nook for technical/reference books?`

bluerfoot · 04-22-2012, 04:39 PM

Hi all, I am pretty heavily invested in kindle (dx I paid "double" for as I registered it then found out it was a blacklisted craigslist) and a touch. I have about 40 computer books and the new "update" destroyed the table of contents functionality for me.

So as I get ready to switch ecosystems going forward I have a few questions...

1) is there a fully functional toc on the nook books like I used to have on my kindle?

2) do pretty much all books have page numbers which I feel is much more intuitive then the position 3486 out of 10427 that I have suffered though on the kindles?

3) can I quickly flip through pages and how does that work? I believe I read you can do that on the nook and I would love that ability.

4) are there visual roadmaps for where you are in the book? Kindle just had a percent which for me did not cut the mustard.

Thanks for listening, even at a heavy loss I think I am ready to move on to a different ereader ecosystem, any thought suggestions greatly appreciated.

btw amazon says there is no way of going back to the older firmware...

ATimson · 04-22-2012, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluerfoot

1) is there a fully functional toc on the nook books like I used to have on my kindle?

I don't know what the Kindle TOC "used to be like" - could you describe what functionality you think is missing?

The Nook does have TOC functionality, I'm just trying to find out what you're looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluerfoot

2) do pretty much all books have page numbers which I feel is much more intuitive then the position 3486 out of 10427 that I have suffered though on the kindles?

While most books don't use page numbers that correspond to the print editions, the numbers it uses instead of locations are much more reasonable (your typical novel will be out of 300-400, not out of 10000).

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluerfoot

3) can I quickly flip through pages and how does that work? I believe I read you can do that on the nook and I would love that ability.

It depends on what you mean by "flip through". There's page forward/back buttons on both sides of the screen. And you can also bring up a slider to drag through the book, but it doesn't show you the pages as you do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluerfoot

4) are there visual roadmaps for where you are in the book? Kindle just had a percent which for me did not cut the mustard.

It shows you page # out of the total # of pages, and if you bring up the TOC it will highlight the current chapter. What more are you looking for?

bluerfoot · 04-22-2012, 11:38 PM

Thanks I think you answered all my questions. btw the toc was the one you would have seen in the book, with hyperlinks. They did away with that for a system where in many of my books I can no longer see where a chapter begins or ends or conversely, shows just chapters but not any of the sub sections within (for instance I have a 1000 plus page book that now has 9 sections I can reference whereas before I could expand those sections and see the sub sections.

RAH · 04-23-2012, 09:54 AM

The TOC would depend on the book, I think - some have one, some don't. The Nook does not generate one for you, if that is what you are wondering. If the book does have one, almost always you can pick the entry you want via the touch screen (again, this assumes that the editor of the e-book used correct coding techniques).

As far as page numbers, I can tell you that page numbers remain accurate between devices. For example, if I open a book on the Touch or the Color Nook or even Nook for PC (I think also in the Firefox browser plugin), and go to a particular page, they all have the same text. This can be very handy.

tomsem · 04-23-2012, 07:40 PM

Nook Touch has no landscape viewing mode. No image zoom. You will need to navigate to the linked TOC just as on Kindle, and the 'structural' TOC is 'flattened' (whereas at least on Kindle Touch you can collapse hierarchy). No on-device file management (I like to be able to delete my own content without hooking up to a computer). No functional web browser. Mediocre PDF support.

You might check out Sony PRS-T1, if you aren't planning to purchase books from B&N, I think it has significantly better reading features, and you can pretty much go full wireless with it since it can work with Dropbox, library borrowing etc. without any desktop connection.

But none of these devices are going to jump to the linked TOC like you used to do on your Kindle Touch before the update. They offer access to the same 'structural' TOC that Kindle Touch now uses and which you don't like. You'll still have to navigate to the linked TOC 'by hand' or using some other workaround (bookmarks/notes). They will have 'page numbers' but if you are side loading you can get those on Kindle using calibre's Kindle plugin.

I have all 3 of these devices, but the only one I'm using regularly now is the Kindle Touch (since the update that provides pretty much full parity with ePub formatting and navigation features).

04-22-2012, 04:39 PM	#1
bluerfoot Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 42554 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: sony pocketbook 350	nook for technical/reference books?` Hi all, I am pretty heavily invested in kindle (dx I paid "double" for as I registered it then found out it was a blacklisted craigslist) and a touch. I have about 40 computer books and the new "update" destroyed the table of contents functionality for me. So as I get ready to switch ecosystems going forward I have a few questions... 1) is there a fully functional toc on the nook books like I used to have on my kindle? 2) do pretty much all books have page numbers which I feel is much more intuitive then the position 3486 out of 10427 that I have suffered though on the kindles? 3) can I quickly flip through pages and how does that work? I believe I read you can do that on the nook and I would love that ability. 4) are there visual roadmaps for where you are in the book? Kindle just had a percent which for me did not cut the mustard. Thanks for listening, even at a heavy loss I think I am ready to move on to a different ereader ecosystem, any thought suggestions greatly appreciated. btw amazon says there is no way of going back to the older firmware...

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04-22-2012, 11:38 PM	#3
bluerfoot Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 42554 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: sony pocketbook 350	Thanks I think you answered all my questions. btw the toc was the one you would have seen in the book, with hyperlinks. They did away with that for a system where in many of my books I can no longer see where a chapter begins or ends or conversely, shows just chapters but not any of the sub sections within (for instance I have a 1000 plus page book that now has 9 sections I can reference whereas before I could expand those sections and see the sub sections.

04-23-2012, 09:54 AM	#4
RAH Guru Posts: 615 Karma: 575652 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Hampton, NH Device: Kobo Aura H20; Kobo ClaraBW	The TOC would depend on the book, I think - some have one, some don't. The Nook does not generate one for you, if that is what you are wondering. If the book does have one, almost always you can pick the entry you want via the touch screen (again, this assumes that the editor of the e-book used correct coding techniques). As far as page numbers, I can tell you that page numbers remain accurate between devices. For example, if I open a book on the Touch or the Color Nook or even Nook for PC (I think also in the Firefox browser plugin), and go to a particular page, they all have the same text. This can be very handy.

04-23-2012, 07:40 PM	#5
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,934 Karma: 27060151 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Nook Touch has no landscape viewing mode. No image zoom. You will need to navigate to the linked TOC just as on Kindle, and the 'structural' TOC is 'flattened' (whereas at least on Kindle Touch you can collapse hierarchy). No on-device file management (I like to be able to delete my own content without hooking up to a computer). No functional web browser. Mediocre PDF support. You might check out Sony PRS-T1, if you aren't planning to purchase books from B&N, I think it has significantly better reading features, and you can pretty much go full wireless with it since it can work with Dropbox, library borrowing etc. without any desktop connection. But none of these devices are going to jump to the linked TOC like you used to do on your Kindle Touch before the update. They offer access to the same 'structural' TOC that Kindle Touch now uses and which you don't like. You'll still have to navigate to the linked TOC 'by hand' or using some other workaround (bookmarks/notes). They will have 'page numbers' but if you are side loading you can get those on Kindle using calibre's Kindle plugin. I have all 3 of these devices, but the only one I'm using regularly now is the Kindle Touch (since the update that provides pretty much full parity with ePub formatting and navigation features).

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