I've just bought a Kobo Touch, and need help

[AlexBell]

I bought a Kobo Touch this afternoon, and have some beginners problems.

Should there be a manual on the ereader? I certainly can't find one, and am floundering around trying to make sense of the many options. I understand that there are pdf manuals on the Kobo website, but I'd rather have the manual in ePub if one is available.

Quite often when I select a link to go to a new page the lower part of the newscreen appears first and then the upper part - sometimes with the text disappearing and coming back. Is this normal?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I bought a Kobo Touch this afternoon, and have some beginners problems.

Should there be a manual on the ereader? I certainly can't find one, and am floundering around trying to make sense of the many options. I understand that there are pdf manuals on the Kobo website, but I'd rather have the manual in ePub if one is available.

There is only a "quick tour" that shows you arrows of where everything is, and some quick hints. This should have shown up just after the setup. But there's not a lot of info in there. Is there anything particular you would like to know how to do?

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Quite often when I select a link to go to a new page the lower part of the newscreen appears first and then the upper part - sometimes with the text disappearing and coming back. Is this normal?

No, this is not normal. Do you mean links as in from the TOC, or references on a page to another page? Does it only happen when you select one of those, or does it also happen when you just turn the page to next page (without using a link)?

Also, does this behaviour only occur with the one book, or does it happen in others as well, and if so, what is the source of those books?

Pages should load at once, not in two halves, and once the text is there, it should definitely not disappear... If this keeps happening and is not book-related, I'd exchange your device for a new one.

[jusmee]

Since the latest firmware update, I often see a page appear half at a time when I open a book. Just one of the many bugs they introduced this time around.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by jusmee

Since the latest firmware update, I often see a page appear half at a time when I open a book. Just one of the many bugs they introduced this time around.

Ah good to know. Is that 2.3.1? I haven't seen anything like it yet.

In that case the solution might be to manually upgrade to the bug fix firmware 2.3.2 (that has only been distributed in Japan for some reason). The link can be found here http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660

Be careful to get the right firmware – new Touches take the Glo firmware... However, even if you just bought a Touch, doesn't mean you have the new Touch, it might be old stock... and I don't know how to distinguish between new and old Touch models, sorry.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Ah good to know. Is that 2.3.1? I haven't seen anything like it yet.

In that case the solution might be to manually upgrade to the bug fix firmware 2.3.2 (that has only been distributed in Japan for some reason). The link can be found here http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660

Be careful to get the right firmware – new Touches take the Glo firmware... However, even if you just bought a Touch, doesn't mean you have the new Touch, it might be old stock... and I don't know how to distinguish between new and old Touch models, sorry.

Yes it is 2.3.1 . . I have the same thing happening but only when I initially select and open a book. The pages turn as normal after that.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Willa

Yes it is 2.3.1 . . I have the same thing happening but only when I initially select and open a book. The pages turn as normal after that.

Me too, it started in firmware 2.3.1 and still happens in 2.3.2.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Me too, it started in firmware 2.3.1 and still happens in 2.3.2.

Have just sideloaded 2.3.2 hoping to get rid of it . . no such luck!

P.S Love your rat

[AlexBell]

Thanks to you all. It's a great relief to know that other people have seen the weird appearance when going to a new page.

I have another question about text in italics. When I look at text which I know is in italics from reading the book on another reader in some Kobo fonts the text is blocked (normal but heavy) instead of italics. Anyone else seen that?

Regards, Alex

[Willa]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks to you all. It's a great relief to know that other people have seen the weird appearance when going to a new page.

I have another question about text in italics. When I look at text which I know is in italics from reading the book on another reader in some Kobo fonts the text is blocked (normal but heavy) instead of italics. Anyone else seen that?

Regards, Alex

No - my italics are/were fine on 2.3.2. I have just downloaded back to firmware 2.1.5

[Thane1]

Hi Alex,
Yes they do have a manual however it is on their website. You can find it via the link below or just look under the support options for the Touch Reader at kobo.com
Link: http://www.kobobooks.com/touch_user_guides

I thought it was a bit weird as well when I got my Touch this past summer, however as I have come to use it I found out that the operation is completely dependent on the firmware. As they issue updates the layout and operation of it changes so if they did put a paper manual in the box it probably would be obsolete by the time they issued an update for the reader.

Not sure about the font issue you are having, if you are using your own fonts it could be that the italic sub-file (not sure how else to describe it) is missing.

[zztush]

Are they epub2 files? If epub3 files, we have to use ".kepub.epub" extension in kobo. I had lots of problems on epub3 files without ".kepub.epub" extensions.

[robko]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I have another question about text in italics. When I look at text which I know is in italics from reading the book on another reader in some Kobo fonts the text is blocked (normal but heavy) instead of italics. Anyone else seen that?

Certain fonts have that issue. Poke around and you'll find a few threads on it.

[AlexBell]

Thanks for your responses.

I have poked around - tested text in the same ePub with all the different fonts on my Kobo Touch - and found a lot of variation. Some fonts don't do italics at all, some of the sans fonts do italics but the italics are in serif, and only one sans font does italics with the italicised text in sans.

The ebook I'm using has font-family:sans-serif; in its CSS, but the font displayed by the Kobo is some kind of a serif font.

I've also found that the font chosen also influences links. With some fonts the links work as expected, but with many of the the links either don't work or take me to a different place than they should. Anyone else seen that?

I'm trying to put the results of my testing in some kind of a summary, and will post it on the ePub forum. I'll look for the few threads robko mentioned first to see if it's already been done.

[robko]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I've also found that the font chosen also influences links. With some fonts the links work as expected, but with many of the the links either don't work or take me to a different place than they should. Anyone else seen that?

That hasn't ever come up in relation to different fonts, but some people seem to have issues and others don't, so font differences could explain it. What fonts were you having link issues with?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by zztush

Are they epub2 files? If epub3 files, we have to use ".kepub.epub" extension in kobo. I had lots of problems on epub3 files without ".kepub.epub" extensions.

Could you please tell us which problems those were apart from that the reader does not pick up the toc.xhtml?