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Old 04-01-2015, 02:40 PM   #1
Bob Russell
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How to skim through ebooks fast? (Page turns are not fast enough!)
Has anyone successfully found software/hardware and reading methods to get through ebooks very quickly? I want to see the main points of an ebook in 10-30 mins and understand what's in the book (more than just the TOC). It's not big deal with paper books, but it feels impossible with ebooks.

Please don't turn this into a paper vs ebook war!!! I just want tips on this specific need to quickly read through a book to understand the main points. Mostly non-fiction on familiar topics.

The obstacle is that typical reading software for PDF/epub, even on a desktop computer, seems to be really slow and cumbersome for page turning or navigation if you want to do it at light speed. It's not a problem if I just want to read cover to cover, but forget jumping back and forth through sections and to the TOC/index, then turning or even flipping pages really fast for a while, and hopping back to the start of the chapter for just a moment here and there. Well, it's painful.

Ever try finding a page in an ebook that you can recognize visually (e.g. due to a diagram) but don't have a search term for? It's hard!!!!

Would appreciate any tips or tools people can suggest. (Even if it requires purchasing a faster computer/laptop, which I would consider as a possibility.)

Thanks!
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:08 AM   #2
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The Kindle has a "page flip" feature that allows you to skim through a book very quickly, and then either return to where you were, or start reading at any point. It works extremely well.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:05 PM   #3
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Gerty is an app by the author of Marvin for iPads. It allows scrolling instead of page turns. This is likely to be easier to scan. I use a Bible study app that uses scrolling and I find it helps a lot (but not all books will work in that app).

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Old 04-02-2015, 03:32 PM   #4
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Harry... page flip is a great feature to browse and return. That's definitely part of the answer, but unfortunately wouldn't solve my issue because it's still (relatively speaking for my purposes) too slow.

Dale... I've left iOS for a season, so can't try that particular app. But I will try scroll mode in my other apps. For some kinds of fast scanning that might work well, depending on how much before and after gets cached, and whether or not I need to move through a book much non-linearly.

In the past, the limitation has been that after speeding ahead a page or two, apps have had to catch up with the page loads, so it really doesn't go very fast (especially for PDFs). But I haven't really tried that in a while, so will give it another go in the apps I'm using.

Thanks to both of you for the great input!
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Old 04-02-2015, 03:34 PM   #5
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Is there anyone with a gaming laptop/PC or something like a Surface Pro Tablet that can speak to skimming speed for epubs/PDFs with specific apps on a faster machine?
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Old 04-07-2015, 09:25 AM   #6
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out of interest, is it textbooks you are reading?

The need to flip through quickly seems to be a latent requirement for a lot of non-fiction and education readers.
Last edited by HarryHutton; 04-07-2015 at 09:30 AM.
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Old 04-11-2015, 02:01 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryHutton View Post
out of interest, is it textbooks you are reading?

The need to flip through quickly seems to be a latent requirement for a lot of non-fiction and education readers.
Exactly right idea, Harry, but wrong guess in terms of textbooks. I'm talking about non-fiction like business books, how-tos, histories, biographies, etc. Also technical books or manuals - where you need to see what's there very quickly, but only want to linger on the parts that are most relevant.
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Old 05-21-2015, 04:10 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Russell View Post
Ever try finding a page in an ebook that you can recognize visually (e.g. due to a diagram) but don't have a search term for? It's hard!!!!
With PDF it's pretty easy.
In Acrobat (and probably most PDF readers):
Set view to "Continuous/Facing" and then zoom out. You'll see as many pages as can fit on the screen at once.
Select the page and zoom in.
Or you can use thumbnails.

For ebooks, you could reduce fontsize to minimum and so have much more text on each page, probably illegible, but again enlarge after you locate your image.

As for the page-flipping in ebooks, for many readers this is an animation that can be configured or turned off, so the pages just appear instead of sliding/turning/dissolving. Check the preferences.




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Old 05-23-2015, 10:28 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Russell View Post
Exactly right idea, Harry, but wrong guess in terms of textbooks. I'm talking about non-fiction like business books, how-tos, histories, biographies, etc. Also technical books or manuals - where you need to see what's there very quickly, but only want to linger on the parts that are most relevant.
I wonder if this might be closer to the mark?

http://imgur.com/a/juKPS

Let me know what you think
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