Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
Oddly. my ToC's in epub format also allow me to go to a specific location (book, part, chapter, subchapter, etc.) whether using an inline or a pop-up ToC. The popup ToC is a lot handier since you don't need to flip back to the inline ToC. the same can be done in KF8/KFX.
As for percent over page numbers? I prefer percent but people complain that percent does not give you an idea of how much longer to finish the book. Say you are 60% completed in War and Peace and 60% completed in The Old Man and the Sea, it is going to take a titch longer to read 234,915 words compared to 10,800 words.
|
One option that might work is to use screen numbers, meaning which screen you are currently on and then how many screens are in the entire book. If you adjust the formatting of an e-book (say increase the size of the typeface) and the number of screens (both the one you are currently on and the total number of screens) will automatically adjust the numbers including the Table of Contents (whether hard written and/or as a popup in addition to links).
Using
War and Peace as an example, if formatted for printing on a standard sheet of typing paper using 10 pitch Courier New with 1 inch margins works out to 585 words per page (assuming an average word length of five characters plus a space). That, in turn, works out to about 402 pages for the entire book. However, reduce the size of the type to 12 pitch and it works out to 702 words per page, with the total number of pages being 335 pages for the entire book.
Of course, most e-book screens are smaller than that and I doubt that people would actually print the book using the formatting I described (I used it because the numbers were easy to figure out), but the same principle would work. I sure that to many readers a screen and a page are the same thing when it comes to reading. To me, both would be easy to understand. It would be like (using the first format example above) "I'm on screen/page 305 and so I've got 97 screens/pages left in the book." It's a simple and easy-to-explain method of showing progress through a book, one that could be easily added to the e-book software as an option.