will kindle dx help publishers see they need to hyperlink textbooks?

med007 · 05-07-2009, 12:55 AM

right now the amazon e-textbooks for kindle are not well formatted. Publishers are being lazy and not adding features like hyperlinked TOC or more commonly - no hyperlinked Index in the back of the book.

combined with the problem I had with my 128 mb harrison's principles of internal medicine kindle book (before they removed it from the market) - the problem was it did not search...

overall, I think amazon needs to require publishers to do more before submitting textbooks to the amazon kindle store. they need to raise the quality bar...

Slow_hand · 05-07-2009, 06:22 AM

No, they are about the most arrogant, pompous lot of publishers extant. They have a monopoly based on course requirements and have squeezed it to the max, without conscience. Any enhancements will only be provided at a cost.

susan_cassidy · 05-07-2009, 11:33 AM

I don't really think it is practical to expect Amazon to try and force anything on publishers. It is hard enough getting them to produce ebooks at all. I hope that eventually, market pressure will force them to do a decent job formatting all books, not just textbooks.

med007 · 10-15-2010, 02:43 AM

i wonder if this has changed yet this year. still wishing textbooks had better ebook conversion formating.

si14 · 10-15-2010, 07:45 AM

In contrast, https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=1163494 has a proper hyperlinked TOC

curstpriest · 10-15-2010, 11:28 AM

Of all the ebook textbooks I have, none have ever come with hyperlinked TOCs, and searching for strings is a nightmare, its just as hard to find stuff in them as a hardbound book.

Cost of ebook textbooks isn't really a money saver either, they charge you almost the same amount, unless you chose to purchase by chapter (which RARELY is an option, as most courses cover entire books).

I have probably 40 textbooks from getting my degrees, and I only still use about 6 or so, and they are all 20-30$ reference books. The 120$ hard bounds just rot on the shelf, their esoteric contents probably undeserving of TOCs anyways.

It isn't terribly hard to edit in TOCs yourself, I've done it before in acrobat (as they are always always always released exclusively in PDF for some reason), it just takes a really long time, and you may need to fiddle with the DRM in some cases. But I paid for the book, so I figure I have the right to do whatever the hell I want with it, including deleting pages I don't want to see.

jswinden · 10-15-2010, 04:07 PM

A bit better than when I was in Grad school in the early 1980s. The profs would send us to the local Kinkos to get a xeroxed copy of their course agenda and quite often their textbook. Nope, no digital file that was printed at Kinkos like today. The profs would give Kinkos a printed copy on letter size paper and have them xerox and bind it. It still cost out the backside, usually had a few pages missing, upside down, out of order, or simply too screwed up to read. Of course few people had computers in those days.

But as far as today's textbooks and technical papers, there is no excuse for these being put in PDF format for ebook readers. PDFs are for printing, not for reading electronically. HTML has been around the better part of two decades, so if the publishers cannot figure out how to use it and convert it to different formats, they should not be publishers. If they would use HTML they could easily add hyperlinks and easily convert it to MOBI, ePub, or even PDF. Basically we readers are in the 21st century and the publishers are still in the 20th century--pre-1990s.

curstpriest · 10-16-2010, 09:21 AM

Oh, I didn't count those 50$ spiral bound crapbooks, I just trashbin those after every course.

0 Re-readability.

DX doesn't support TOC/navigation/links anyways at the moment, though they show up.

Or am I just stupid and can't figure out how to work the joystick and such?

tomsem · 10-16-2010, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curstpriest

Oh, I didn't count those 50$ spiral bound crapbooks, I just trashbin those after every course.

0 Re-readability.

DX doesn't support TOC/navigation/links anyways at the moment, though they show up.

Or am I just stupid and can't figure out how to work the joystick and such?

No, PDF links are not currently supported on any Kindle.

05-07-2009, 12:55 AM	#1
med007 Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: kindle2	will kindle dx help publishers see they need to hyperlink textbooks? right now the amazon e-textbooks for kindle are not well formatted. Publishers are being lazy and not adding features like hyperlinked TOC or more commonly - no hyperlinked Index in the back of the book. combined with the problem I had with my 128 mb harrison's principles of internal medicine kindle book (before they removed it from the market) - the problem was it did not search... overall, I think amazon needs to require publishers to do more before submitting textbooks to the amazon kindle store. they need to raise the quality bar...

10-15-2010, 04:07 PM	#7
jswinden Nameless Being	A bit better than when I was in Grad school in the early 1980s. The profs would send us to the local Kinkos to get a xeroxed copy of their course agenda and quite often their textbook. Nope, no digital file that was printed at Kinkos like today. The profs would give Kinkos a printed copy on letter size paper and have them xerox and bind it. It still cost out the backside, usually had a few pages missing, upside down, out of order, or simply too screwed up to read. Of course few people had computers in those days. But as far as today's textbooks and technical papers, there is no excuse for these being put in PDF format for ebook readers. PDFs are for printing, not for reading electronically. HTML has been around the better part of two decades, so if the publishers cannot figure out how to use it and convert it to different formats, they should not be publishers. If they would use HTML they could easily add hyperlinks and easily convert it to MOBI, ePub, or even PDF. Basically we readers are in the 21st century and the publishers are still in the 20th century--pre-1990s. Last edited by jswinden; 10-15-2010 at 04:10 PM.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
CourseSmart takes on Kindle, puts textbooks on iPhone	Madam Broshkina	News	11	10-29-2009 09:07 AM
Update on the Textbooks on Kindle Experiments	poohbear_nc	News	5	10-14-2009 05:05 PM
anyone tried medical textbooks on kindle yet? any docs here?	med007	Amazon Kindle	20	04-16-2009 01:04 AM
Textbooks on the Kindle	Nate the great	Amazon Kindle	20	12-07-2007 05:15 PM
Science/textbooks on kindle	leha	Amazon Kindle	3	11-23-2007 01:21 AM

05-07-2009, 06:22 AM	#2
Slow_hand Groupie Posts: 190 Karma: 326 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Baltimore Device: Amazon Kindle 2	No, they are about the most arrogant, pompous lot of publishers extant. They have a monopoly based on course requirements and have squeezed it to the max, without conscience. Any enhancements will only be provided at a cost.

05-07-2009, 11:33 AM	#3
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	I don't really think it is practical to expect Amazon to try and force anything on publishers. It is hard enough getting them to produce ebooks at all. I hope that eventually, market pressure will force them to do a decent job formatting all books, not just textbooks.

10-15-2010, 02:43 AM	#4
med007 Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: kindle2	i wonder if this has changed yet this year. still wishing textbooks had better ebook conversion formating.

10-15-2010, 07:45 AM	#5
si14 Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 16 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle DX Graphite	In contrast, https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=1163494 has a proper hyperlinked TOC

10-15-2010, 11:28 AM	#6
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	Of all the ebook textbooks I have, none have ever come with hyperlinked TOCs, and searching for strings is a nightmare, its just as hard to find stuff in them as a hardbound book. Cost of ebook textbooks isn't really a money saver either, they charge you almost the same amount, unless you chose to purchase by chapter (which RARELY is an option, as most courses cover entire books). I have probably 40 textbooks from getting my degrees, and I only still use about 6 or so, and they are all 20-30$ reference books. The 120$ hard bounds just rot on the shelf, their esoteric contents probably undeserving of TOCs anyways. It isn't terribly hard to edit in TOCs yourself, I've done it before in acrobat (as they are always always always released exclusively in PDF for some reason), it just takes a really long time, and you may need to fiddle with the DRM in some cases. But I paid for the book, so I figure I have the right to do whatever the hell I want with it, including deleting pages I don't want to see.

10-16-2010, 09:21 AM	#8
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	Oh, I didn't count those 50$ spiral bound crapbooks, I just trashbin those after every course. 0 Re-readability. DX doesn't support TOC/navigation/links anyways at the moment, though they show up. Or am I just stupid and can't figure out how to work the joystick and such?

Advert

Advert