Touch highlight/dictionary on kobo touch only for kobo books

[wes101]

Title says it all, hopefully kobo makes a upgrade that can fix that. You would think that they would think people who would need that are students who type their notes and save them as a pdf or convert it to a Epub.

I tried it on most of my non kobo books and they dont work

[witeowl]

In a twisted way, I'm grateful that the Kobo touch has this ridiculous limitation/oversight. This, combined with the partial refresh, is what's saving me a few clams right now. So, thanks, Kobo, for keeping me from making the leap from Sony.

(And, no, I'm not trolling; I had been following this forum with the intent to buy the new touch.)

[viviena]

Just wondering, are you seeking to replace your 350? I'm very close to ordering the KT (my will is weak!), but to use alongside the 350, not to replace it. I'm wondering if anybody who bought Sonys especially for their annotation or library organisation capabilities will be disappointed with the Kobo as a replacement. Those who bought a Sony for other reasons will probably be more amenable to the KT.

I'll probably get a KT because I buy mostly from KoboBooks and I really like the oft-scorned social features.

[taming]

Originally Posted by wes101

Title says it all, hopefully kobo makes a upgrade that can fix that. You would think that they would think people who would need that are students who type their notes and save them as a pdf or convert it to a Epub.

I tried it on most of my non kobo books and they dont work

I'm expecting that we will see a change, at some point. I am basing that only on a couple of things Sameer has written and on the features they have developed for their iOS app.

That being said, if students are creating documents using some sort of word processing program, then the spell checking/highlighting would be done during the creation, right? I can see wanting the Kobo to handle highlighting and annotation for other PDFs, but not so much for documents the students create themselves.

[jtdolphins]

I was very disappointed to here this. I really wanted to get a Kobo touch, but I need the dictionary feature. There are some books that only Amazon sold/sell that I am buying. Need to clear some bookcase space.

I should have bought the sony before they went out of stock. I was holding out for the Kobo though, because I liked it and price.

[taming]

When I buy technology, I make sure that I am comfortable with the toys current features, rather than buying with promises of changes in the future. If not having the dictionary on sideloaded books is a deal breaker for you, then I would give it a pass, too.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that will be coming, at some point.

[Nigol]

If they do put in a dictionary for sideloaded books, it should be interesting to have a French dictionary also, since the Touch is said to be the first International reader. Using a English dictionary on a French book is of little use.

Maybe that is why they are waiting to implement it, since most of the books on the kobo site are English for now. When they will expand their offering into other language they would have to have something telling the reader the language of the book so the reader can use the right dictionary, which would not be available on sideloaded books.

For me the lack of dictionary is an added feature that is not a deal breaker, but if I was to use it would like french and English dictionary since not all my books are English.

[witeowl]

Originally Posted by viviena

Just wondering, are you seeking to replace your 350? I'm very close to ordering the KT (my will is weak!), but to use alongside the 350, not to replace it. I'm wondering if anybody who bought Sonys especially for their annotation or library organisation capabilities will be disappointed with the Kobo as a replacement. Those who bought a Sony for other reasons will probably be more amenable to the KT.

I'll probably get a KT because I buy mostly from KoboBooks and I really like the oft-scorned social features.

Yeah, it was going to be a replacement for me. I'm not a multi-device person and don't want to worry about having grabbed the wrong ereader. If they change one of both of these issues, I probably still will jump. One or the other, I could deal with. Both is just too much, as silly as that sounds. The social features are a big selling point for me, as well.

[jtdolphins]

Originally Posted by taming

That being said, I'm pretty sure that will be coming, at some point.

That's what I thought with the wifi. Then with touch, I thought for sure it would be added. It still wasn't so I am not sure it will be coming. I find it boggles my mind that they are the only ereader to not offer the feature. The kobo has the best form factor, but its features need to catch up.

I agree totally with buying with the current features and not the promise of updates. Seen way to many broken promises in tech to believe future promises.

[wes101]

Originally Posted by taming

That being said, if students are creating documents using some sort of word processing program, then the spell checking/highlighting would be done during the creation, right?

True however they might want to highlight something that they may have missed

[leighisme]

I was considering switching from my Sony prs350 to the KT, but the dictionary was a deal breaker. And I heard that there still isn't a margin cut option for epubs as well...

Has anyone heard if that feature is coming? It's the reason I gave up on my Kobo Wifi in the first place...

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by witeowl

In a twisted way, I'm grateful that the Kobo touch has this ridiculous limitation/oversight. This, combined with the partial refresh, is what's saving me a few clams right now. So, thanks, Kobo, for keeping me from making the leap from Sony.

The non-Kobo book highlighting feature is really unfortunate, I hope that it is fixed in future upgrades. I wasn't aware of the partial refresh, though, I thought that only the new Nook had that.

Originally Posted by viviena

Just wondering, are you seeking to replace your 350? I'm very close to ordering the KT (my will is weak!), but to use alongside the 350, not to replace it. I'm wondering if anybody who bought Sonys especially for their annotation or library organisation capabilities will be disappointed with the Kobo as a replacement. Those who bought a Sony for other reasons will probably be more amenable to the KT.

I'll probably get a KT because I buy mostly from KoboBooks and I really like the oft-scorned social features.

I kind of like the social features, too, and I wouldn't mind a KT to use alongside my 350, too (not to replace it, though - the Sony has too many features that I love that I don't see on any other eink devices). I will wait for a bit before I buy one, however, I'm sure the price will come down eventually and I really don't need it. I would love to get one for someone as a gift, though!

[jtdolphins]

Originally Posted by leighisme

I was considering switching from my Sony prs350 to the KT, but the dictionary was a deal breaker. And I heard that there still isn't a margin cut option for epubs as well...

Has anyone heard if that feature is coming? It's the reason I gave up on my Kobo Wifi in the first place...

I have tried to contact Kobo about this, but have never received a reply. Last I emailed them was a day or two after the touch was announced. I had asked before that though. Or tried.

[leighisme]

Originally Posted by jtdolphins

I have tried to contact Kobo about this, but have never received a reply. Last I emailed them was a day or two after the touch was announced. I had asked before that though. Or tried.

If they do eventually get back to you, please let us know!

[gitju]

Well that was the answer I needed. I went to 3 different shops (Futureshop, Indigo, and Source) and was told that I could highlight PDFs of my own. Reaffirming my belief that store flunkies know nothing about the products they sell.

Like a few others here, I am a grad student who scans chapters, texts, and/or downloads journal articles in PDF...and rather than printing them all out which wastes paper and requires me to have files and files of material, I had this CRAZY idea that I could put them all on an eReader. But if I cannot highlight passages, or even flag the page (or even better make a little note) then it's not much use. Most of what I need isn't even available in eBook format, and requires me to scan.

As for highlighting the PDF and then putting on the reader, it sort of defeats the purpose of the reader. If I wanted to sit in front of my computer for hours and read my PDFs I'd just do that. The hope was to be mobile (and portable)

Anyone tried the PDF to ePub converters (like you can download for free off Cnet)?