Quote:
Originally Posted by peaceridge
Chris, I use PocketBook for everything but pdf files - I keep trying new reader software, but have found nothing as stable as PocketBook. What device are you using it on? Since I have an android tablet and use calibre companion, and generally do not have internet access, all my books are stored on the tablet.
I am curious as you were looking for a reader to be able to use a dictionary. Does Pocketbook do that for you? So far, unless I'm online, I can't get Pocketbook to use a dictionary.
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The device I use is a Nexus 7.2 running Android L.
The rather odd problem I mentioned earlier occurs when I repeatedly use the Google gDrive app to access my online library and this is what happens:
When I tap on an epub's icon in the gDrive app... instead of PocketBook opening on page 1 of the epub it opens on page 3 or 4 and displays a blank page with some kind of stippled gray background. At that point I am unable to turn pages. The app is not really frozen since I am able to bring up the "books" menu (the one that's hidden to the left of the screen and that you can drag into view that has four tabs: the book's details, table of contents, bookmarks, notes...) as well as the circular menu (that provides quick access to a bunch of settings) and the two sidebars. If I tap the books icon in the top left corner of the screen, I am able to close the book and return to the PocketBook's home screen— the one that displays the library's contents.. recently read books... etc. Now once this starts happening.. if I go back to the gDrive app and open another book.... sometimes the same thing repeats itself... and sometimes PB opens a different book than the one I am trying to access... usually a book that I had opened a little earlier... perhaps the last one it displayed before this started happening...
Mind you... I have not looked into it as yet and for all I know there may be something wrong with those epub's... with gDrive.. with some of the stuff in between the couch and the tablet... who knows...
As to the dictionaries... here's what I did:
I installed the five Livio dictionary apps (English, Spanish, German, French, Italian)... switched to PB and opened a book... brought up the short context menu (a small horizontal ribbon with c. 5-6 icons).. tapped the one that stands for settings (looks like some kind of cogwheel)—you need to
long-tap in a spot away from any text to bring up this "short" context menu... otherwise the long-tap would select a word and bring up the "long" context menu⁽¹⁾ (the one that's customizable and in my setup at least includes the dictionary lookup option—some icon that has chinese ideogram
文 and the latin letter
A connected by a thick double-pointed arrow. This brings up a full-screen menu with 4 entries. The bottom one is "Translation program". Tapping this entry will display a list of all the dictionary apps installed on your system that PocketBook knows about⁽²⁾. I selected the Livio dictionary for the appropriate language... hit the back button.. and the rest is history.
Or so it should... The trouble is that if you need access to more than one dictionary you have to change this setting manually each time you switch to a book written in a different language... Even when you come back to a book for which you have already set the dictionary. It would make better sense if PocketBook let you set a default dictionary for every language you use once and for all and from then on switch dictionaries automatically each time you open a book according to the language specified in the book's metadata.
I've only used this device at home so I hadn't given the on/off-lineness of the Livio dictionaries much thought: I am always online when I am at home. A quick test after disconnecting the WiFi reveals that dictionary lookups appear to work exactly the same as with the WiFi on and provide excactly the same content. I used the lookup history of the Spanish dictionary and checked half a dozen words and couldn't spot any difference. In the event the definitions might have been cached locally I also checked a few random words that I was pretty sure I had never looked up... same. So I guess these Livio dictionaries are offline dictionaries.
Note, that as far as I can remember you MUST bring up the settings via what I call the
short context menu⁽³⁾ to access this option. I remember running into this particular option while "unboxing" PocketBook.. didn't make a note where I'd found it at the time... and it took me a while to find it again when I needed it...
The odd thing with PB is that it is not really intuitive/discoverable on first contact and tends to be a little confusing for maybe the first hour you use it... BUT once you get over this (minor) hurdle it provides the closest experience to reading a printed book in terms of ease of use of all the readers I have tried... I guess there has to be some kind of design tradeoff involved here... And it's not necessarily a bad thing... since you only "unbox" the app once but you get to use it many many times...
CJ
⁽¹⁾ I just checked and there is also a settings icon on this longer ribbon/context menu and it also brings up the full-screen settings menu where you can change the "translation program" option.
⁽²⁾ Which suggests that if you don't want to use Livio you may use Fora... Goldendict... instead...
⁽³⁾ Or the long context menu/ribbon... as I found out a couple of minutes ago...