Need help with JBL navigation

[Rolech]

Hi-just received my JBL light today, mainly wanted to read the bible which JBL includes however, when you open it all the books of the bible are listed under Table of contents however when you arrow down cursor doesn't move! Apparently you have to know the page number you want to go to? or start at page 1 and go through 2600 pages?
Is there any way around this? otherwise I'm going to return it. Tempted to go back to my PalmIIIxe similar look and greenish brown screen. Big drawback though if batteries go dead you lose everything, & no sd card.
I don't understand why so many reveiws said JBL has white screen similar to nook ect. When I looked at Nook screen it was much nicer. I just wanted a inexpensive simple dedicated ereader to zip around my bible and perhaps read some novels and other works.
In JBL the CIA book opens and at least lets you arrow down countries to choose. The R.Burns collection opens with hundreds of choices but no way to select them, like the bible. Is something wrong with my JBL? am I not operating it correctly? or do you have to just start reading from the begginning and thats it?
Thanks for any help
Best
RL

[Begemot]

The bible on my Aluratek Libre is in .txt format, that is it is just text no markup at all.
I imagine it is the same on your JBL.

What this means, that you probably want to buy/download a formatted bible probably in .epub (of course if one just converted the .txt to .epub it would not generate the index automagically ). I am sure, free versions of bible in .epub are available.

Second option: continue using your txt bible but simply bookmark the pages that interest you as you read, in effect you would create your own index.

[Kris777]

yes, you can bookmark the pages or use search by key words. For example if you choose Functions - > FIND section and enter the key word "Esther" JBL will find the page with Book 17 Esther.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by Kris777

yes, you can bookmark the pages or use search by key words. For example if you choose Functions - > FIND section and enter the key word "Esther" JBL will find the page with Book 17 Esther.

Thanks Kris! That didn't occur to me. I am reading The New Testament for Lent, and I used the "go to page" function to eventually land where I wanted to go.

[Rolech]

Thank you all, I suspected maybe it was one giant text file. I have .pdb bibles on my palm I'm not sure if that would work. Somebody posted a KJV bible in uploads on this site and it sounds like each book may be seperate and accessable. I tried going to Esther via find and while it found those words it didn't want to go there when I highlighted it.
Also someone somewhere on this site had recommended the Ultimate Bible Collection which is on Mobi, and in Mobi format. Its $14.99 which would be great for me with what you get, but they commented that the links didn't work in JBL, maybe that's fixed.
Reading a novel doesn't matter so much, but with the Bible I like to jump around all over the place quickly, and also find word's and go right to that verse.
Thank you all for your help. Will try to find a ver. that works like I want and let you know.

On the Libre, links don't work in ePub, and I don't think they work in any of the other formats either. So TOC functionality is totally lacking. Also, there is no search function for ePub, but some of the other formats have a search function. All of this could be fixed with a good firmware update, but not sure if that will ever happen. The libre and JBL are the same hardware but they use different firmware so functionality is somewhat different on the two devices.

The Libre and JBL have a reflective, greyscale LCD, which means it has a metallic coating on the backside of the screen. In direct sunlight or another very bright light source it does indeed look white. In lower light it looks almost like brass. In fact, it sometimes looks as though you are reading black lettering on a brass trophy or award. Nevertheless, it has a very high contrast that is much more legible than e-Ink in most cases. Most e-Ink readers have a lower contrast and text appears washed out a bit, whereas text on the Libre and JBL is very dark and crisp.

[Rolech]

Thank you Jack, I'm hoping to get used to the screen as I want to like the JBL for a lot of reasons, size, batteries ect. Not familiar with term TOC functionality-Total Operator Control? Well anyway I guess I'm spoiled by Palm for 8 years using ereader.com's ereader and books as well as Olivetree.com bible stuff, just so nice and functional compared to these ebook readers, which I suspect are going to have to get easier to use and more flexible/functional, should be easy considering as it seems to me they all actually use computer operating systems like Linux or Android.
Thank You for your help.
Rob

Originally Posted by Rolech

Thank you Jack, I'm hoping to get used to the screen as I want to like the JBL for a lot of reasons, size, batteries ect. Not familiar with term TOC functionality-Total Operator Control? Well anyway I guess I'm spoiled by Palm for 8 years using ereader.com's ereader and books as well as Olivetree.com bible stuff, just so nice and functional compared to these ebook readers, which I suspect are going to have to get easier to use and more flexible/functional, should be easy considering as it seems to me they all actually use computer operating systems like Linux or Android.
Thank You for your help.
Rob

Oops, I was being lazy and just used the acronym: TOC is Table of Contents. There is no Table of contents function on the Libre, and even if the book has a Table of Contents with hyperlinks the Libre doesn't let you select hyperlinks. So you are stuck with jumping to a page. Your right, dedicated eBook reader don't have as many font and layout settings as the apps on PDAs, smartphones, and computers. It would not be difficult for the manufacturers to give us these option if they just would.

[Rolech]

To Jack and all-Thank you for your help, sorry for being such a neophyte, I have learned that TOC is Table of Contents and am extremely perplexed and frustrated by this whole adventure into ereaders. I don't want to believe what you say is true, but incredibly I'm more and more convinced it is-you cannot navigate around ebooks except in very rudimentery ways, bizzare when this functionality has existed on low end devices,pda's,smartphones ect for years-Now it's as if this TOC is a function everybody's trying to achieve via multiple file conversions with Calibre, and all sorts of workarounds, bookmarks ect.
Somethings fishy here and it obviously isn't the files I buy from ereader.com because they work fine on other devices so my conclusion is it's the reader itself -why can't one download ereaderPro or others to JBL or Nook ect- unless it's the same old marketing plan that will hype up later this year and next the simple functionality of going to a chapter. Maybe there are so many new converts to ereaders that they're not expecting anything else?
Well I guess I'll keep looking for aKJV Bible that my JBL will allow me to look up at least Book and chapter, and maybe even verse.

[Desertway]

I think that the current generation of eReaders, or those inspired by the Kindle, are trying to emulate paper books and to appeal to buyers who are not techy. These devices make it faster and easier to get content, but the experience is supposed to be book-like; not PC, PDA, or gadget-like. Thus, we can set bookmarks like a paper book, but can't use hyperlinks. Most allow some sort of rudimentary search, however.

I'm enjoying the fact that my Libre is more like a book than a computer. I sit at a computer all day. When I pick up my Libre, I just want to lose myself in the book. Of course, I understand that other people want a device that does more, or does things differently. It is definitely not an ideal solution for Bible study.

[Rolech]

Yes, I agree Desertway, It is a bit of a refuge from tech, yet being more convenient than a library, get immersed in a book, not to much color, flash, choices, reading a book. This should remain a prime function of readers, I was starting to think well I could write a message, check my calender ect but everyone of these things would remove the focus, solitude and immersion/escape that reading can bring. But while the Bible reading for me is important to enjoy in that way, it is not as linear as a novel and often I would like to read a psalm now and perhaps a proverb later all in different parts of the book.
But even in a regular novel I sometimes feel like going back and rereading a certain chapter because it was appealing or I wanted to understand it better for what was happening later in a novel.
Thank you for putting a perspective of balance into what a reader is supposed to be.

[Rolech]

Now that I'm doing more thinking about this, I realize that most printed books do come with a table of contents, and they invariably list a page number associated with the chapter, even my printed bible does this.
Many books are a collection of books, writings,essays ect and also list page numbers after these. So nothing as fancy as a live link to go to that place is neede (would be nice though) only a simple page number because JBL has an easy popup menu that lets you jump to a page number - you just need to know the page number though.

Originally Posted by Desertway

I think that the current generation of eReaders, or those inspired by the Kindle, are trying to emulate paper books and to appeal to buyers who are not techy. These devices make it faster and easier to get content, but the experience is supposed to be book-like; not PC, PDA, or gadget-like. Thus, we can set bookmarks like a paper book, but can't use hyperlinks. Most allow some sort of rudimentary search, however.

I'm enjoying the fact that my Libre is more like a book than a computer. I sit at a computer all day. When I pick up my Libre, I just want to lose myself in the book. Of course, I understand that other people want a device that does more, or does things differently. It is definitely not an ideal solution for Bible study.

Some of the e-Ink readers have more functionality than others, but they definitely and thankfully put reading books as their top function. The Libre/JBL readers are near the bottom of functionality in that they are very basic. You can read, make book marks, jump to a specific page number, and do some searching within the text depending on the eBook format. The Sony PRS300 is a step up in that it also allows you to select hyperlinks and it has a Table of Contents feature where you can quickly and easily find book divisions like chapters. The Kindle, Sony PRS600 and PRS900, and many others are at least another step up as the also allow you to select text, highlight text, annotate text, have built in dictionaries, etc. So you can spend between a little more than $100 for a basic reader or $400 or more for a higher end reader, or anything in between. Finding the right one for you and at the right price can be a bit tricky though as no store has has a really good selection of demo readers to compare side by side. Frys has a decent selection, but they are rarely operational and they don't carry the Kindles or the Nook or many other higher end models.

[Rolech]

Jack, thank you, this is the first clear or clearer understanding I've seen about the functionality. I see now that with ereaders the machine is key and the software secondary- the opposite of other devices. The readers are not a platform for software (can't put different reading software on them) but for books 9mostly competeing for ease with proprietery stores, guess everyone trying to imitate Apple success.
Your description helps me make a better choice. One of the things I really like about the JBL is AA batteries, I know it may seem trivial but I don't like proprietery batteries, nonuser changeable, more plugs and wires to keep track of ect.
Thank you much for your help.
Rob

[Ron46]

It takes time, but you can open the bible.txt on a computer, select the text in each book, copy each and paste into new, smaller files- named Genesis.txt for example. When done, put each book into a folder called bible and put the folder on the reader. Done a few books at a time, it is worth the effort.

I did this with the Webster's Dictionary (c.a 1913) on Gutenberg- a superb 18,000 page tome in txt, also loaded with words dropped from the language that were used in the late 19th- early 20th century which is much of what I read. The Jetbook would not even open this file ("too big"), and even if it could, it would take forever. I now have a Dictionary folder with 35 files, named for the first word in each file- each about 400 pages long. Each file opens in about 4 seconds and the search for the individual word is instantaneous. After I read the info, I use function 5 to set the file back to page 1 before closing.

It was worth the effort for me. It probably took 4 hours, a piece at a time, and I plan to do the same for a bible (Douay, sorry). Unfortunately, it is difficult to pass this effort on to others, because the dictionary was 35MB. Even zipped, upload time with my slow DSL connection would be prohibitve.