Clara HD Page controls

[retro]

Just trying to figure out the page controls which confused me.
Does the third choice with the arrows pointing inward mean pages will change according to the arrow? And is it swipe and tap or just tap.



After 10 years of swiping left to right to change pages, my brain can't seem to adjust to the change. For some reason tapping just doesn't come naturally.
Seems like all screens only swipe right to left, or am I missing something?
I don't seem to get what the direction of the arrows means.

[mbovenka]

In all three choices the arrows give the direction, so pointing to the left is back and pointing to the right is forward. Those are the tap regions: it's what happens when you tap in that part of the screen.

Swiping left to right to page forward, if that's what you mean, sounds weird to me. And the Kobo doesn't work that way; to go forward, you swipe from right to left, just like going to the next page in a physical book. If you really want it the other way around, option 3 comes closest, but yes, that's for tapping only.

If you want the swipe to work the other way, perhaps dropping a request in the KoboPatch Request thread may help; that's where the smart Kobo coders hang out. Perhaps one of them can figure out a way to make that happen.

[mathil]

Those are tap zones. If you prefer swiping, you can choose the tap zone you prefer based on the positioning of the menu and ignore the rest. If you don't want to risk tapping by accident you can deactivate it using the second to last option.
The third one is, I assume, for left-handed users.
EDIT: Yes, swiping only works right to left to go forwards and vice versa.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Swiping left to right to page forward, if that's what you mean, sounds weird to me. And the Kobo doesn't work that way; to go forward, you swipe from right to left, just like going to the next page in a physical book.

Kobo actually works that way for Japanese KEPUB ebooks, where the reading direction (both taps and swipes) is reversed, as is the case for Japan physical books. So the functionality is in there, somewhere, however I have no idea if this can be leveraged for western language books somehow without affecting anything else.

[JSWolf]

You can always swipe to change the screen/page. There is an option to allow tap or swipe or just swipe. I have my H2O set to just swipe as I find it easier and I cannot then accidentally touch the screen and turn the page. Plus, I prefer swiping.

[Ripplinger]

I'm curious what reader you used in the past that allowed you to swipe left to right for forward page turns? I've never had one with that option.

But as mbovenka said, think about turning the page of a physical book, where your hand moves from right to left, and maybe that swiping sequence will start to feel more natural to you after a bit.

[retro]

I have several Sony PRS-350s than lets you choose your page turn preference.
I hold my reader in my left hand and use my thumb to swipe left to right.
Very ingrained habit for 10 years now. I think I've caused some thumb arthritis!

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I'm curious what reader you used in the past that allowed you to swipe left to right for forward page turns? I've never had one with that option.

But as mbovenka said, think about turning the page of a physical book, where your hand moves from right to left, and maybe that swiping sequence will start to feel more natural to you after a bit.

[retro]

Interesting, I wonder if the Japanese Kobos can swipe both ways.

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Kobo actually works that way for Japanese KEPUB ebooks, where the reading direction (both taps and swipes) is reversed, as is the case for Japan physical books. So the functionality is in there, somewhere, however I have no idea if this can be leveraged for western language books somehow without affecting anything else.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by retro

Interesting, I wonder if the Japanese Kobos can swipe both ways.

All kobos can swipe both ways, it depends on which language (and how that language is formatted). If you have a traditionally formatted japanese book, the book starts at the "end", so although you are swiping left to right to move forwards, it is because the 1st page is at the end (in western terms). I am not sure how the formatting works to tell the ereader that the book is formatted this way, but I do know that it right to left formatting didn't work properly with epub2, so that is why kepubs are necessary to read it, as they are compatible with epub3, whereas the adobe renderer on our kobos can't. Some japanese books are formatted using the western system, having horizontal lines, reading left to right and starting on the same side of the book as we do in the west. Those books don't get messed up even though written in japanese, so it is based on formatting.
Someone who understands the formatting side of things might able to tell what it is that cues the ereader that it should be read in that direction. Maybe it would even be possible to get western language books to be read "backwards" and therefore have the swipe go the other way. But it might be something that would cause all kinds of problems.

[davidfor]

The page turning direction can be set in the book. It can be set it in the OPF for the whole book. From memory, it can also be set at the internal file level. I have some test books that do it, but, they aren't on the devices I have with me.

The last time I tried this, there was also a difference between the epub and kepub renderers. In general, the kepub renderer handles these sort of things better. It's been a while since I tried, so some things will have changed.

[FrozenTrout]

So, in theory it might be possible to set your books to swipe right to left - you’d just have to change the metadata or convert them in Calibre. I don’t know the details, but in theory you might even be able to set a metadata plugboard for it. It might cause some other unforeseen* issues, but you could test it out.

*my first thought is, does it make it display text from right to left, as well? In other words, would it be like looking at the page in a mirror? Or is that a separate flag?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by FrozenTrout

So, in theory it might be possible to set your books to swipe right to left - you’d just have to change the metadata or convert them in Calibre. I don’t know the details, but in theory you might even be able to set a metadata plugboard for it. It might cause some other unforeseen* issues, but you could test it out.

You won't be able to do it using a metadata plugboard. Calibre doesn't expose that field for modification by a plugboard. You need to edit the book to set it.

Something I did forget is that the device extracts reading direction when importing the book. This is put into the database. The Update Metadata function in my Kobo Utilities plugin can set this. From memory, I added this for someone reading Manga.

*my first thought is, does it make it display text from right to left, as well? In other words, would it be like looking at the page in a mirror? Or is that a separate flag?

The text direction can be set in the style or the CSS. For languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, you would add "direction:rtl" to the class used.