Today BCL Computers releases its eagerly awaited Magellan 4.2, a document conversion tool that will give the handheld market better access to content on the web.
BCL's Magellan(R) 4.2, a plug-in for Adobe(R) Acrobat(R), converts PDF files into searchable HTML for online browsing using a process that preserves original document layout - complete with graphics, lines, hyperlinks and bookmarks - while also making it accessible on ebooks such as the RocketBook(R) and SoftBook(R), and PDAs such as the Palm(R). It reflows, rather than shrinks, content so that it can be displayed with the original document "flow" intact.
Rather than simply shrinking content or displaying fragments of a page, Magellan(R) 4.2 uses the tagging capability and reflow technology of HTML 3.2 to separate a document's structure into zones, then automatically sequence the zones in a natural reading order. Like previous versions of the software, Magellan(R) 4.2 also provides HTML output for standard desktop displays using Cascading Style Sheets and Netscape(R)'s Layers technology to provide page structures that match the original's with the highest accuracy.
"With this dual capability, Magellan(R) 4.2 makes an ideal conversion tool for content providers who want to make sure their online message is accessible to handheld and desktop users alike," said BCL CEO Hassan Alam.
"Not only can it help e-publishers overcome the disadvantages of PDF files -lengthy download times because of file size, and, more problematic, the inability to be indexed by major search engines on the web - when converting from print," said Alam, "but it can also help them reach the wider audience of the handheld market by providing content in a format that makes visual sense on an ebook or PDA."
Regardless of the display device targeted, Magellan(R) 4.2's features include:
-- Extraction and accurate placement of raster and vector
graphics from the original document into the HTML output by
rasterizing all vector graphics in the original and saving the
images as JPEG files in their original sizes;
-- Accurate extraction and mapping of internal, external and
multimedia (avi, wav) hyperlinks in the original PDF file to
the characters in the HTML document (clicking on an external
hyperlink in the converted HTML output file will open a new
browser window to display the result);
-- Various zoom levels that allow users to increase or decrease
the size of their documents once they are converted to HTML,
making small print PDF documents more readable in HTML by
increasing output size, and decreasing the output size if a
document is too big to fit the target monitor screen;
-- MetaTagging, offering users the option of adding description
and keyword MetaTags to files prior to the conversion process;
and
-- Simplified navigation by generating the Acrobat(R)-style
bookmark and page index navigation bar.
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