FA 2015 pdf version??

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Cowboy12

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Anyone have or can convert FA 2015 into a searchable pdf? I have really come to enjoy the search function by using a pdf version of 2014. I already purchased the 2015 paper edition but would really like to have a pdf version to have the search function to use while going through UW. I would be forever grateful if anyone could help me out with this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Have you done this before? and if so what was the quality? I just assumed they wouldn't scan it due to copyright. I took another look at the FA 2014 pdf I have and it appears to been made or converted from the ebook version. I have attempted to look up information on how to convert but from the reviews on amazon it seems as if the kindle version isn't exactly like the book as far as format and layout.
 
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I think that is where the OCR comes in. I don't know much about it just trying to read up on it now. I'm not sure if that is done at the place that scans it or something I have to do after the fact.
 
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Macaroon_Berry said:
If you get it scanned, is it possible to use "Search" to find keywords in First Aid from the computer?
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Only if you get it OCRed. OCR = optical character recognition. If you just scan it your end product is a bunch of jpgs. So say you unbound your FA, ran it through your scanner at home, and chose the "save as" or "save to usb" function (vs simply copying and having the scanner/printer spit out a photocopy). You would get a jpg/pdf/whatever filed you saved it as, but it wouldn't be searchable. Essentially you would have a digital photocopy (vs a hard photocopy as in a typical xerox copy) no different than taking a pic with your phone.
 
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Okay so I converted the kindle version to pdf but the layout and format looks all weird. Is there anyway to change this into a usable format??
 

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why does your status say premed, i'm really hoping its because when you joined in 2012 you were premed but now are a med student. if you're a pre med now and trying to get FA then i'll just lol
 
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No your right. I started account in 2012 as premed, started med school in 2013, now MS2 lol I am far from being a mega gunner. thanks for bringing it to my attention though I fixed it
 
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anyone know about the cost of OCR? This has me curious in terms of doing first aid on my computer, not sure if thats advisable for dedicated when I'm planning on looking at it for many hours
 
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I am having mine scanned into searchable pdf. Only other option was to wait till March when it has typically leaked but since PirateBay is down I figured Id take it into my own hands. This way I have the paper version for reading and the digital to quickly search terms from UW to read the corresponding FA section for each individual question as well.
 
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PL198 said:
anyone know about the cost of OCR? This has me curious in terms of doing first aid on my computer, not sure if thats advisable for dedicated when I'm planning on looking at it for many hours
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Kinkos near me does it, though I've never personally paid to have it done. Give your local one a call and see what they say since they might have a discount or something for your school.
 
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is using FA on a computer a common strategy for people or does that get to be an eye strain after a while
 
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I used a pdf editor with my FA and did some crazy alchemy using OCR software, other textbooks, and screenshots.

The exam is 7 hours of computer viewing. If eyestrain is a problem you better address it beforehand.
 
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Well i am definitely in favor of using digital FA along with hardcopy. It makes searching things quite easy also FA doesn't cover one topic in one section, its pretty spread out. e.g. i am doing amyloidosis and i got a question wrong, i do quick FA search on preview and BAMM! i go through all the pages where its mentioned. I swear it just brings it all together and makes it quite complete. I even realized i didn't needed the annotations cuz its mentioned somewhere else in the book. Highlight and good to go.
 
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DrLynn said:
What up! I have FA2013. Does anyone know if it is much different from the 2015 one?
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Yes, there was an enormous # of errors in FA 2013 (not as much as 2012 though, **shudders**). You need the newest edition and so far as I understand they had a detailed peer review to correct any errors in 2015.
 
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cbrons said:
Yes, there was an enormous # of errors in FA 2013 (not as much as 2012 though, **shudders**). You need the newest edition and so far as I understand they had a detailed peer review to correct any errors in 2015.
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have you seen the current list of errata for the 2015 version? it's only been like a week but there's already quite a few =\

http://www.firstaidteam.com/proposed-step-1-errata
 
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Many are suggested errata, not confirmed. For instance, the submission for cAMP hydrolysis on p.621 is completely wrong and not what's in the book. Sources like Wiki are not reliable. UpToDate and recent peer-reviewed sources are what we go off of. And it should be noted that thevast majority of the errata submitted are regarding technicality/detail that either isn't relevant to Step 1 or is intentionally omitted in order to keep the text HY. For instance, if we only list a condition as having one type of pathophys mechanism but there are in fact three, it's not an erratum per se because we didn't list the other two; that might be because the Step only cares about the one. This can be applied to detail across the whole book.

However I do agree that the fibrin/fibrillin erratum is quite massive. Actually quite shocked that's even there to be honest.
 
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I have a feeling that FA 2015 will have much less truly major errata than previous editions.
 
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Mr. Mojo Risin said:
It's probably gaining popularity, but it's an eye strain for me. Floaters suck.
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Searchable PDF is the best thing happened since sliced bread.
For example, a search for Marfan syndrome quickly brings up 6 entries in FA 2014 describing the defect and it's complications.
Not only that but I can also type notes and copy & paste HY diagrams, pictures, algorithms and tables from other resources.
 
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Transposony said:
Searchable PDF is the best thing happened since sliced bread.
For example, a search for Marfan syndrome quickly brings up 6 entries in FA 2014 describing the defect and it's complications.
Not only that but I can also type notes and copy & paste HY diagrams, pictures, algorithms and tables from other resources.
Click to expand...

what program do you use to paste pictures?
 
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ugh I wish someone would post 2015. Mine is coming in today but I'd assume getting it ocr scanned is pretty expensive and my scanner isn't auto loading for double sided stuff
 
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PL198 said:
ugh I wish someone would post 2015. Mine is coming in today but I'd assume getting it ocr scanned is pretty expensive and my scanner isn't auto loading for double sided stuff
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I made a pdf copy of something by using one of those huge duplex scanners with email capability at my school's library. Just export like 20 pages at a time as pdfs so they can fit as email attachments, then use acrobat to compile and save as OCR. Cost: Free
 
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Transposony said:
Searchable PDF is the best thing happened since sliced bread.
For example, a search for Marfan syndrome quickly brings up 6 entries in FA 2014 describing the defect and it's complications.
Not only that but I can also type notes and copy & paste HY diagrams, pictures, algorithms and tables from other resources.
Click to expand...

What program are you using to paste pictures of other resources? I have never really considered that before but it seems extremely beneficial.
 
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Cowboy12 said:
What program are you using to paste pictures of other resources? I have never really considered that before but it seems extremely beneficial.
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If you have a Mac you can choose what to capture in a screenshot. Not quite sure how to do it on PC, so I only know how to do full screen capture.
 
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Mr. Mojo Risin said:
If you have a Mac you can choose what to capture in a screenshot. Not quite sure how to do it on PC, so I only know how to do full screen capture.
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When I was a PC user I did print screen, paste in mspaint, and then choose the part that I wanted. Takes a little longer, but works just the same as the mac shortcut.
 
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seminoma said:
When I was a PC user I did print screen, paste in mspaint, and then choose the part that I wanted. Takes a little longer, but works just the same as the mac shortcut.
Click to expand...

Oh duh, I totally forgot about that. My desktop is PC and my laptop is Mac so if I need to do any specific capturing I do it on my laptop because it is that much easier.
 
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I do have a mac and know how to select what to capture and all. I was just wondering if there was a program that made it more simple to paste the screenshots into the pdf of FA. I was hoping you could paste them in a way which there were small until clicked on. Similar to the function of I Annotate for the iPad if your familiar with that program.
 
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Cowboy12 said:
I do have a mac and know how to select what to capture and all. I was just wondering if there was a program that made it more simple to paste the screenshots into the pdf of FA. I was hoping you could paste them in a way which there were small until clicked on. Similar to the function of I Annotate for the iPad if your familiar with that program.
Click to expand...

Oh, I see. My bad. Hopefully @Transposony can elaborate on how he does that. Sounds a heck of a lot better than creating and maintaining a separate document.
 
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dextor2003 said:
what program do you use to paste pictures?
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PDF-XChange Viewer which is free.
It has a typewriter feature as well as a camera feature where you can take "pictures" and paste it as well as resize it to fit the target area.
You can even copy and paste text from other resources using the copy and typewriter feature.
And these are only two features which I have used from tons of other features.
It also have many more features like ability to add pages but that is a in paid version only. But I use the extra pages at the beginning of the FA before the actual chapters start for extra notes, HY diagrams algorithms and tables. Also there are pages at the end which can be used for this purpose.
 
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my local kinkos told me it would be 95 cents/pg and the person didn't even know what ocr is...
 
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it's going to be extremely time consuming manually to do it is what sucks. I played around on abbeyreader and sometimes you have to manually adjust the fields . not sure what I'm going to do
 
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I sent mine off to Blue Leaf Book Scanning. Hopefully, it will turn out well and won't have any issues with copyright etc. Even then, it isn't cheap by any standard.
 
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Cowboy12 said:
I do have a mac and know how to select what to capture and all. I was just wondering if there was a program that made it more simple to paste the screenshots into the pdf of FA. I was hoping you could paste them in a way which there were small until clicked on. Similar to the function of I Annotate for the iPad if your familiar with that program.
Click to expand...

Is there a way to paste pictures into a PDF?
 
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Dr Dazzle said:
Is there a way to paste pictures into a PDF?
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That's what Transposony was describing in post #35.

Transposony said:
PDF-XChange Viewer which is free.
It has a typewriter feature as well as a camera feature where you can take "pictures" and paste it as well as resize it to fit the target area.
You can even copy and paste text from other resources using the copy and typewriter feature.
And these are only two features which I have used from tons of other features.
It also have many more features like ability to add pages but that is a in paid version only. But I use the extra pages at the beginning of the FA before the actual chapters start for extra notes, HY diagrams algorithms and tables. Also there are pages at the end which can be used for this purpose.
Click to expand...
 
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Transposony said:
PDF-XChange Viewer which is free.
It has a typewriter feature as well as a camera feature where you can take "pictures" and paste it as well as resize it to fit the target area.
You can even copy and paste text from other resources using the copy and typewriter feature.
And these are only two features which I have used from tons of other features.
It also have many more features like ability to add pages but that is a in paid version only. But I use the extra pages at the beginning of the FA before the actual chapters start for extra notes, HY diagrams algorithms and tables. Also there are pages at the end which can be used for this purpose.
Click to expand...

You use completely digital FA?
 
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seminoma said:
You use completely digital FA?
Click to expand...
I started out with print versions of FA and RR but now almost exclusively use digital notes.
Camera feature is called "Snapshot tool" in PDF-XChange Viewer.
I have not looked into it but it might have ability to add hyperlinks as well.
Now to look for a program where I can add short video snippets or animations too. 😉
 
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Transposony said:
I started out with print versions of FA and RR but now almost exclusively use digital notes.
Camera feature is called "Snapshot tool" in PDF-XChange Viewer.
I have not looked into it but it might have ability to add hyperlinks as well.
Now to look for a program where I can add short video snippets or animations too. 😉
Click to expand...

How is the PDF exchange different than regular Acrobat PDF?
 
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