If you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it? Our office’s regular meeting (every 3 weeks) has made the change to paperless, with little notice. In theory this is good news, but in practice, I found it was a struggle with a 15-inch non-touchscreen laptop. So, if you have ideas on making things easier, read on.
The meeting in question is mostly updates pulled from various sources, with some in-house data. Until now, each participant got a printed copy (60 -150 pages of single-sided A4) depending on what’s going on.
This is now in pdf format…some pages are easy to read, others are content members need to be given, but the aim is saying we received it, not making it easy to read, necessarily. As an example, 6 powerpoint slides printed on a single sheet of A4, where to read the data 1 or 2 slides per sheet would be a lot better. Another example is 16 graphs probably made in excel and then squashed on to one page in Word.
My only available device for reading this is a laptop which does not have a touch screen. Most pages are in portrait mode, but some are landscape, and lack of experience on my part made this harder than it should have been.
So, I could:
Carry on like this
Get a tablet?
Get an e-reader?
Find a laptop with a touch screen
Do something else that you can advise me on?
I am yet to find reading glasses helpful; until now, moving the paper documents closer or further away has been fine. This did not work well with the laptop, and shrinking or increasing the pdf size was not smooth (again inexperience with this style, I am sure). I have never owned a smartphone, and don’t have any experience with tablets, e-readers or the like.
In the last meeting, I made analogue notes on a notepad. It was fine, but I am aware that this could be done digitally with the right gear.
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these. Covers, keyboards, and styluses are a different budget, and that is less constrained than the main item itself.
Most colleagues are using their own devices, which are higher-end, and not within the office budget. Not planning to spend my own money on this.
So, if you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?
The meeting in question is mostly updates pulled from various sources, with some in-house data. Until now, each participant got a printed copy (60 -150 pages of single-sided A4) depending on what’s going on.
This is now in pdf format…some pages are easy to read, others are content members need to be given, but the aim is saying we received it, not making it easy to read, necessarily. As an example, 6 powerpoint slides printed on a single sheet of A4, where to read the data 1 or 2 slides per sheet would be a lot better. Another example is 16 graphs probably made in excel and then squashed on to one page in Word.
My only available device for reading this is a laptop which does not have a touch screen. Most pages are in portrait mode, but some are landscape, and lack of experience on my part made this harder than it should have been.
So, I could:
Carry on like this
Get a tablet?
Get an e-reader?
Find a laptop with a touch screen
Do something else that you can advise me on?
I am yet to find reading glasses helpful; until now, moving the paper documents closer or further away has been fine. This did not work well with the laptop, and shrinking or increasing the pdf size was not smooth (again inexperience with this style, I am sure). I have never owned a smartphone, and don’t have any experience with tablets, e-readers or the like.
In the last meeting, I made analogue notes on a notepad. It was fine, but I am aware that this could be done digitally with the right gear.
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these. Covers, keyboards, and styluses are a different budget, and that is less constrained than the main item itself.
Most colleagues are using their own devices, which are higher-end, and not within the office budget. Not planning to spend my own money on this.
So, if you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?