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MultiReader: Free Word viewer / PDF reader for T-Mobile G1

November 07th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized

One shortfall of the T-Mobile G1 is that it can’t open PDF or Word files natively, a function that’s rather important for a smartphone. Fortunately Bernard Segonnes created MultiReader, a free application that can display these documents. It’s not available from the Android Market, but you can head over to the developer’s website and grab the APK installation file. Download the file using the phone’s browser and don’t forget to allow non-Market apps under “applications” beforehand. Keep in mind it’s in beta, so some things may not work perfectly yet and at 4 MB it does need quite a bit of memory.

 

If you don’t like messing around with beta software, there are a couple of workarounds to view PDF files on Android phones:

1. Export them to a different format on your computer, such as JPG. (duh)

2. Have Adobe convert them. You can email PDF documents to pdf2html@adobe.com or pdf2txt@adobe.com and they will send the converted HTML or text file back to you as an attachment. You can also use Adobe’s online form to convert PDF files without downloading them first (simply enter the URL to the PDF file).

3. Email the PDF docs or MS Office files to your own Gmail account and use the HTML viewer to display them (”view as HTML”).

13 Comments so far

  1. Juan November 8th, 2008 12:10 am

    Why this app is not available via Android Market? Just wondering… thanks!

  2. admin November 8th, 2008 3:57 pm

    I’m guessing it’s because not every developer wants to spend money on a Market account.

  3. ram2006 November 14th, 2008 1:47 pm

    Does the multiviewer view pdf webpages?

  4. ryan November 15th, 2008 7:12 pm

    This works fine if the pdf is on on a sd card or on the memory but it does not open pdf attachments via email

  5. cheryl November 23rd, 2008 9:30 am

    How do you delete this app? It’s on my phone twice and it won’t open. Just says force quit

  6. Michael November 25th, 2008 4:41 pm

    it reads the pdf files ok but it automatically scrolls through the chapters really fast, and that’s not an understatement. maybe it’s for people who graduated from the evelyn woodhead school of speed reading, because i sure can’t read that fast. there is a pause button but you have to be really quick to get it to pause at the chapter you want. and when you click the forward button to go to the next chapter, it starts the fast scrolling again. i spend most of the time trying to control the scrolling. otherwise good app.

  7. Gary December 5th, 2008 12:58 pm

    Hello, do you have a finished copy that I could try? Thanks

  8. Bernard Segonnes December 10th, 2008 2:07 am

    MultiReader finaly speaks !

    Hi,

    I have finaly added voice to MultiReader, and it’s working fine !
    So now if you wish to test/use it, you can download the latest version at http://bsegonnes.free.fr/multireader/en_multireader.html

    MultiReader can now speak text and pdf documents.

    Of course I continue improvement. In the roadmap there is :
    - rtf/word file support
    - more voice choice : spanish, etc (and menu to select voice)
    - possibility to launch MultiReader from an document in the mail
    - speak SMS
    - better voice quality

    I keep you in touch of the progress (if you wish).

    Cheers,

  9. admin December 10th, 2008 4:48 am

    Very nice changes, I’d love to hear about the progress!

  10. bstreep December 10th, 2008 8:44 am

    This app crashes every time I try to open a pdf…

  11. Bernard Segonnes December 10th, 2008 1:56 pm

    I have tried during developpment with ’small’ PDF of less then 500Ko.

    Has it was slow, I didn’t try witgh bigger ones. Now that voice is OK, I will optimize so we can read bigger PDF.

  12. Raegan Hill December 14th, 2008 1:20 pm

    Looks like this app doesn’t preserve the ebook images and lay out - just converts everything to a big blob of text. I’m so bummed! I bought the G1 thinking that I would be able to read ebooks on it - I have over 1000 and it’s a big deal! I also listen to many audio books and have yet to see an app on any platform that does a good job at helping you manage audio books (saving where you left off, checking them in and checking them out so you know which ones you have read and which are still in your library to read)

    Hope this app improves in the future!

    Raegan

  13. Bernard Segonnes December 16th, 2008 3:56 pm

    Hi

    MultiReader 0.5 is available.
    The GUI is more responsible.
    Also added : voice selection (male/female)
    And the application is signed : no more warning message when installing.

    I got the idea of this application, when driving more than 2 hours every day between home & work. I would have liked sometimes to ‘read’ documents (for work, or personnal training). Unfortunately : it’s hard to read when driving :-)

    MultiReader can also be usefull for other purpose.

    To say : having nice graphics, displaying images in documents : it is not the goal.

    I also think voice in computers (PC, smartphone, GPS, etc) may be one of the next revolution, so…. better learn now !

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