Ronnie Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 I have been asked several times over the years if I could condense the How-To Guides here on ROJ into an ebook or some other file that could be opened on an iPad or cellphone for offline viewing. I've been kicking around the idea of doing that because I can see how it would be handy to have on my wife's iPad to help me troubleshoot problems with my Reatta when something happens and I'm away from home. I have a cellphone to access ROJ on the web but everything is so small. Her iPad display is much better for viewing the how-to guides but it won't connect to the Internet unless you have WiFi available. Let me know your thoughts on this. It would take so much time to do it that I don't know if I could just give it away but it wouldn't cost much. Feel free to let me know what you think a reasonable cost would be. I won't be offended. Also, let me know what you think would be the best format to do it in. PDF, eBook, etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 I'm in on any price. While I have done much of what is there [with the How to's help] I would love to have it. I would really be interested in a printed form to keep on the shelf or in each car. So whatever format you want that is easy for me to print off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ship Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 35 minutes ago, DAVES89 said: I'm in on any price. While I have done much of what is there [with the How to's help] I would love to have it. I would really be interested in a printed form to keep on the shelf or in each car. So whatever format you want that is easy for me to print off. I agree with Dave on whatever price. And I'd also rather have the ROJ in a printed form/book that I would be able to flip open/access on the road whenever I would require it. I have an iPhone but not an iPad. I have in-house Wi-Fi but do not trust outside Wi-Fi hot spots. Accessing the journal via AT&T (my subscribed iPhone service) would most likely be very cost prohibitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 I am not very schooled in the ins and outs of this but I have lots of manuals for some old or obscure stuff, on a cast off iPad from a school. Mostly from ManualsLib.com. The majority are in .pdf form which are easily printed if desired. I know the younger crowd can and does everything on their phone but the format is just too limiting for me. Cost is a not a big issue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padgett Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 I have had StraightTalk for nearly a decade. The $35/mo plan includes tethering so I can use my cell phone as a hot spot for a real computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 18, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 I hadn't considered doing a printed copy of the ROJ How-to guides but it would be nice to have. I've looked into making a ebook or a .pdf version of the How-to section of ROJ and I think I can do it. It would take a lot of time. So far I don't see much interest from people wanting it but I might do it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 As this is just a conversation, one year for Christmas one of my daughters took my Reatta shop manual to a binding place and had my manual rebound into two binders. Sure makes things really easy to work with and no more pages coming loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ship Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Ronnie, if you go .pdf we who want a printed version can just print it for ourselves at our leisure. Saves a little bit of expense on your part (paper)....you know us, we always think of your first!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 18, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 IF I do a printed book/manual I think I want the pages to be bound in a way that you could open it to the page you want, and then either have the opposite page fold all the way around to the back to make it easy to hold in one hand, or at least it should lay flat and stay open when you have it opened to the page you want. I hate the large manuals that are constantly trying to close themselves up causing you to lose the page you were on. Maybe putting printed paper pages in the plastic sleeves that are made to be add to a ring binder notebook would be best because the paper pages would be protected from greasy hands. That also might be the cheapest route but then again it might be the more expensive. I don't know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 18, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted February 18, 2022 10 minutes ago, ship said: Ronnie, if you go .pdf we who want a printed version can just print it for ourselves at our leisure. Saves a little bit of expense on your part (paper)....you know us, we always think of your first!! PDF file would probably be the easiest way to do it but it would need to have a clickable table of contents at the front so you could go straight to the article you are looking for. I think I can do that but still looking into it. I hate PDFs that you have to scroll through the entire file to find what you are looking for. A good table of contents would make articles easier to find if the PDF was printed off and put in a binder. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 2 hours ago, Ronnie said: IF I do a printed book/manual I think I want the pages to be bound in a way that you could open it to the page you want, and then either have the opposite page fold all the way around to the back to make it easy to hold in one hand, or at least it should lay flat and stay open when you have it opened to the page you want. I hate the large manuals that are constantly trying to close themselves up causing you to lose the page you were on. Maybe putting printed paper pages in the plastic sleeves that are made to be add to a ring binder notebook would be best because the paper pages would be protected from greasy hands. That also might be the cheapest route but then again it might be the more expensive. I don't know. I think if you mad the pages 81/2 by 11 we could print off the pages and put them in page protectors and then use 3 ring binders as was mentioned. My church can do the spiral binding, but that is not practical for most guys who come here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nittany Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Ronnie, I think you’re on to a really great way to make the ROJ more accessible, perhaps when needed on location?! Please include me as voicing interest in the possibility and happy to contribute to the costs shared by all! Nittany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padgett Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 I agree. Searchable .pdfs with thumbnail Table of Conternts would be best. The original .pdfs were not searchable. Can always print needed pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS.01 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I think this is a great idea as well. As a new owner of a Reatta, this forum has been extremely helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted February 24, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted February 24, 2022 30 minutes ago, DPS.01 said: I think this is a great idea as well. As a new owner of a Reatta, this forum has been extremely helpful. Thanks. I'm glad you find the forum useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon L Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Ronnie, I'm in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philbo Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 I am interested as well. I think PDF and/or printed form would be awesome. As for price, maybe $15 or $20 for pdf and additional for printed? Idk, I'm a dad of a young family with too many student loans so maybe I am low balling. That is what I think I would be willing (able) to pay for something like that :P if you needed help with preparing it, I would be a willing volunteer to help btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padgett Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 Nice thing about .pdfs, all the cost is upfront and the next copy cost is just that of the media (less if on a server). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted March 5, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted March 5, 2022 I've not given up on the idea of a portable printed or digital form of ROJ guides and tutorials. I think I could do it but it would be a daunting task. There are somewhere around 150 articles on ROJ that would need to be converted to a portable format. That is a lot of articles to put into a printable digital format such as a .pdf document. I've looked into it and it wouldn't be as simple as copy and paste if done right. I would want it to have a linked index to the articles and I would want it to be searchable. I appreciate everyone who has responded so far but as Padgett said, the cost in time that would be put into it upfront doesn't seem to be justified by the number of copies that could be sold at a reasonable price. Another problem with a .pdf file is a handful of people buy a copy and the next thing you know copies are being shared all over the internet for free. I'm not sure that is what I want to happen unless I was planning to shut ROJ down and I'm not quite ready to do that yet. I'm still giving the book some thought about how it could be done that makes sense. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlakesReatta Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I think this is a great idea Ronnie. I think even copying and pasting from the ROJ into a doc editor then converting to pdf would be a decent solution. It really depends how involved a person would want to get involved with formatting. I love the idea of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now