[Hitch]

Originally Posted by spinster

Thanks, Hitch, for the lowdown, literally. That damned fly is in the ointment again! The question now, one probably impossible to answer, is what percentage of ereaders don’t have back functionality?

No one knows. As I've mentioned, though, I am consistently surprised at the number of older devices that we encounter. Amongst our clients, amongst people on mailing lists (like the Dorothy L) and so forth. I would be very, very hesitant to think about devil taking the hindmost.

If it’s small enough, perhaps one just has to forget about catering to the lowest common denominator, and let the devil take the hindmost. You can’t please everybody. Every few years Mac, and I’m sure everyone else, comes out with a new operating system, and, in time no longer supports the old ones, forcing you to upgrade.

Well, Apple/Mac certainly does. Microsoft, on the other hand, supported XP for 15+ years, and even after it officially abandoned it, it unofficially supported it for at least another two. Amazon still supports the very first Kindle that they made and sold. That type of behavior from manufacturers/sellers engenders loyalty. After my first and only experience with Apple/Mac, I will never--never--buy another Mac or Apple product, for that very reason, having a $1600 product kicked to the curb in less than a year.

I don't think you can compare Mac's behavior--which is strictly as an equipment manufacturer--with others, which have a basket of products. I mean, in this context, about the reality of devices without a back button, and whether you should disregard the older devices.

Apart from lack of a back function, I can’t imagine reading War and Peace on a smart phone or similar Lilliputian screen. It reminds me of Samuel Johnson who, when told of a woman preacher, said, “Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog walking on its hinder legs; it is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all.” But now here’s a return link back to the lack of back function problem: While you mention what a headache this is for you as a formatter, you don’t say how you deal with it, and I suppose that’s because there is no one’s-sighs-fit-all solution.

No, I don't believe I did.

One workaround I recently used in Word to check the links in the index was to open the go-to box and set it to the first page of the index, so that after clicking on a link, it was just a double-click to return to the index. When I got to the end of each page, I reset the page number. But any solution more involved than that, including using the search function, would likely be as much if not more of a pain to the reader than navigating back via the table of contents. Incidentally, I wonder if Amazon (and this has undoubtedly come up) deems lack of return links enough of a poor reader experience to suspend publication until it is rectified. I’ll have to run that by them.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're suggesting, vis-a-vis using Word and the index? I'm unclear as to how that relates to an eBook. If you mean simply that the user goes whither she will, and then just clicks "go to" and "index," sure, fine. That's pretty much standard practice. I don't understand what you mean, about the "reset the page number," etc.

Thanks also, Doitsu, for the related-link. A most informative thread.

You never actually stated what you're asking about. Are you, indeed, trying to create an index? Or some other use? And what's the use for the book? Public consumption, public sale, private use for a small group, or...?

Hitch