By Brian Malcom
I purposefully did not review the first release of this software. The iPad had just hit stores, and I did not want to be too quick to judge software developers that were still working out the kinks. I am glad I reserved judgment.
The first release of this app was somewhat buggy. For instance, the app would frequently crash when reviewing “large PDFs” (greater than 10 MB). You could not email a PDF to yourself once you made annotations. You were forced to sync it with a desktop companion via WiFi. On that topic, trying to transfer large files to or from your desktop was tedious and downright impossible by WiFi transfer. To be fair, I am not sure if I should blame Aji, the developer of this app, for the WiFi transfer problems or Apple. Apple has acknowledged that the iPad has a WiFi software problem that will be fixed in the next update. I just know it did not work well. Now, you can sync large documents using the iPad’s USB cable. This is much more stable. You can also email marked-up files to yourself now.
This newest release addressed some of my frustrations with the first version, and I saved a whopping $2.00 by being an early adopter. The price of the app was $7.99 when it was first released. It is now in the App Store for $9.99. All in all, I would now recommend that attorneys download this app for their iPad.
According to developer’s site, the newest version has the following features:
- A complete annotation system: Text Notes, Highlight, Underline, Free-Form Drawing, Bookmarks, and more. An intuitive interface allows for viewing and editing annotations without leaving the document reading view.
- Full-featured PDF reader: Continuous-scrolling page display with all standard scroll/zoom gestures supported, and full-screen reading mode. Edit mode now supports two-finger scrolling.
- Easy transfer of PDFs: Send and receive PDFs via email, through iTunes sync, by browsing to any PDF link, or using our free desktop transfer software.
- Tabbed PDF Reading: Quickly switch between multiple open documents. Tab setup and page locations are always remembered, whether switching tabs or quitting and returning to the app.
- Fully Customizable Toolbars: Reposition and resize toolbars, and drag-and-drop to configure tools included on each.
- Comprehensive PDF support: Copy-and-paste text, view existing PDF annotations, support for internal and URL links, and PDF outline/bookmarks support. Fully integrates annotations directly into the PDF.
- Document and full-library search: Search your entire PDF library to instantly find all documents with any keyword. Tabs sort new, unread, and annotated documents.
- APS (Aji PDF Service): Free companion desktop application for easy sync with your existing desktop PDF collection. Recommended for large libraries of documents.
- Aji Support: integrated application help and tips, and top-notch email and forum support.
The following are some ways I find this app useful in the daily practice of law:
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Review PDFs with the ability to highlight, underline, strike through, or comment on text.
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Review PDFs and markup or comment without having to print or find those pesky pens or highlighters.
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Store PDFs on the iPad for later review when WiFi is not available or for quick access (i.e. – Local Rules, Rules of Civil Procedure, etc.).
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Word search within a PDF with OCR text.
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Jump to a certain page in a long PDF, as opposed to thumbing through.
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Avoid carrying around heavy binders of documents just in case you need to reference them in a meeting by adding them to your PDF library.
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Create bookmarks in PDFs for quick reference later.
Some bugs I still would like to see fixed or some tips for working with the current version are:
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You can open an email attachment in your iPad inbox in the app, but somewhere in the transfer between the native email application and iAnnotate OCR information is lost. This limits your ability to highlight text and muse other features of the app that require OCR information. If, however, you forward the same email from your native inbox to your Gmail account and then use the web download feature of the app to open up your Gmail inbox in the app’s browser, the OCR information (so long as it was part of the attachment to begin with) is retained. I am not sure why the OCR information is lost in direct translation from the native inbox to the iAnnotate app, but I sure would like to see that feature fixed soon. Until then, I will have to take those extra steps if I am away from my computer.
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Writing with your finger using the pencil feature is still a little tricky. My penmanship is not quite as lovely using the tip of my finger as it is when I use a pen or pencil on paper. Although, it does help to pinch-zoom in on the document and give yourself a little more room for error.
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I would like to see a render feature in the app. In other words, I would like to be able to “print” my annotations to an new image of the PDF document to ensure that others will be able to see my comments and markups with ease and to make sure my opposition cannot modify my changes.
Overall, I think this app is heading in the right direction. If you routinely review and markup PDFs, this app could make your “office” even more portable and save some back strain and trees in the process.
If you have used the app or have questions, feel free to comment below. Here are some screenshots.
