Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Sony Reader

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 11-13-2009, 04:24 AM   #1
FlyFree
Bookworm
FlyFree began at the beginning.
 
FlyFree's Avatar
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Device: Sony PRS600
Notes on Notes (not good)

Like many, I was attracted to the PRS 600 because of its advertised note-taking function.

The Sony website lists these features for the PRS 600
"Take freehand notes and highlight sections of text you want to revisit later, just as you would in a real book, using the included stylus. If you prefer, a virtual keyboard is also available for entering quick notes or searching your eBooks. If you want, you can even export your notes to your computer using the eBook Library software."

But - here is how it works (or rather does NOT work as you would expect).
While reading an e-book on your reader, you can highlight text, or draw freehand on the page. You CANNOT enter text into your note with the virtual keyboard. You CAN find those highlights or annotations easily while in your book (they are all listed, along with the page numbers) but you CANNOT search for a particular word in those notes.

Secondly: you CAN synch those notes, along with the eBook itself to your computer eBook library. But if you have notes in a purchased copyrighted book, you CANNOT export them to a txt or any other file. A pop.up box says "The notes of this ebook cannot be exported because the license set by the publisher does not allow". If you have taken notes on a pdf document, or other personal doc that you have uploaded, you CAN export notes to an .rtf file BUT ONLY THE FIRST 100 CHARACTERS!!!! Is this daft, or what??

Unless a work-around can be found, the note-taking function in the PRS 600 is rather useless. What were they thinking??
FlyFree is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 04:42 AM   #2
Hanselda
Enthusiast
Hanselda began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 42
Karma: 12
Join Date: Feb 2008
Device: CyBook, Sony PRS 600
Quote:
You CANNOT enter text into your note with the virtual keyboard.
In fact you can. It is described in the manual. First exit the note mode, in normal mode click the note you have taken, and then you can either enter a text or draw something to comment this note. The search function in the note will just search such comments.
Hanselda is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 11-13-2009, 04:47 AM   #3
ebooker
Banned
ebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcover
 
Posts: 140
Karma: 16076
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: NYC
Device: sony prs-650!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyFree View Post
While reading an e-book on your reader, you can highlight text, or draw freehand on the page. You CANNOT enter text into your note with the virtual keyboard.
yes you can, two ways:
1) highlight text. then tap the highlight you just made. you get an option to add a note (text or freehand) to that highlight
2) bookmark the page. tap the bookmark icon in upper right corner of the screen. you get an option to add a note (text or freehand).

Quote:
You CAN find those highlights or annotations easily while in your book (they are all listed, along with the page numbers) but you CANNOT search for a particular word in those notes.
yes you can.
1. bring up the notes for that book (options > create/edit notes)
2. tap the notes button (top row). this lists all the notes in that book.
3. now press the search hardware button. Whatever you search is limited to those particular notes. I believe the user manual says this too.

Quote:
Secondly: you CAN synch those notes, along with the eBook itself to your computer eBook library. But if you have notes in a purchased copyrighted book, you CANNOT export them to a txt or any other file. A pop.up box says "The notes of this ebook cannot be exported because the license set by the publisher does not allow".
this does seem to be a case of overly protective drm/copyright policy on sony's part. probably it cant export notes because it isnt allowing even the 100 characters of highlighted text to be exported, and since the note is tied to the highlight, it gets blocked too? If thats the case I agree that thats daft, but I also think thats something they'll fix cuz one should be able to get one's own notes out.

Quote:
If you have taken notes on a pdf document, or other personal doc that you have uploaded, you CAN export notes to an .rtf file BUT ONLY THE FIRST 100 CHARACTERS!!!!
I dont think thats correct. When I exported my notes I think my notes in their entirety did come thru. It was only the highlighted portion of the document's text that was limited to the 100 characters.
I can test this again on mine, but I think that was the case.
UPDATE: Verified, 185 characters of my own note did export into the RTF file. So the 100 character limit only applies to the highlighted text, not to your note.

Quote:
Unless a work-around can be found, the note-taking function in the PRS 600 is rather useless. What were they thinking??
its not useless; its a bit limited. I'm not typing long notes to myself on that tiny keyboard; just a few phrases that i expand upon later when i'm back at the computer. I do find it useful for that. On a real book we'd be typing in the quote manually anyway. If you want to be able to copy chunks of the document's text out, a tablet or netbook would do it, but not these very limited reading devices -- at least, not yet.

Last edited by ebooker; 11-13-2009 at 04:57 AM.
ebooker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 11:05 AM   #4
ardeegee
Maratus speciosus butt
ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ardeegee ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
ardeegee's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,292
Karma: 1162698
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-350
This may be a bit of a tangential topic, but all you book note takers-- what are you writing? I never feel the need to write some sort of note to myself in a physical book.
ardeegee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 11:45 AM   #5
ebooker
Banned
ebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcover
 
Posts: 140
Karma: 16076
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: NYC
Device: sony prs-650!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee View Post
This may be a bit of a tangential topic, but all you book note takers-- what are you writing? I never feel the need to write some sort of note to myself in a physical book.
I'm just using free form notes/highlighting as a way to mark passages that I want to go back to later. Usually if I'm doing academic work on pdf files, I mark it up on the reader (no long notes; just marks and highlights and a few words to remind me later what i'm thinking), then on the computer and the EBL software (after syncing) I go thru each mark (you can jump from mark to mark in the EBL software too) and just write up my thoughts more fully in a word document.

So for me the highlighting/marking is basically a rudimentary way to bookmark specific passages or paragraphs. And enter a few quick words about it.

That works well for me, and lets me do that away from the computer. But thats also about the limit of what you can do with this reader I think. If I wanted to do anything more, I'd really just get a netbook or a tablet.
ebooker is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 11-13-2009, 11:50 AM   #6
rvdparis
Connoisseur
rvdparis doesn't litterrvdparis doesn't litter
 
Posts: 53
Karma: 140
Join Date: Apr 2009
Device: Kindle Touch + iPad 1 + iPhone 4
Not to get off topic of this thread, but

@ardeegee: eReaders and ebooks have the potential to help academics or students in tremendous ways. The ability to store 100s or 1000s of PDF journal articles, or academic texts, and to take them with you, to note on them, to make separate notes, and then to use those notes for analysis later is a dream chore for those of us who need it. Imagine when you were in school, and you needed to read a book for a class, and you could download it, make notes on it, and then later use those notes to write your paper. Sadly, the software that Sony provides is very very badly adapted for such uses, especially for those of us on macs.

In any case, I never finish a book without scrawling notes all over it, with post-its and folded over pages...I can't imagine NOT writing all over a physical book, unless it was made of gold and I wanted to resell it.
rvdparis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 11:57 AM   #7
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee View Post
This may be a bit of a tangential topic, but all you book note takers-- what are you writing? I never feel the need to write some sort of note to myself in a physical book.
Personally, I'm proof-reading the books that I create and upload to MR. The ability to make notes on the errors in the book is invaluable.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 11:59 AM   #8
FlyFree
Bookworm
FlyFree began at the beginning.
 
FlyFree's Avatar
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Device: Sony PRS600
Notes - not quite so bad after all....

I stand corrected! I guess a simple case of RTFM. I just downloaded the manual from the Sony support site, as it is not included with the Reader itself. Maybe they should pre-load the pdf! thanks for answering!
FlyFree is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:07 PM   #9
ebooker
Banned
ebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcover
 
Posts: 140
Karma: 16076
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: NYC
Device: sony prs-650!
The sony reader really is a unique device in allowing highlighting (and notes). I could even live without "drawing" notes but I couldnt live without highlighting/memos.

The highlighting part works very well, just tap with your finger and drag across the text.

But ya the reader isnt ready for much beyond that right now. But its so unique in offering that capability. Is there any other reader out there that offers highlighting of text? I know the kindle lets you bookmark a page, and you can clip the text of the whole page, but not specific phrases or paragraphs like the sony can.
ebooker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:08 PM   #10
ebooker
Banned
ebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcover
 
Posts: 140
Karma: 16076
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: NYC
Device: sony prs-650!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyFree View Post
I stand corrected! I guess a simple case of RTFM. I just downloaded the manual from the Sony support site, as it is not included with the Reader itself. Maybe they should pre-load the pdf! thanks for answering!
lol, the manual IS included. Its included in a folder on the prs-600 called 'documents'. Its there in zipped format, you can copy it to your hard drive and unzip it. You can explore the files of the prs-600 if you go into 'my computer'.
ebooker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:12 PM   #11
ebooker
Banned
ebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcoverebooker exercises by bench pressing the entire Harry Potter series in hardcover
 
Posts: 140
Karma: 16076
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: NYC
Device: sony prs-650!
I'm hoping and praying that sony eventually releases bilingual dictionaries. The reader would be absolutely perfect to practice reading comprehension. Say you're reading a french text. Simply double-tap a word to look up its english translation.

I made that suggestion to sony and the guy said he would pass it up the chain. But he said at the moment there werent any plans to introduce other dictionaries. I hope they change their mind on that. But my question is - why didnt they think of this themselves? There's all kinds of possibilities with this reader, especially for the education market and for students. Really simple things (like allowing or offering custom dictionaries) would open up the device for amazing uses.
ebooker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:13 PM   #12
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyFree View Post
I stand corrected! I guess a simple case of RTFM. I just downloaded the manual from the Sony support site, as it is not included with the Reader itself. Maybe they should pre-load the pdf! thanks for answering!
You may find it instructive to look in the "Documents" folder on your Reader.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:17 PM   #13
ctol
Groupie
ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.ctol ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 152
Karma: 303523
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Arizona
Device: Nook, Fire Tablet, Windows RT Tablet Windows Phone
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyFree View Post
Like many, I was attracted to the PRS 600 because of its advertised note-taking function.

The Sony website lists these features for the PRS 600
"Take freehand notes and highlight sections of text you want to revisit later, just as you would in a real book, using the included stylus. If you prefer, a virtual keyboard is also available for entering quick notes or searching your eBooks. If you want, you can even export your notes to your computer using the eBook Library software."

But - here is how it works (or rather does NOT work as you would expect).
While reading an e-book on your reader, you can highlight text, or draw freehand on the page. You CANNOT enter text into your note with the virtual keyboard. You CAN find those highlights or annotations easily while in your book (they are all listed, along with the page numbers) but you CANNOT search for a particular word in those notes.

Secondly: you CAN synch those notes, along with the eBook itself to your computer eBook library. But if you have notes in a purchased copyrighted book, you CANNOT export them to a txt or any other file. A pop.up box says "The notes of this ebook cannot be exported because the license set by the publisher does not allow". If you have taken notes on a pdf document, or other personal doc that you have uploaded, you CAN export notes to an .rtf file BUT ONLY THE FIRST 100 CHARACTERS!!!! Is this daft, or what??

Unless a work-around can be found, the note-taking function in the PRS 600 is rather useless. What were they thinking??

I agree with you that the note taking function needs work. But, on the other hand, like all new programs and functions, this one is still in an immature phase. Hence there are always trade offs when developing a new technology. Just remember programmers are human and will never be able to produce something that meet the needs of everyone. That is an impossible task. Just give them time to get the bugs out. I'm sure either Sony or someone else will eventually come up with one that will meet your needs.
ctol is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:18 PM   #14
FlyFree
Bookworm
FlyFree began at the beginning.
 
FlyFree's Avatar
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Device: Sony PRS600
My notes depend on what I am reading! Just read "Your Inner Fish" for instance, and I highlighted "Sonic hedgehog" as a reminder to learn more about what this is (it's a gene). Now that I know how to add a "comment" to the highlight in EBL, I can enrich these highlights, and synch them back to the ebook on the reader.
In reading novels, I like to make a list of the characters, with a blurb or two. Useful when the second or third volume is published a few years later.
Still is shame not to be able to export highlights from coyrighted material though, and the character limitation for comments is 2048 (it says in the manual!)
FlyFree is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-13-2009, 12:27 PM   #15
daffy4u
I'm Super Kindle-icious
daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
daffy4u's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,734
Karma: 2434103
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia
Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebooker View Post
The sony reader really is a unique device in allowing highlighting (and notes). .
All the Kindles can do this as well.
daffy4u is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
iPad Notes Iain Apple Devices 0 10-01-2010 04:47 AM
PRS-600 organising notes Sjonnie Sony Reader 0 01-16-2010 05:12 AM
PRS-600 Hyperlinks and notes Prince Hal Sony Reader 3 01-08-2010 10:13 AM
why can't I see my saved notes? f0ck3r iRex 10 04-24-2009 05:18 AM
Before I buy: What do notes look like? csmeder iRex 11 07-10-2008 06:53 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:11 PM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.