Adobe Reader Modern UI App Comes To Windows 8 Store
Apart from its visually stunning looks, Windows 8 boasts many excellent features that make it one of the best versions of Windows ever to come out of Redmond’s door, in our opinion. One of the new features of Windows 8 is its native ability to handle PDF documents via the integrated Reader app. However, if you tend to use Adobe Reader for all your PDF needs, you’ll be delighted to learn that its Modern UI app has just been released in Windows Store that does a great job in letting you view all your PDF documents. The app is well-optimized for both Windows 8 and RT, and the experience is stunningly snappy in the latter. The app also supports touch gestures, making navigation a breeze on tablets.
You can download the app from the Productivity category in Windows Store, or manually search for it manually by hitting Win+Q on your keyboard to open Search Charm and entering ‘Adobe’.
Adobe has done a great job in designing the interface, keeping it minimalistic yet intuitive. The main screen comprises of Getting Started and Recently Viewed sections. Recently Viewed keeps a history of your previously accessed files, so you may instantly open a particular document without having to browse for it all over again. Similarly, to open a new PDF document, click Open File tile under Getting Started, and the integrated file explorer will let you select the target file.
The strongest point of Adobe’s PDF Reader products has been flawless rendering, and the new Windows 8 app doesn’t disappoint in that regard even one bit. You can choose to switch between viewing modes from the App Bar at the bottom by right-clicking with mouse or swiping up from bottom on touch screens. The app features two View Modes: Continuous and Single Page – the former provides a seamless experience through vertical scrolling while the latter shows one document page at a time and the pages can be flipped via horizontal scrolling. You can simply hold Ctrl key and use the mouse scroller to zoom in and out of the currently focused page.
Likewise, zooming out past the full page length presents you with the handy thumbnails interface, providing you with a bird’s eye view of all the pages of the document. Clicking any thumbnail lets you jump over to that page. Windows RT users can rely on pinch-to-zoom gestures to enter the thumbnails view mode.
As expected, you can use the search function to quickly find a keyword or phrase in the document. Clicking or tapping Find in the App bar displays the search field; simply type in what you’re looking for, and hit enter to see the results.
Once again, Adobe has done a great job in creating a polished PDF viewer app that is also easy to navigate. Unlike the previous desktop versions that were notorious for being heavy, slow and filled with bloatware that most users don’t require, this one seems to be fast, fluid and lightweight, making it a breeze for anyone to use as their primary PDF viewer.
