explore more? And there wasn't any really meaty place to tell you how? Email, audiobooks, PDFs, iTunes, travel, better covers? The manual, but who wants to read that? Blogs, but when you can find them, they're repetitive, not organized? A few bargain "authoritative" guides that after buying, don't really teach you much that's new? If you bought any of those, then you've got the hors d'oeuvres -- this book is your entree, dessert, and capuccino too.

For me, books need to stay interesting and entertaining, or I stop reading. It's also fun to be entertained while suddenly encountering new things. There wasn't a guide like that, so I wrote one. It's big, but never boring. If you only want one Kindle guide, this may do it for you.

It also gets updates, this is edition two, though it only is a month old. Updates are all free to you - the book even tells you how to download them

Click to download the free sample; browse the contents and index. I think you'll like it.

Regards,
Don

If you want something more businesslike, there's another guide in that style, equally complete. Search my last name in the Kindle store and you'll find it.

ps: Besides the table of contents, here's the alphabetic index to "I Got My Kindle"; you can't see it in the free sample, only in the full book:
ART. Your OWN ART
Accessorizing
All Kinds of Other Kindling
Audible books?; Amazon Audio books
Audio books Make Your Own
Blogs
Browsing
Content ..Not From Amazon?
Covers
Email
Find Documents
Food
FREE eBooks, eBook Sellers
GPS: how it really can work for you
Graphics on Kindle
Lighting
Music
Navigating, OFFLINE
Next Kindle Versions
News and Stocks
Now Now
PDFs to Kindle Still Fancier PDFs
Personalize YOUR Kindle
Protect Your Kindle
Power Up Sparingly
Read in Bed: Lights, Etc.
Restaurants, Gas, and GPS
RSS, Newspapers, Blogs?
SD Storage Cards Managing Content
Search Advanced and Web Searching
Shortcuts
Show Off Your Kindle. Got Bananas?
Slideshows
Slideshows
SMS Texting
Spills: Help! I Spilled My Drink!
Sports
Storage Card. Space Management
Texting Text to Speech
Web Browsing

* Updated and enhanced to cover Acrobat, this authoritative book is packed with real-world insights and techniques garnered from the author's extensive use of Acrobat
* Explores all there is to know about using Acrobat and PDF, from print prepress and hi-res color files to the Internet and e-book content
* Written by an Acrobat and PDF expert and educator
* The CD-ROM features third-party Acrobat tools, a searchable PDF version of the book, plugins, utilities, and a training video

Imagine a publisher who wants to "stamp" his ebooks on the fly with the name of the buyer (to discourage sharing). Such a publisher would (and we know one who does) use iText for the task. Developers looking to enhance web- and other applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation will find this book unique in content and readability. Based on ongoing examples that encourage learning "in action," they will finally understand PDF and learn how to build applications that produce professional, high-quality PDF documents. While the basic functionality of iText is easy to acquire, this book lowers the learning curve for more advanced functionality. It explains how to use iText to create/manipulate PDF documents on-the-fly in one or more of the following situations:

Due to time or size, the PDF documents can't be produced manually

The content of the document must be calculated or based on user input.

The content needs to be customized or personalized.

The PDF content needs to be served in a web environment.

Documents are to be created in "batch process" mode.

All the examples are written in Java, but they can be easily adapted to .NET by developers using one of the .NET ports: iTextSharp (C#) or iText.NET (#J). While iText is a free Java library and the examples are written from the point of view of the Java developer, nine out of ten examples can be run by .NET developers with only minimal changes.

If you plan to use iText, this book indespensible, and iText is a very powerful, flexible, yet simple Java library for managing PDF.

The examples in the book are crisper and not domain specific, so are much more amenable to use than in the typical software tutorial.

I look at the first chapter and first example. It doesn't work. Also you can not download examples in one zip file. Those are in contradiction with the book instructions. pg. 11 and pg 12. Author should provide error list for this book, or it is going to be lose values quickly.

For good part, itext is a good tool. Better download earlier version.

This is a best book I have ever seen. It has every details about how to use the iText. It's very clear in every technical aspects. iText is also a great API for Java programmer. It's also really easy to learn. I love iText.

I love this book. I strongly recommand this book.

This is a great book for people developing or maintaining applications using iText. It covers every corner-case I've run into, typically offering various options on how to solve a problem. The writing is concise, with easily approachable chapters and examples.

This is nice book, though most of the contents can be found online (I believe it is linked from the author's website). I have created some complex PDF files using iText following the examples on the book and online tutorials. This is the book from iText creator, surely it worth a 5 starts.

Your one-stop guide to Adobe Acrobat 9

Create and publish feature-rich electronic documents that retain the look and feel of the originals. How to Do Everything: Adobe Acrobat 9 explains how to edit PDFs, collaborate with other users, and optimize PDFs for print or the web. You'll also learn how to secure your PDFs and maintain document integrity. With coverage of the Adobe Acrobat Standard, Pro, and Pro Extended editions, this book helps you maximize all the new and improved features of this versatile program right away.

• Open, view, and search PDFs
• Convert virtually any document to PDF
• Capture PDFs from a scanner or web page
• Create navigation devices including bookmarks, thumbnails, and links
• Review, edit, and annotate PDFs
• Add digital signatures and apply document security
• Optimize documents for print, CD/DVD applications, the web, and other uses
• Add multimedia elements
• Create a searchable index
• Create forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer
• Batch process PDF documents

Get more�|out of the latest version of Adobe Acrobat than�|ever!�|

Create and share sophisticated electronic documents easily using Adobe Acrobat 8 and the helpful tips in this hands-on guide. How to Do Everything with Adobe Acrobat 8 shows you how to generate Adobe PDF files that retain the look and feel of the original documents, edit PDFs, collaborate with other users, and optimize PDFs for print or the web. You'll also learn to secure your PDFs and maintain document integrity. Covering both Adobe Acrobat Standard and Professional editions, this book makes it easy for you to take full advantage of all the new and improved features of this powerful program.

• Open, view, and search PDFs
• Convert virtually any document to PDF
• Capture PDFs from a scanner or web page
• Create navigation devices, including bookmarks, thumbnails, and links
• Add interactivity with actions
• Review, edit, and annotate PDFs
• Add digital signatures and apply document security
• Optimize documents for print, CD/DVD applications, the web, and other uses
• Add multimedia elements
• Create a searchable index

I leaned on this book to help me punch out a PDF format of my book manuscript. Knowing Adobe products often equal advanced knowledge to get you where you want to be, I knew I'd need a straightforward reference book to get the job done. Between "How to Do Everything" and tips from the publishing website, I was able to turn in a polished PDF version of my manuscript to send to print in an afternoon's work. Considering I knew nothing about the software beforehand, I felt good about the outcome.

Gail Strumberger
Author, "Shock Therapy: Planaphobic"

I suspect the writing of this book was contracted by Adobe. It is all praise and I don't believe that the product is without problems or shortcomings for the average user. The book is not what I had hoped for.

This book is wonderful, so many great tips. This book will unlock the power of Acrobat 8. I had a very large form to convert to a PDF form Using a tip from the book I saved hours of work! This book is great for beginners or as a refernce tool to features you may not use everyday.

"The Adobe Acrobat 8 PDF Bible is the comprehensive guide to Acrobat for novices and power users alike. With a concise, easy-to-read format, you will be creating interactive XML forms, enabling streamlined document review processes, and publishing high-impact electronic documents in no time."
�|Rick Brown, director of product management, Adobe Acrobat

The book you need to succeed with Adobe Acrobat!

Why do readers turn to the Adobe Acrobat Bible again and again? Because whether you're already experienced with Adobe Acrobat or you're learning to use this powerful tool for the first time, you'll find exactly what you need to know in these well-organized pages. Packed with helpful tips and step-by-step instructions, this latest edition will guide you through both basic and advanced features, enabling you to take full advantage of everything Acrobat 8 has to offer.

• Create, collect, and distribute forms with LiveCycle�� Designer
• Work seamlessly with Microsoft�� Office applications
• Convert AutoCAD�� and Visio�� files to PDF
• Discover new ways to edit PDFs and remove sensitive data
• Explore enhanced Shared Reviews tools with easy-to-use Wizard
• Collect form data by exporting it directly to Microsoft Excel��
• Combine files and create PDF Packages using new Acrobat 8 tools

What's on the CD-ROM?

You'll find valuable, author-developed sample files including PDF documents, Adobe Designer forms, and Acrobat PDF forms with JavaScripts�|all arranged in folders according to chapters in the book, so you use them along with the book's tutorials. The CD also includes:

• Adobe Reader software
• Entire book in searchable PDF with embedded index
• Windows demonstration plug-ins

Excellent book to use as a reference. I keep it close by and can always find answers when I use it. Could use more informaion on creating forms, and integrating forms with application data.

Lots of good tips and very helpful navigating the new interface which is a pain to learn. Glad I bought this.

I bought it as a reference, not a tutorial, but it does have the latter and the CD with it has samples to use with tutorials if you choose. The CD also provides a searchable PDF of the entire book. Great if you have a laptop as the book is a bulky 2 inches thick.

Each chapter has frequent CROSS-REF statements that refer you to other chapters which will elaborate in more detail on something mentioned in the current chapter. This is a plus! Reduces search time!

If you are looking for an easy cover-to-cover read, this ain't it. If you want a reference where you can look up what you need only when you need it, this 1000+ page book is for you. Many books on this software cost as much or more but have perhaps 1/4 the material with lots of white space and cartoon silliness.

The 22 page TOC and 36 chapters gives you some idea of the depth of coverage. Some books do not have that many pages in the index.

Loaded with typographical, grammatical and even spelling errors, this book seems rushed to press. It's even missing crucial details about dynamic forms ("expand to fit").

Too much of this book is hard to follow and seems unnecessarily long. I expect more from a "Bible" book.

Be advised that, while the content of this book is great, the formatting and layout are dreadful. I got it to read, so I could understand of Acrobat's diverse features. I've ended up using it purely as a reference. Every time I've tried to read it, I've given up in frustration after a few paragraphs.

Like many technical manuals, the book is wide at 7.5 inches. A wide-format page calls for creativity in how text is formatted. With my book-length Lord of the Rings chronology, I used that extra width for some 1200 sidebar references to passages in Tolkien's writings. That worked quite well, much better than putting those references (footnote-like) at the bottom of the page.

This book shows no such creativity. The body type is far too small (roughly 9 points) and appears to be printed in grey ink rather than black. The numerous 5 1/2-inch-wide lines of small type make it almost impossible for most readers to jump from the end of one line to the start of the next. In general, any text with more than 70-75 characters per line is hard to read. This book has page after page with 105-110 characters per line. Sheer misery. As any graphics pro will tell you, tiny type and a wide format don't go together. With a bit of work, the staff at Wiley could have created a much better looking book.

The one saving grace is that the book includes a CD with the book as a PDF. Blown up 200%, it is a bit easier to read. (I've even thought of using my Mac's text-to-speech feature to have it read to me.) But the book on CD is almost a case study in how not to do an ebook. It's an enormous 255 meg file that causes Preview (on Macs) to moan and groan. And worse than that, it's formatted just like the printed book, rather than as a demonstration of how PDF can create an ebook that's better than the printed version in some ways. I can at least understand why Wiley might have used tiny type to reduce the page count in their print version. But I can't figure out why they'd do that with an ebook, where pages are virtual and free.

In short, this book is an excellent reference to Acrobat 8, particularly since Adobe no longer includes printed manuals with their products. If that's what you need, look no further. But unless your eyes are young and sharp, don't buy this to read and study, particularly not while traveling by bus, train or plane. Like a dictionary, it's for reference only.

--Mike Perry, Seattle Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings

Written by members of the development team at Apple, Programming with Quartz is the first book to describe the sophisticated graphics system of Mac OS X. By using the methods described in this book, developers will be able to fully exploit the state-of-the-art graphics capabilities of Mac OS X in their applications, whether for Cocoa or Carbon development. This book also serves as an introduction to 2D graphics concepts, including how images are drawn and how color is rendered. It includes guidance for working with PDF documents, drawing bitmap graphics, using Quartz built-in color management, and drawing text. Programming with Quartz is a rich resource for new and experienced Mac OS X developers, Cocoa and Carbon programmers, UNIX developers who are migrating to Mac OS X, and anyone interested in powerful 2D graphics systems.

* This is the definitive guide to the revolutionary graphics system of Mac OS X that uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) as the basis of its imaging model.
* It contains the latest on programming with Quartz for Mac OS X version 10.4.
* Carefully crafted and extensive code examples show how to accomplish most of the drawing tasks possible with Quartz.

I've known about this book for a while now, but I've never bothered paying attention to it given it's somewhat ridiculous price tag. Necessity forced me to forgo my earlier conclusions however, and I'm now angry at myself for not picking it up sooner. However much you think you know about Quartz, there's always more to learn, and this book is a whole lot easier to pick new tricks up from than Apple's scant free documentation. It's a bit dated when it comes to the XCode specific info, but unless you're a total newcomer you should be able to fill in the proverbial gaps there without much trouble.

This is the second book on OS X programming that I have felt is truly worth owning; the first being Amit Singh's "Mac OS X Internals." This one's not as thick, nor is it hardbound, but there are lots of color plates. Good stuff.

If all of the Apple frameworks were explained as well as CoreGraphics/Quartz is in this book, life would be so much better for independent programmers. I am not writing code in XCode, but one where I need to port calls to custom classes. This book has helped me so much. I have not located the link on the publisher's site (maybe I'm just missing it), but my only complaint (a very minor one) would be that they don't have a contact email for the authors to report errata or thank them.

Well written, to the point, good code examples and does not duplicate the Apple documents. Covers Carbon and Cocoa calls. The chapters on axial and radial shadings were the most helpful for me.

Great programming guide to Quartz. This book really sets the example for how to provide the combination of concepts and code to get the new user over the hump. The XCode projects are beautifully organized. This is the best book I have bought on Macintosh Programming that I can recall. Well done!

This is an extremely comprehensive guide to drawing in Mac OS X with Quartz. I was a little disappointed in the lack of Cocoa (with objective-C) ties. You can do anything with Quartz, but sometimes it would take much less time to use the Cocoa equivalents when programming your OS X applications.

That said, it's well written, and easy to follow so long as you do the examples as you go. You can certainly hop around in the book, but I found I had to read the intro chapters twice to really get the terminology.

Quartz 2D is the primary graphics library in Mac OS X and is based on version 1.4 of Adobe PDF. It supercedes QuickDraw, which was used in earlier versions of the Mac OS. In Quartz 2D the coordinate space is an abstract concept defined by real values in 2 dimensions. Points in this space can be connected to form paths, such as straight lines, Bezier curves and so on. To create actual graphics on the display, the paths are rasterized as needed to generate the pixels at the display device's resolution. This permits the same graphics commands to yield the same output on any device using the best resolution available.
This book is full of clear explanations for mere mortals of how Quartz has packaged the state of the art in graphics programming. The book starts out with Quartz 2D drawing basics such as drawing and filling basic geometric forms and drawing lines. With the basics out of the way, the author goes on to show how you would use Quartz 2D both in Cocoa and in Carbon. Next there are chapters on basic computer graphics intertwined with performing these tasks in Quartz. Included topics are coordinate systems, affine transformations, and parametric curves all within the framework of performing graphics in Quartz. The book then moves on to working with images including creating CGImage objects, and importing and exporting data to PNG, JPEG, and Quicktime formats. Another chapter is devoted to working with text. There are two chapters devoted to working with PDF data, including a chapter on handling PDF images that is very thorough in its descriptions and the issues that are raised. The book is very well written and covers many complex topics in 2D graphics clearly and at a level appropriate for all programmers, and I highly recommend it for all programmers interested in Quartz.

PDF--to most of the world it stands for that rather tiresome format used for documents downloaded from the web. Slow to load and slower to print, hopelessly unsearchable, and all but impossible to cut and paste from, the Portable Document Format doesn't inspire much affection in the average user. But PDFs done right is another story. Those who know the ins and outs of this format know that it can be much more than electronic paper. Flexible, compact, interactive, and even searchable, PDF is the ideal way to present content across multiple platforms.

PDF Hacks unveils the true promise of Portable Document Format, going way beyond the usual PDF as paged output mechanism. PDF expert Sid Steward draws from his years of analyzing, extending, authoring, and embellishing PDF documents to present 100 clever hacks--tools, tips, quick-and-dirty or not-so-obvious solutions to common problems.

PDF Hacks will show you how to create PDF documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages. The hacks in the book cover the full range of PDF functionality, from the simple to the more complex, including generating, manipulating, annotating, and consuming PDF information. You'll learn how to manage content in PDF, navigate it, and reuse it as necessary. Far more than another guide to Adobe Acrobat, the book covers a variety of readily available tools for generating, deploying, and editing PDF.

The little-known tips and tricks in this book are ideal for anyone who works with PDF on a regular basis, including web developers, pre-press users, forms creators, and those who generate PDF for distribution. Whether you want to fine-tune and debug your existing PDF documents or explore the full potential the format offers, PDF Hacks will turn you into a PDF power user.

This book is a god-send for those of us who have to struggle with the often frustrating world of PDF documents on our computers. I was completely confused until I dug into this manual, which is relatively easy for a novice to understand. It has been a great help to me in find answers to problems I had with using PDF on a daily basis. I would highly recommend it.

There are several categories of hack in this book; two of them are "saving money" (finding ways to work with PDF's outside of Acrobat) and PDF in web design--using CGI scripting to serve up individual pages that have search text for example. A third type of hack are some old-school tricks that help make your PDF's more widely compatible. Good stuff, not crucial unless you happen to need it.

The title is completely misleading.
I purchased this book and software from Broderbund, after reading the reviews posted here at Amazon, believing the book and software would help me covert PDF files that I could not Save or print in its orginal format into ones I could.
I can say for sure,in my opinion, the other reviews of this book led me down the "fools primrose path."
Perhaps I should have read the reviews more carefully.
Of course the fault is entirely mine.

This is a very comprehensive solutions catalog on all kinds of PDF related issues. Each trick is described with step-by-step instructions and contains pointers to relevant resources. The chapter listing categorizes the hacks - Consuming PDF, Managing a Collection, Authoring and Self-Publishing, Creating PDF and Other Editions, Manipulating PDF files, Dynamic PDF, Scripting and Programming Acrobat.

I embrace the beauty of PDF as an end user and applications developer, but do not use Adobe Acrobat. Many of the tricks mentioned in the book is about this product. A problem is that the TOC does not tell whether or not a trick is Adobe Acrobat specific. Some of the hacks are like sections extracted from an advanced Adobe Acrobat user guide. As this is not obvious from the TOC, the content of the hack can be quite different from what I expected.

Despite this problem, the book is still a very useful one-stop resource about PDF. I will recommend this book to all who need to use or work with PDF.

With PDF files everywhere from web sites to help files, sooner or later you will run into a situation where you need to do something to a PDF file. For me the first time I realized I needed to do something I could not was when I needed to take one and convert it to a Word format so I could quickly outline the high points to study for a certification exam. After several hours I finally got it into a text file thanks to a web site that did the conversion. But even then I lost the tables, illustrations, etc. How to do that is one of the hacks included in this book. I wish it were printed a few years ago because it would have made my life easier.

After testing that hack I browsed through the book and kept finding myself asking "You can do that with a PDF file?" There are a lot of good tips in this book from making Acrobat startup faster, to converting PDF files, to automatic timed scrolling for easy reading, to creating a PDF using Word, WordPerfect, OpenOffice, Perl, HTML, PHP, and Java. With page after page of coding, this is a tremendously useful book for anyone who wants to create or edit PDF files or change the way Acrobat works with files. PDF Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools is very highly recommended and will be put on my shelf reserved for books I want to be able to access quickly.

XSLT is a powerful language for transforming XML documents into something else. That something else can be an HTML document, another XML document, a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file, a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) file, Java code, or a number of other things. You write an XSLT stylesheet to define the rules for transforming an XML document, and the XSLT processor does the work. As useful as XSLT is, its peculiar characteristics make it a difficult language in which to get started. In fact, newcomers are often a little dazed on first contact. Learning XSLT offers a hands-on introduction to help them get up to speed with XSLT quickly. The book will help web developers and designers understand this powerful but often mystifying template-driven and functional-styled language, getting them over the many differences between XSLT and the more conventional programming languages. Learning XSLT moves smoothly from the simple to complex, illustrating all aspects of XSLT 1.0 through step-by-step examples that you'll practice as you work through the book. Thorough in its coverage of the language, the book makes few assumptions about what you may already know. You'll learn about XSLT's template-based syntax, how XSLT templates work with each other, and gain an understanding of XSLT variables. Learning XSLT also explains how the XML Path Language (XPath) is used by XSLT and provides a glimpse of what the future holds for XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0. The ability to transform one XML vocabulary to another is fundamental to exploiting the power of XML. Learning XSLT is a carefully paced, example-rich introduction to XSLT that will have you understanding and using XSLT on your own in no time.

Mr. Fitzgerald specifically stated that he didn't intend for this book to be a comprehensive reference manual. But you would think that the index would provide a decent cross-reference of topics. Try looking up xsl:value-of, or xsl:for-each. You won't find them no matter what topic you search under. Usually OReilly does a great job explaining technical topics, but as with most XSLT books I've read, the examples are trite and provide minimal insite. I have to say I'm disappointed.

Imagine you just bought a new car and stuck the keys in the ignition. Do you worry about every little minute detail of what's under the hood? Or do you just plant your foot down on the accelerator and drive?

Learning XSLT is one of those books that has a strange "hiccup" feel to it. Reading this book is like putting your foot down on the accelerator, only to have a chicken cross in front of you to slam on the brakes and then accelerate again. Only then, having another chicken cross and yet again slam on the brakes. Tutorials are meant to be smooth, uninterrupted reading. Learning XSLT is an abrupt stop and go journey that resulted in it being tossed into the far back shelf of my personal library.

For example, a really annoying feature in the book's layout are the icons and box comments. Frequently, they interrupt the flow causing switching of mental gears. Often too wordy, too detailed, and downright puzzling to why they even exist in the first place, they are anal and annoying. Surely the intricacies of QCNames, Code Points, Unicode, xml:lang attribute in every minute detail should have been removed out of this book.

As an example of how poorly this book reads, I point to page 9. The section is "Using apply-templates". Two pages later of long winded overanalysis (and yet another interruption with a large box comment regarding Unicode), we end up with a trivial six line example using apply-templates. Boldfaced and detached away from the original point of discussion. By this time, the reader is flipping pages to go back to recall what the entire section was about. That is the general feel of this book - a lack of cohesiveness.

After reading the first three chapters, I wondered where this book was heading. It read in scatter brained pieces and often too detailed for my liking - overly informative to be of any practical use. If you like getting bogged down in trivia minutiae, this is your book.

The examples were poor and unfufilling; rarely showing a big picture example in a larger, useful, practical context. Most of the people who pick up this book will want to transform XML into XHTML - which this book fails to address in a dedicated chapter.

Templates, the most important feature from a coding structure and development standpoint, is held off until Chapter 10. This should have been moved to earlier chapters, followed by discussion of axes, functions, XPATH, etc.

Learning XSLT does not to a very good job of organizing content for understanding and instruction. It definitely failed to hold my attention. Out of all the O'Reilly books I have, this one was not very useful and needs a total rewrite!

I bought this book after using the O'Reilly book "Web Design In A Nutshell". In general, I find the O'Reilly books to be pretty good. This book looked pretty good in the bookstore, too. After working with it, however, I found it difficult to get through and difficult to learn from. I used online sources to learn XSLT and used this book as a reference. When I learned something online and went back to this book, I was able to see what the author of this book was trying to explain. (I am not a web page beginner. I have worked in software development for a number of years. I have worked with HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.)

That such a poor quality book should come from O'Reilly is baffling. The book is very poorly organized, not covering templates--the basis of XSLT--until chapter 10! The author's examples are convoluted and unrevealing, and mostly seem to prove the point that his understanding of XSLT is far greater than yours. I got through the first three chapters and then gave up for a Sams book, which is much better.

Learning XSLT was a helpful introduction to XSLT and I really enjoyed my progress through the book. Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't spend too much time on lengthy explanations. Simple explanations are followed by illustrative examples that you should type and run yourself.

Learn EVERYTHING Kindle can do as a business tool, we show you how and where: Business justifications; FREE eBooks FREE AudioBooks, all useful shortcuts, Email, Document review, Presentation, Speaker Notes, Graphic slideshows, SMS Texting, Text to Speech, Convert PDFs, batch processing conversions, Reduce eyestrain; Airline check-ins; Find restaurants using Google or Zagat; how to get Kindle's GPS geolocation to really work. Use GPS and lookups while traveling, check news and airport weather, Protect Your Kindle, and get free content and supporting software. All of the information that you need for business use of a Kindle, and nothing not relevant

... All up-to-date information as of August 25, 2008. Completely indexed for fast lookups.

Written by a seasoned Marketing and IT executive, after seven months of personal hands-on testing, this focused and no nonsense eBook covers exactly what you need to have Kindle fully become your little white PDA, and your essential traveling companion where a laptop or phone just can't do it.


You'll learn best ways to get YOUR business content onto your Kindle; all about annotations and note taking, and even better, how to understand and use Kindle's powerful searches to the maximum to find and refer to them later; even how to index your own documents for most convenient use.

Includes where to get FREE EBOOKS you can download wirelessly on the fly and how to use and listen to Audio Books -- even make your own Audio Books for free so instead of reading your own downloaded business content, notes, or unprotected eBooks you can also listen to them while driving or exercising.

New: Full index and Embedded JumpLinks throughout the eBook let you click after looking at any section and takes you right back to the table of contents and better, to a complete and detailed alphabetized topic index.



You're buying a living document. This is in 3rd edition with more to come. Updated copies are all FREE re-downloads to you after your initial purchase. Did we omit something you need or want? We'll truly appreciate your review and request. Do a brief review right here on this Amazon page -- suggest topic or tip additions. We may well explore, test and add them shortly. And then you'll get them free ..read below:

This is edition 3 revised 08/25/08 ...We do updates after we receive reviews, explore and test new things. Buy it once; then re-download the very latest version any time. It's FREE! (On your laptop click your "Manage Your Kindle" page tab at Amazon Kindle Store: click "View Your Media Library"; in your book list click this book and select "send wirelessly".) (Or, do it easily on the run: on your Kindle's home page menu, simply open Content Manager; find this book, click to mark it, and on the menu choose "remove from Kindle". No worry, it stays in your Content Manager list because Amazon knows you bought it -- but now it shows stored at "Amazon" instead of on your Kindle or SD card. Click to check it again and use Content Manager's menu to "move to Kindle memory") It instantly re-downloads wirelessly over Whispernet ... and you have the latest edition updates.

It you're thinking your Kindle can be good for business reading and other things as well as pleasure, you're entirely right! And this is the book for you. I'm a longtime business executive, and have covered in here every last thing that you can do with a Kindle that is business-relevant.

Everything in here, I actually tried myself and it works. And I'm adding more as I think of and try new things. The current version of this is already at edition 2 though it's been out less than a month.

Whether it's PDFs, audio, making audio books or graphics slidebooks, the how-tos are in here. If you only want one Kindle guide, this one may do it all for you. Not only is this covering Kindle's own capabilities - and where to get both free and paid content without fuss, you also get exactly what PC programs will help you in preparing and getting business content onto your Kindle, and where to get them, mostly free.

This is a serious eBook - no jokes, no diatribes about future wantlists or writing tips. There are other places to get that. It's highly indexed and organized, including hyperlink (jumplinks) to pop you back to the alphabetical index after you find and finish reading any particular topic.

Pull down the free sample and have a look at the contents and index. You'll like it.

-Don

If you want a much lighter read, but one that is equally thorough, though more on personal Kindle use and customization than on business topics, check out my other very popular eBook: I Got My Kindle! Now What Can I Do? EVERYTHING For Email PDFs Free eBooks Graphics Audio & Fun