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[Dr R]

Now I am torn between supporting my local newsagent, and freeing up future shelf space in the office. I spend too much of my life looking at LCD screens anyway. But I do like the idea of having an offline archive on my tablet.

Thank you SOS for being so helpful, and adding yet another dilemma into my life

[Forum Admin]

Now I am torn between supporting my local newsagent, and freeing up future shelf space in the office. I spend too much of my life looking at LCD screens anyway. But I do like the idea of having an offline archive on my tablet.

The high street needs all the support it can get, so definitely continue to support your newsagent.

But if the mag's sold out or you can't make it there one month, at least now you know you can buy a Full Issue PDF and stick it on your smartphone or tablet -- and it's lower-price than ordering a print back issue from us and paying the postage costs on top.

[BaronVonSkopnik]

I'm absolutely thrilled with the PDF option as well! I just subbed online a few months ago and almost immediately emailed in to the team, inquiring about PDF issues and they basically told me that it wasn't going to happen due to piracy concerns. Well, what a turn of events this is! The PDF format is my favourite to read the magazine through on my computer, so I couldn't be happier. Add to that, I can now also buy complete back issues (2018 only for now) too. What a win!

Thanks SOS!

[BobTheDog]

Another thanks for the pdf option, for some reason my printed editions seem to randomly disappear in this house and the digital one I never quite got on with.

Just one small thing would it be possible to put contents/index into the pdf?

[Forum Admin]

Just one small thing would it be possible to put contents/index into the pdf?

The printed Contents we call "In This Issue" of course already is in each PDF, since it is a replica of the printed magazine.

But I'm guessing you mean an electronic contents with links? This is one of the benefits of the Tablet version but we'll see if we can include an electronic index. The PDF version is there to encourage readers to page through the file as if skimming through the print edition. One of its major benefits over paper is it is searchable in Apple Preview and Acrobat Reader.

When viewed in iBooks, the Full Issue PDF lets you bookmark pages, so you could bookmark each PDF's In This Issue page -- iBooks also permits notes, whereas these are not possible in our Tablet version.

There are pros and cons to each format, such as zoom in the PDF but zoom only on a few pages in the Tablet edition; audio/video in the Tablet but not in the PDF; PDF works on smartphones too, but Tablet edition only works on tablets, etc.

[Forum Admin]

I'm absolutely thrilled with the PDF option as well! I just subbed online a few months ago and almost immediately emailed in to the team, inquiring about PDF issues and they basically told me that it wasn't going to happen due to piracy concerns. Well, what a turn of events this is!

It was your enquiry that tipped the vote.

Seriously, we've had many readers asking for this format for years and with faster broadband and larger storage available on computers/smartphones/tablets and low-cost USB thumb drives, it felt like the right time for us to introduce it.

Glad you're thrilled with the PDF option.