You can make Acrobat or Reader advance a document at a preset interval, making it easy to maintain a given reading pace or to present slides.
If you are sitting down for a long, on-screen read, consider adding this "cruise control" feature to Acrobat/Reader. It turns PDF pages at an adjustable pace. Acrobat and Reader already have a similar "slideshow" feature, but it works only when viewing PDFs in Full Screen mode.
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If you have a
PDF
photo album [Hack #48] or
slideshow presentation, you can configure Acrobat/Reader to
automatically advance through the pages at a timed pace. Select Edit
Preferences . . . General . . . Full
Screen (Acrobat/Reader 6 Windows) or Edit Preferences . .
. Full Screen (Acrobat/Reader 5 Windows) or Acrobat
Preferences . . . Full Screen (Acrobat/Reader 6
Macintosh). Set the page advance, looping, and navigation options as
shown in Figure 1-11, and click OK. Open your PDF,
select Window Full Screen View (Acrobat/Reader 6 for
Windows or Macintosh) or View Full Screen (Acrobat/Reader
5), and the slideshow begins. To exit Full Screen mode, press Ctrl-L
(Windows) or Command-L (Mac).
You can also use this slideshow feature as a "cruise control" for on-screen reading. However, the Full Screen mode hides document bookmarks and application menus, and adjusting its timing is a multistep burden.
The following JavaScript for Acrobat and Reader provides a more flexible page turner. You can run it outside of Full Screen mode, and its timing is easier to adjust.
Visit http://www.pdfhacks.com/page_turner/ to download the JavaScript in Example 1-3. Unzip it, and then copy it into your Acrobat or Reader JavaScripts directory. [Hack #96] explains where to find this directory on your platform. Restart Acrobat/Reader, and page_turner.js will add new items to your View menu.
// page_turner.js, version 1.0
// visit: http://www.pdfhacks.com/page_turner/
var pt_wait= 3000; // three seconds; set to taste
var pt_step= 1000; // adjust speed in steps of one second
var pt_timeout= 0;
var pt_our_doc= 0;
var pt_our_path= 0;
function PT_Stop( ) {
if( pt_timeout!= 0 ) {
// stop turning pages
app.clearInterval( pt_timeout );
pt_timeout= 0;
pt_our_doc= 0;
pt_our_path= 0;
}
}
function PT_TurnPage( ) {
if( this!= pt_our_doc ||
this.path!= pt_our_path )
{ // Acrobat's state has changed; stop turning pages
PT_Stop( );
}
else if( 0< this.pageNum &&
this.pageNum== this.numPages- 1 )
{
app.execMenuItem("FirstPage"); // return to the beginning
}
else {
// this works better than this.pageNum++ when
// using 'continuous facing pages' viewing mode
app.execMenuItem("NextPage");
}
}
function PT_Start( wait ) {
if( pt_timeout== 0 ) {
// start turning pages
pt_our_path= this.path;
pt_our_doc= this;
pt_timeout= app.setInterval( 'PT_TurnPage( )', wait );
}
}
////
// add menu items to the Acrobat/Reader View menu
app.addMenuItem( {
cName: "-", // menu divider
cParent: "View", // append to the View menu
cExec: "void(0);"
} );
app.addMenuItem( {
cName: "Start Page Turner &4",
cParent: "View",
cExec: "PT_Start( pt_wait );",
//
// "event" is an object passed to us upon execution;
// in this context, event.target is the currently active document;
// event.rc is the return code: success <==> show menu item
cEnable: "event.rc= ( event.target!= null && pt_timeout== 0 );"
} );
app.addMenuItem( {
cName: "Slower",
cParent: "View",
cExec: "PT_Stop( ); pt_wait+= pt_step; PT_Start( pt_wait );",
cEnable: "event.rc= ( event.target!= null && pt_timeout!= 0 );"
} );
app.addMenuItem( {
cName: "Faster",
cParent: "View",
cExec: "if(pt_step< pt_wait) { PT_Stop( ); pt_wait-= pt_step; PT_Start(pt_wait);
}",
cEnable: "event.rc= (event.target != null && pt_timeout!= 0 && pt_step< pt_wait);"
} );
app.addMenuItem( {
cName: "Stop Page Turner",
cParent: "View",
cExec: "PT_Stop( );",
cEnable: "event.rc= ( event.target != null && pt_timeout!= 0 );"
} );After you restart Acrobat, open a PDF document. Select View
Start Page Turner and it will begin to advance the PDF
pages at the pace set in the script's
pt_wait variable. Adjust this pace by selecting
View Faster or View Slower. As the script runs,
use the Page Down and Page Up keys to fast-forward or rewind the PDF.
Stop the script by selecting View Stop Page Turner.
After starting the page turner and setting its speed, activate
Acrobat/Reader's Full Screen mode for maximum page
visibility. Select Window Full Screen View (Acrobat/Reader
6) or View Full Screen (Acrobat/Reader 5). The Page Down
and Page Up keys still work as expected. Press Ctrl-L (Windows) or
Command-L (Mac) to exit Full Screen mode.
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