GoodReader is a file viewer with many powerful features, most of which address PDF and TXT viewing.

GoodReader is a very complex application. It incorporates a lot of non-obvious features and solutions. We strongly encourage you to read all our manuals, otherwise it will be hard for you to enjoy the full power of GoodReader.

Here you will find a brief description of GoodReader's features with links to more detailed manuals.

File types to view in GoodReader

Transferring files to/from GoodReader

Reopening last file on startup

Tips for folder navigation

Managing files/folders, sending e-mail

Password protection

Buttons on the main screen

Disabling device auto-lock when reading

Integration with Appigo Todo app and other apps

Known limitations

Help us to help you


File types to view in GoodReader

There are two types of viewing engines - the ones that we wrote ourselves, and the built-in iPhone's standard viewing engine. Our own engines provide great flexibility and many additional features not found in the built-in engine (for example, opening very large files). The built-in engine is very powerful and knows many file formats, but has many limitations and no additional features.

Files of very big size (our own viewing engine):

And as a free bonus - files of normal size (iPhone standard viewing engine):

 


Transferring files to/from GoodReader

 


Reopening last file on startup

You can make GoodReader automatically open last file you were viewing during your previous GoodReader session. In order to do that you have to turn Reopen last file switch in General section of Application Settings.

In the very unlikely event if GoodReader enters into an infinite loop of automatically opening a file that for some reason constantly crashes, you can turn reopening last file option off in main iPhone's Settings (look for GoodReader settings there).

There's also another recovery setting in main iPhone's Settings. It is used to force GoodReader to start from the root folder. This is to break a deadlock when GoodReader fails to start when it's trying to open a folder with many files in it (several thousands). It happens because opening such folder takes a lot of time, and iPhone OS kills the app if it fails to start within a reasonable timeframe. To break this deadlock you can force GoodReader to start from the root folder, where there are no files at all.

 


Tips for folder navigation

 


Managing files/folders, sending e-mail

There is a powerful set of features accessible by pressing the Actions button in a file list view. You can create new folders, and rename/copy/move/delete existing files and folders. You can compress multiple files and folders into .zip archives, and you can unzip .zip archives. You can also send files via e-mail from GoodReader (iPhone OS 3.0 required). You can mark files as read/unread, set/remove a password protection for individual files/folders, set/remove a star for a file or folder, extract files from PDF Portfolios, save a text from clipboard as a TXT file for further reading, and create a task in Appigo Todo app. You can also create a special URL link for integration with other apps. Read more here.

 


Password protection

There are three ways to protect your sensitive data:

You can combine all these methods for extra security, if you don't mind entering three different passwords to open a single file.

Be careful not to forget your startup and protected files passwords, because no way of retrieving or resetting these passwords is provided.

If you're really concerned about security, you may also want to encrypt your iTunes Backup files.

 


Buttons on the main screen

Actions  opens up additional menu to work with files and folders. See Manage Files, Send E-mail for more details.
 
  enters the WiFi-transfer page used for WiFi file transfers. For security reasons and to save your battery power, transfer is allowed only when you're on the WiFi-transfer page. This button opens this page. See WiFi File Transfer section for more details.
 
  rotates interface. GoodReader lets you choose between autorotation and manual rotation of the screen. If you feel that sudden screen autorotations are a little annoying when you're reading in bed, you can turn autorotation off in General section of Application Settings and then you can always rotate the screen manually with this button. Manual rotations can be done in 2 or 3 ways (selectable option on the Application Settings page).
 
  Find File. Use it to find files/folders in one of four modes: find by a name, recently read, recently added, starred.
 
  enters the Application Settings page, where you can change many GoodReader settings.
 
     
   tap in the middle of the navigation bar (right below the clock) to see the stack of all enclosing folders and to quickly jump to those folders

 


Disabling device auto-lock when reading

Usually your device uses the auto-lock feature (after a certain period of inactivity screen dims and then turns off). You can let GoodReader to temporarily disable device auto-lock while reading (it will be restored once you close the file). This option is configured on the Application Settings page. Disabling auto-lock may discharge your battery faster.

 


Integration with Appigo Todo app and other apps

GoodReader offers integration with other apps via mechanism of custom URL addresses. Other applications that support opening URLs can use a special URL generated by GoodReader to launch GoodReader and to open a file encoded in this generated URL. For example, it could be a to-do app or notebook app. Basically, any app where you can paste an URL generated by GoodReader and later click on that URL to open it.

GoodReader provides an easy 1-click integration with to-do app called Appigo Todo.

Integration with other apps can be achieved by using the Link button in Actions menu. More information here.

 


Known limitations

GoodReader heavily relies on iPhone OS capabilities. Some features that are related to file viewing are limited on iPhone. Here are some of limitations that we know of (please note that most of these are not GoodReader's limitations, but iPhone OS's):

 


Help us to help you

GoodReader was dramatically improved since its earlier versions. The only thing that made it possible is user feedback. Our customers sent us a lot of problematic files, we studied those files, came to certain conclusions, and finally we were able to write a better code. We can't improve our application if you don't talk to us. We might actually solve the problem if you tell us about it! So we encourage you to send us as much feedback or feature requests as possible. Help us to help you!