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Old 04-13-2010, 08:32 PM   #1
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DOC format does not work correctly

I've upgraded to v1.71.

I'm not sure if this is the case with older firmware, but now I've got a major problem reading DOC files.

Whenever I convert an HTML or an RTF file with my MS Word into a DOC file, Story does not open the DOC file like a normal file with reflowable text. Instead, it looks like a PDF image file! The words are extremely tiny. When I try to zoom in to the maximum, the words are still very, very small, and worse, the edges of the page are chopped off.

Wow, that has got to be a major, major bug, unless I've somehow downloaded a buggy firmware version (I got it from iriver.com download page).

Hasn't iRiver tested it at all? Has iRiver messed up with DOC format?
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Old 04-13-2010, 08:52 PM   #2
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I tested with saving just plain text with my MS Word, as DOC. Same problem. The Story opens the DOC page like a jpeg image, with extremely tiny fonts and not reflowable. Any attempt at zooming will cause the words to be cut off on the edge.

It's really bad. Has anyone tried it?
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Old 04-14-2010, 07:15 AM   #3
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They've removed v1.71 firmware from the official site. It must be buggy!

Could anyone tell me if I could downgrade to firmware v1.61 without bricking the Reader??
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Old 04-15-2010, 02:59 AM   #4
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Ok, v1.71 firmware re-appears on the official site, but the firmware has been renamed in a wrong way, again. Anyway, you guys should know to rename it in a way iriver story is able to read it as a firmware.

I re-installed the firmware v1.71 again, over the old one, in the hope that they've fixed something.. Nope, nothing has been fixed. DOC format is still a complete mess to view. iRiver really hasn't put a lot of heart in this product.
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Old 05-06-2010, 03:26 AM   #5
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Hi greenapple,
I've replied to you in other threads, too, but I wanted to jump in here and say I hear your frustration and disappointment with the Story, and I certainly share it.

I'm a bit stumped for knowing what to do about it. I've e.mailed the tech support people at iRiver in the US, and just had a reply back that made me literally gasp at the degree to which I think the bloke who replied has missed the point(s) totally. (Intentionally or not, I can't be sure.) He just didn't seem to get at all that the device not being able to handle .DOC files, for instance, in any way at all that made them readable on that system, was even a problem for a user, let alone something that needed to be passed on to the developers as an issue that must be addressed. I think sometimes tech support people who *don't* have an acceptable response to problems with the product they're supporting adopt a tone of what used to be called "dumb insolence", and try to bluff you out by not being willing to acknowledge there's any problem at all ... when all I really want in this situation is to know the company is taking note of the fact that they've fallen short of their own marks (they claim this device supports .DOC files; by any functional definition, it absolutely doesn't) and will be working to fix it -- in some way that doesn't require me to buy a new "improved" version of the hardware !!

It's a bit frustrating when the only contact point companies give is tech support people, who (understandably) don't want to hear complaint, but whose task it is to answer or dismiss concerns of a user and mark them off as completed, as quickly as possible. It's not a system that works towards actually addressing shortcomings in the product.

So if you, or anyone reading this, has contact details for someone at iRiver that's willing to hear customer concerns about their device and make a reasonable response, or better still make a reasonable effort to fix them (!!), I'd be very glad to hear about it.

Last edited by MacEachaidh; 05-06-2010 at 03:31 AM. Reason: Typos, typos ... *I* knew what I meant, so why didn't my fingers?!
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Old 05-06-2010, 04:43 AM   #6
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I can't imagine anything like this happening to Kindle/Nook/Sony readers. If it were, their respective corporate doors would be crushed by hordes of angry fans, and their stock prices would plummet. These are the only readers I would ever consider purchasing next.

Btw, a workaround for reading a .DOC file is to change the page size to something smaller with MS Word before transferring it over to Story. This is not a solution, but the text would at least be readable. For the current firmware, Story somehow treats .DOC the same way it does .PDF, but only poorer, as it doesn't offer the option to reflow the text for .DOC.

I still have no idea how to get around the problem of reading .TXT files.
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Old 05-06-2010, 05:08 AM   #7
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One of the questions I've put to iRiver was whether there were any specifications as to what *would* work to display a DOC file on a Story. I'm unhappy at the prospect of having to specially reformat every single document before it can even be read on the thing, but if that's what I need to do, then at least I'd know. If they'd said something like "Make every page A5 in size, and use font size 24 pt", then at least that would be something. It would be utterly ridiculous, because you'd get about three sentences to a page that way, but at least we'd know.

I also attempted to highlight the fact that if the device doesn't display DOC files in any way that they can even be read, then there's no way to justify a claim that it "supports" the DOC format. They didn't get it.

They just flatly stated that DOC files don't reflow, and there's no way to embed fonts in the document or change the font size in the on-screen display. As if that was news. As if that answered the question. As if they didn't even stop to realise that that made the format unusable.
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Old 05-06-2010, 09:06 PM   #8
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The support staff that you communicated with didn't know what he's talking about. The older firmware worked very well with DOC/TXT, ie both reflow and wordwrap worked correctly. On top of that, you could change the font on Story itself and it would work on DOC files.

Sigh, what can I say. I suppose the original firmware programmer isn't around to fix things anymore. The programmer who did the last firmware truly made a mess of things.
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Old 05-16-2010, 09:48 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenapple View Post
I've upgraded to v1.71.

I'm not sure if this is the case with older firmware, but now I've got a major problem reading DOC files.
greenapple, I tried downgrading my Story to version 1.61 of the firmware (it's the only other version still accessible on the iRiver websites), and it treated .DOC files the same way as it does under version 1.71.

So I'm wondering if this format has ever worked properly on the Story. I'm guessing it hasn't.
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Old 05-16-2010, 10:41 PM   #10
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When I bought my iRiver it came with firmware v1.5. That one seemed to work fine with DOC and TXT, or at least I didn't notice any problems with these formats. I remember distinctively that I tested my Story for all supported formats. If they were causing problems, I would have made a bit of noise then.

After I upgraded the firmware to v1.6, I didn't use the gadget much. I bought my Jetbook around that time, and jBook quickly became my favorite reader. The reason that I preferred jBook over Story was the look of the page on Story when reading an EPUB. I'm not sure if you've noticed it, if you look at the font closely, some vertical lines on some letters are darker and thinner than others. Annoying.

Then, recently, I have a need to read some DOC files. So I upgraded Story to v1.71.

So the last working version was probably v1.5. But it had its fair share of bugs (eg it wouldn't work with overdrive drm).
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Old 05-16-2010, 11:00 PM   #11
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Quote:
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I'm not sure if you've noticed it, if you look at the font closely, some vertical lines on some letters are darker and thinner than others. Annoying.
I noticed you'd said that in another post, greenapple, so I checked, and mine doesn't have that problem. (I work with fonts and in layout for a living, so I'm pretty sure I would have noticed it. Maybe not, but I think I would.) Much as I hate to say it, I'm wondering if the build quality of the Story is such that some individual machines aren't quite up to scratch? I know another poster here, deadpixels, is disappointed that his/her machine actually has missing pixels in the display that corrupt any text that falls on that part of the screen. I'm *very* glad I don't seem to have that display problem either.

Overall, I'm enjoying the Story, but I think I'm really making the best of a disappointing situation. The potential of the machine seems far beyond the capabilities of the operating system, which is such a pity. If they could only get the format issues sorted out, it would be a cracker of a device.

(I'm a bit annoyed at having to convert everything to ePub just so I can read it.)
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