[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[kguil]

You're welcome.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by kguil

Just added one last feature before wrapping up 1.2. You can compute and see word counts on a per-book basis in the library.

That's nice, Kris! Now, what about adjusting the number of dots to the number of words in a book? It makes perfect sense for the Freud book to show a longer row of dots than the Kafka novelette. The Kindle app got this right.

Thank you for considering this.

[kguil]

Working on that but I won't be able to fit it in 1.2.

[Faterson]

No problem, thank you very much.

[adrian1944]

Kris

This may be a silly question but a can find no answer in the Marvin help area.

Occasionally using Marvin I do something that selects the whole page and gives me a menu at the foot offering options such as copy and email amongst others.

The problem is I cannot work out how to do this deliberately!

What gesture? triggers this action


regards


adrian

[Faterson]

Adrian, just curious, why would you want to do that deliberately? I mean, selecting the whole page.

As to getting Marvin's menu buttons to pop up, just tap and hold any word on the screen. You can then expand the selection of the highlighted word either by dragging the right and left selection markers as usual in iOS, or by using Marvin's unique +Word and Extend buttons.

The behaviour you describe is actually (in all likelihood) a UIWebView bug that makes proper highlighting (such as across paragraphs, or across screens) impossible in Marvin and other apps, not only e-readers but also the default Safari browser. (See the discussion, earlier in this thread, of "paragraph snapping" when selecting text on iOS devices.)

[kguil]

Adrian, what you are seeing is an unfortunate side-effect that sometimes occurs when tapping and holding the very edge of the screen. Under "gestures" in the "Aa" menu, there is an option to disable the left/right edges. This protects from accidental page turns and mostly eliminates the artefact you're describing.

To do it deliberately, select the first word on the page and drag your finger all the way down.

[adrian1944]

Kris


Thank you

That explains it. I have the option you mention turned on which explains why it is very infrequent and not easy to reproduce.

Faterson

I'm not sure what i would do with it, but found it very frustrating to occasionally have this happen and no explanation as to what I had done to cause it.

adrian

[Turtle91]

I'm a baaaaad man!! lol

I was just in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai looking at their iPads/Mini's....I just happened to install Marvin on each of the display pads....and then started talking about how awesome it was with the couple standing next to me...pretty soon we had a small crowd and the sales reps came over...so I explained to them what Marvin was and how it is the next best thing on the iPad....they were very impressed.... lol

[Faterson]

Oops! But Marvin only supports left-to-right scripts (for now).

[Turtle91]

True....but most of them speak/read english too...

I couldn't believe I was actually giggling to myself as I left the store!

[tbergman]

I'd like to mention one of my pet peeves when using iBooks and every other reader I've tried. As much as I think highlighting, selecting, looking up dictionary definitions etc. are useful features, most of the time I just want to read.
I find myself frequently selecting or highlighting text by accident. This is very distracting and detracts from the seamless reading experience.
I'd like a feature that disables all text selection.
This could perhaps be optionally tied to the hide the page header and footer choice. If I want to look a word up (which for me is extremely rare), I could easily tap to view the header before making selections.
So an option called "Supress text selection when page titles and footers are hidden" would be a wonderful addition.

In case you're still prioritizing features, there are two that I'm awaiting before switching completely from iBooks.
1) A scroll capability. When iBooks came out with this, I wasn't sure if I'd like it but I'm now hooked.
2) An iPhone version that syncs, at a minimum, the last page read with the iPad version.

Thanks for a very promising app,

Tom

[kguil]

Hi Tom,

Disabling highlighting is interesting for the use case you describe. However, it would also disable looking up text in the dictionary, etc... I'll add it under the list of "advanced settings".

Scrolling is coming in 1.3 (the version after the next one). Probably within January.

After that I'll get started on the iPhone version.

[orion2001]

Kris,

If you do implement scrolling...can you consider an advanced option of using the volume rocker to scroll? Come to think of it... That could be useful even for page turns. If you're wondering why...it means you can continue reading while completely bundled up under a blanket during the cold winter months :-)

[kguil]

I'm not sure Apple let me do this. I'll check.