A key function of any mobile device is file management. For healthcare professionals, management of our electronic library of PDFs – journal articles, interesting talks, and so on – can be particularly painful.
This is especially true for our oncology and cardiology colleagues, for whom a new trial is released seemingly every day.
Every day, physicians, nurses, PA’s, and other healthcare professionals read and use PDFs on mobile devices for functions ranging from a quick literature review to inform clinical decisions to annotating notes during a lecture.
In the first part of this two part series, we looked at iBooks, Dropbox, iAnnotate, and Goodreader. Now in Part 2, we’ll look at Papers, Sente, and PDF Expert – and name our pick for best PDF management app for healthcare professionals.
PDF Expert
- iTunes:
- Price: $9.99
PDF Expert is very similar to GoodReader. It can also handle multiple file types and can import/export files from a wide range of online cloud storage locations. While it cannot boast the same breadth as GoodReader, it certainly covers all the major online storage providers such as Dropbox.
The user interface of PDF Expert is highly refined and ‘Apple-like,’ making managing and browsing PDFs easy and straightforward. There are advanced file management options including the ability to rename, move, copy and zip files. Files and folders can be synced over the air ensuring that all the files are always up-to-date.
PDF Expert has the best annotation functions out of all the apps noted here. Whilst the range of features is very similar to GoodReader (and thus not repeated here), their implementation is better and as a result it is quicker and easier to mark up PDFs using this app. There is a fantastic function where PDF pages can be moved around and extra pages can be added.
There are also functions that allow PDF forms to be filled in and signed on the go-useful when it is not possible to print or access a computer. This collection of features ensure that PDF Expert is as close to a full featured desktop PDF editor as can be.
Managing a medical literature library would certainly be possible with PDF Expert due to its ability to organize folders and files on-the-go. One sample folder structure that works particularly well is:
Year-Author-Journal-Article (See screenshots for sample)
Filing medical PDFs using this system will ensure that they will be easily found when required.
Summary:
PDF Expert offers a wide range of functionality and connectivity to manage collections of PDFs. This feature rich app allows extensive annotation options as well as an ability to move/add in pages. The ease of importing/exporting PDFs ensures that this app offers untold levels of functionality.
One point to note for both GoodReader and PDF Expert is that all the content is stored locally once it has been synced. This means that the iPad is not always reliant on internet connectivity which is an advantage. Both apps also offer a number of extra security options such as passcode locks.
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Thanks for this review – very interesting, and it will be helpful to me as we decide which PDF manager(s) to incorporate as export options in the next release of our PubMed search app (www.pubsavvy.com). A couple of observations – most users of medical literature need to manage citations as well as pdfs (to create bibliographic listings, etc). While Sente and Papers sound impressive, I’m not sure I’m seeing something yet that will replace my use of EndNote on the desktop (perhaps I am just being timid). I wonder when apps will come for Zotero and Mendeley…
Using Dropbox to manage PDF libraries will be tempting for a lot of people, but seems like it won’t work that well unless you have an ironclad naming convention to prevent storing lots of duplicates. Now when you download from journals, they all have their own file naming system, which is pretty annoying – especially if you don’t also have the standardized citation information attached to the pdf as metadata, or by bringing it in to a reference manager program that has the full citation. PubMed ID is nice for de-duping, and of course that’s what we use in PubSavvy since we are dealing only with that source, but once you get into managing articles from multiple sources you face a whole other host of issues. Looking forward to checking out your recommendations.
Great review! Exactly what I needed. I will certainly come back to your site…Many thanks!
Stephan
Thanks for this review – very interesting, and it will be helpful to me as we decide which PDF managers to incorporate as export options in the next release of our PubMed search app (PubSavvy). A couple of observations – most users of medical literature need to manage citations as well as pdfs (to create bibliographic listings, etc). While Sente and Papers sound impressive, I’m not sure I’m seeing something yet that will replace my use of EndNote on the desktop (perhaps I am just being timid). I wonder when apps will come for Zotero and Mendeley…
Using Dropbox to manage PDF libraries will be tempting for a lot of people, but seems like it won’t work that well unless you have an ironclad naming convention to prevent storing lots of duplicates. Now when you download from journals, they all have their own file naming system, which is pretty annoying – especially if you don’t also have the standardized citation information attached to the pdf as metadata, or by bringing it in to a reference manager program that has the full citation. PubMed ID is nice for de-duping, and of course that’s what we use in PubSavvy since we are dealing only with that source, but once you get into managing articles from multiple sources you face a whole other host of issues. Looking forward to checking out your recommendations.