Pocketbbook 360: Table of Contents & file formats

[mimosavj]

Hi,

I have just received my Pocketbook 360. It looks cool and cute.

I have a PRS-505 which is my love. With the PB360, how do I set up and access the table of contents of a book? I tend to use the table of content mechanism of the Sony prs-505 intensively especially with big classic books downloaded from here. Is there any limitation on the file format in terms of table of contents display?

The second question is what are the best file formats (in terms of ease of use, nice display, table of contents, fonts)?

Should I use FBReader or the Adobe one (for non-pdf files)?

Thank you very much,
Anne

[IndecisiveMe]

I've only had my PB360 for a couple of weeks and I only considered using the table of contents today, but I'm not sure how, or if, you can do that. Hopefully someone can answer that one for us I haven't done a search for it yet, but I'm sure there's something around here somewhere.

I've been using mainly fb2 and html, and they are both lovely to read with.

As for fonts, I use the pre-installed fonts as well as a couple I added myself. I use the Deja Vu font, it's the nicest one I've found.

[Logseman]

1) You must access the book, and once you're inside, you click with the center button and you'll see an icon looking like a list. That's the table of contents of the book, if it exists. If it doesn't it'll send you an appropiate message.

2) I read text-only stories, but I think it reads FB2, ePub and PRC quite nicely. However, I haven't experienced converting my books from one format into another.

3) Always FBReader. And the custom firmware at that, as it has more options. FBReader allows to customize margins, word spacing, space between lines, tilting to turn a page or turn them automatically... It really brings you forward. There is a custom script somewhere (in the German PB forum IINW) which allows you to set FBReader as the first choice for every format which supports it. I recommend you to use it.

[wallcraft]

Most ePub, FB2 and MOBI ebooks come with a TOC. Some older MOBIs don't have a TOC but instead have an internal list of links to chapters near the front of the ebook.

I assumed that HTML and other less ebook-centric formats would not have a TOC, but in fact the two I tried both came up with a TOC using Desktop FBReader and OpenInkPot. I think FBReader is keying on HTML heading tags to automatically build a TOC.

One of the best features of FBReader is the Next Section key binding, which takes you to the next "section" which is usually the next entry in the TOC. This is particularly good for collections of short stories. There is also a Prev Section option. I use this so frequently that it is a real pain to read ebooks without a TOC.

[IndecisiveMe]

I'm reading mainly html files at the moment with self generated hyperlinks as a TOC. Am I correct in thinking there's no way to use those hyperlinks?

[mimosavj]

Today I explored the various format and seemed to me the best format is html with inserted table of content (using Word). Strangely, PB handles this html with the TOC very well, and the in-line chapter titles look very nice. epub also has TOC but somehow the inline chapter titles are indistinguishable from the main text (anyone knows why?)

I still cannot work out how to use the hyperlinks for any format (fb2, epub, html.)

Another silly question is how to easily unsnap the cover. My hands are small, so unsnapping the plastic cover is very hard for me, and I'm afraid to scratch or break it too.

Thanks
Anne

[Ea]

Originally Posted by mimosavj

Today I explored the various format and seemed to me the best format is html with inserted table of content (using Word). Strangely, PB handles this html with the TOC very well, and the in-line chapter titles look very nice. epub also has TOC but somehow the inline chapter titles are indistinguishable from the main text (anyone knows why?)

I still cannot work out how to use the hyperlinks for any format (fb2, epub, html.)

Another silly question is how to easily unsnap the cover. My hands are small, so unsnapping the plastic cover is very hard for me, and I'm afraid to scratch or break it too.

Don't worry, I was just about to post and say I couldn't figure it out either But then I gave it one more try.... (with thanks to Logseman ) You just have to open the book, press the large centre button, which will open a pop-up menu. In that menu, select and click the icon at the bottom, middle, which looks like a list, and that should take you to a clickable TOC. I've tried several epub's and one html with self-generated TOC, and they all worked when opened in FBReader.

As for unsnapping the cover, I use my nails, either close to the corners or at the end. It's not the I have long nails, just enough to get a little leverage. The thing is to apply pressure close to where it's snapped on - if you try to pull at the long side, in the middle, it'll bend a little rather than snap open quickly. But - I just now noticed - at the corners, there's little "flap" thingies, and if you hold the device with one hand, cover facing up, you can just use your finger on that "flap" thingy to snap the cover off.