Aaaah! Ashes and Sackcloth!
I have just found that Kindle 3 is breaking DVJ! I've already sent a letter to Amazon asking for a fix but the DVJ is no longer as reliable as it was on DX and Kindle 2.
For example, try searching mt.22.1 on the new Kindle, it will jump to mt.2.21!
Please submit your bug reports to
kindle-feedback@amazon.com (or their other feedback emails) so that they would pay attention to this disaster.
My email to Amazon:
Dear Amazon team,
A number of my Bible publications for the Kindle use what I call the Direct Verse Jump or DVJ (for example, B0030T1DPY, B002VWKFJ6, B002V1I4I6, B00332EWJC, B0033PSG1Y). The idea can be used for any large structured books or book collections, not just Bibles.
Basically, DVJ uses unique text anchors printed in white to identify
each verse and chapter in the Bible (or other books). Searching for those unique anchors (e.g. jn.3.16 for John 3:16 or ge.3.5 for Genesis 3:5, ge.24 for Genesis chapter 24 in general) and pressing find twice allows jumping to any verse in the Bible on the Kindle in mere seconds. Every anchor is unique and on Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, the search function identifies each anchor uniquely (only one search result for each anchor). For example, searching for ge.24 returns only 1 result on Kindle DX and Kindle 2.
However, the search functionality on the new Kindle 3 behaves
differently, breaking the Direct Verse Jump functionality, which would completely destroy the usefulness of DVJ Bibles. For example, if I search for ge.24, the new Kindle 3 returns 23 results (ge.2.4, ge.24, ge.24.1 and on and on). If I just press "find" twice after search string ge.24, the text will jump to ge.2.4 (the first search result), which will be an error. Similar errors are with many other search. As another example, if I search for non-existent ge.4.31 (there is no such verse in the Bible), the DX and Kindle 2 will currently state that there are 0 search results; however, the new Kindle finds ge.43.1, which is again a mistake.
I understand that sometimes there may be a need for some fuzzy searching and treating periods or word-endings in a loose way; however, at least please allow the option to turn this fuzzy searching off so that DVJ would still be a viable option. I ask that you please fix this issue as soon as possible because many people rely on DVJ now and I hope many more will in the future. The new Kindles have the right price point. The Bibles with DVJ could open a new huge market for Kindles -- people who read the Bible on the regular basis. I have received many reports that people use my publications at churches and Bible studies and sometimes people replace their dedicated electronic Bibles with Kindles.
Your publishers are working withing constraints of a limited format (MobiPocket, for example there are no floating chapter headers or footers, which is a must in book publishing), please do not cripple it even more from one Kindle version to the next.
Best regards,
OSNOVA
P.S. Please note that the software Kindles (for PC, iPad, Mac, etc.) are even worse because their search functionality is so different from the Kindles.