Quote:
Originally Posted by robinson
Your approach reminds me of the wonderfully old-fashioned have the dictionary at hand.
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Yes, it's very similar.
Unfortunately, I need to read many books, especially old ones, in photographed PDF editions.
I avoid PDFs whenever I can, but sometimes it just can't be done. So I read those photographed PDFs in GoodReader but -- naturally -- looking up words from those texts by tapping them with your finger can't be done. So I'm forced to be "old-fashioned", because there's no other way to look up words in such photographed/scanned PDF files.
So, I could either have a paper dictionary at hand -- or the second iPad. The second iPad seems like the better choice -- especially because dictionary apps "predict" what word you might be looking for. Start typing the word, and suggestions instantly pop up. This saves time, compared to looking up the word in a paper dictionary. A second iPad is also easier to handle than the thick tome of a comprehensive, quality dictionary.
And, using a second iPad seems definitely preferable to me over constantly flipping back and forth between the PDF app (GoodReader) and a dictionary app on the same iPad. Not if the two apps
interact -- that would be different. But if there's no interaction and you need to
manually type in the word you wish to look up -- then using a second iPad seems more efficient.
Quote:
Originally Posted by robinson
Now, it suggests that an ebook app needs to have a quick switch feature built in--to move between the two screens with just a swipe-slide.
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Well, Apple already gives us something similar: you can use 4 fingers to swipe-slide between two open (e-reader) apps on an iPad. This is very nice. (Although it's not nice at all that this gesture does not work on the iPhone, never mind the smaller screen.)
No matter how quickly an app or an OS allows you to
switch between two views -- sometimes it's just more efficient to view
both passages at the same time. I'm afraid we'll never get to see this on modern-day tablets. The general assumption is that a 10-inch screen as such (let alone a 7-inch screen) is so small that a split-screen view for e-books is not necessary. The assumption is likely wrong... but we're probably not going to persuade software developers to think otherwise.
