Stupid question - anyway to edit in an eReader?

[LordP]

I used to make Technical Manuals for an elevator company (I was the manager of tech support) and there was always endless editing of the manuals. The software would change, parameters would be added/changed, mistakes would be found, etc.

I'm retired now, but my old company asked me to go through some new stuff and I'll be traveling while I look these things over. I'm sort of a contractor for them.

I don't want to lug a laptop around, just my Clara 2E. Are there any plugins, that might allow me to edit directly in an epub? Or any other format - not PDF, please, horrible stuff to edit!

Although I have never seen such a thing, I think it should be possible if the unit allows writing to the file...no?

Or, maybe, an eReader that allows this? The company might give me money for that.

I plan on doing a bit of traveling, and carrying my Clara is a lot more appealing than lugging a laptop around.

I know it's a long shot.

Thanks.

[Tarana]

Nope, not for direct edit. I edit books I have had scanned and converted to ebooks. I use ereaders to mark the what needs to be changed and then go to computer to do the changes. With your needs, that's an extra step that would become annoying fast.

[JSWolf]

You could lug around a Windows tablet that's smaller than your laptop. But that means buying one.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You could lug around a Windows tablet that's smaller than your laptop. But that means buying one.

However a minimum of Full HD 1920 x 1080 or 1600 x 1200 resolution is needed. There are laptops a lot cheaper than a Windows Tablet that are slim, lightweight and smaller than 15" but "full HD". Linux or Mac will work as well (or better) as Windows.
Libre Office Writer + Calibre (and maybe Sigil) will work on all three OS. Perhaps The GIMP as free alternative to Photoshop to crop & resize images.

Even an Android based eink would be a struggle to edit on.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

However a minimum of Full HD 1920 x 1080 or 1600 x 1200 resolution is needed. There are laptops a lot cheaper than a Windows Tablet that are slim, lightweight and smaller than 15" but "full HD". Linux or Mac will work as well (or better) as Windows.
Libre Office Writer + Calibre (and maybe Sigil) will work on all three OS. Perhaps The GIMP as free alternative to Photoshop to crop & resize images.

Even an Android based eink would be a struggle to edit on.

No need for external software to crop & resize images. calibre's editor has an image editor built in.

As for what OS, Windows is it. I would go for a computer that works with Windows 11.

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by LordP

Are there any plugins, that might allow me to edit directly in an epub? Or any other format - not PDF, please, horrible stuff to edit!

Although I have never seen such a thing, I think it should be possible if the unit allows writing to the file...no?

Or, maybe, an eReader that allows this?

Thanks.

As far as I remember, the reading programme AlReaderX (which runs on Android devices) allows you to edit the text of books, but only in FB2, HTML and TXT formats.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by cellaris

As far as I remember, the reading programme AlReaderX (which runs on Android devices) allows you to edit the text of books, but only in FB2, HTML and TXT formats.

Even Jota can do HTML and Txt. Most useful ebooks are epub. Technically if you had an Android unzip/zip utility you could use free Jota to edit an epub.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No need for external software to crop & resize images. calibre's editor has an image editor built in.

It ONLY resizes and crops. OK if you have nothing else, or don't know how to work Photoshop/PaintShopPro/GIMP
But a right click on an Image file offers whatever default image editing program you have.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As for what OS, Windows is it. I would go for a computer that works with Windows 11.

We all know you favour that. Some people prefer Macs and some that used Windows for ten to thirty years now prefer Linux (which can run on HW for Windows inc tablets, Macs and HW that can't run Windows or MacOS).

However you'd probably agree that Chrome Book/ChromeOS isn't good value for local editing and content creation, though technically possible to run LO Writer, The GIMP and Calibre on it (all of which I ran on Windows for years), though trickier if ARM rather than x86-64.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It ONLY resizes and crops. OK if you have nothing else, or don't know how to work Photoshop/PaintShopPro/GIMP
But a right click on an Image file offers whatever default image editing program you have.

calibre's image editor does more then just that. Auto-trim, Sharpen, Blur, De-speckel, Improve contrast, Make image look like an oil painting


[quote]We all know you favour that. Some people prefer Macs and some that used Windows for ten to thirty years now prefer Linux (which can run on HW for Windows inc tablets, Macs and HW that can't run Windows or MacOS).

Mac and Linux calibre users make up less then the number of Windows calibre users. Yet they make up more support cases then Windows users.

However you'd probably agree that Chrome Book/ChromeOS isn't good value for local editing and content creation, though technically possible to run LO Writer, The GIMP and Calibre on it (all of which I ran on Windows for years), though trickier if ARM rather than x86-64.

I think I Chrome Book is a scam. You are being sold a full fledged computer when it's rather useless overall.

[elinkser]

Originally Posted by LordP

I don't want to lug a laptop around, just my Clara 2E. Are there any plugins, that might allow me to edit directly in an epub? Or any other format - not PDF, please,

If it's for text files, KOReader has built in text editor with onscreen keyboard.

More formats can be handled in an Alpine Linux chroot, but you'd have to be comfortable with that.

If you get e.g. a 6.8 inch display Mobiscribe Origin, you might be able to install some android-compatible app.


*Although if the company is paying, I would go higher end for productivity reasons.

[LordP]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions - I knew it was a long shot.

It would be nice to have extra money, but I think I'll pass on the job. I'm not that broke.

I worked for that elevator company for 16 years and before becoming manager, I was Senior Field Support. I traveled to almost every city in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. I also traveled a lot as a Manager.

Do you know how jaded you need to be to refuse to travel to Hawaii? I went to Hawaii a total of eight times, for two weeks each time. I traveled maybe 30 times a year, and the rest of the time I was in the field in NYC, where I lived. And on every trip, I had to lug around a damn laptop.

Having a laptop was essential and I grew to hate them, passionately.

I think if KOBO or Onyx would enable something like what I'm looking for, a productivity tool, they would have a winner. I can't imagine editing text and then saving it would be such a big deal to code. I don't envision a lot of formatting, just editing text.

Anyway, thanks again for all the suggestions.

[elinkser]

Sounds like you weren't all that keen on going,lol.

But now that you got me all intrigued about eink laptops, I googled and got:
https://www.e-ink-info.com/e-ink-devices/e-ink-laptops
https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Lancer

Seems many are just prototypes, other than the Lenovo.
Also when they add the keyboard, it's not so light and tiny anymore.
But without the built-in keyboard, how do you prop it up when travelling (Went online and found at least five different stand types not even including case stands - order on the way!) ?
The eink has long battery life but they use low power processors.
Would they choke on the kind of professional app that handles your specialized format?
Are they even compatible?
So put in a more powerful processor which sucks more battery - not so lightweight anymore.
How reliable are these startups? Parts?

All that said, my Clara HD fits in my pocket, has stably handled hundred-megabyte pdf files nicely formatted in KOReader, can take keyboard input from my phone, so maybe I'm already where I want to be after all!

[Quoth]

An eink laptop, everything else being equal for content edit/creation, is not going to be lighter or smaller than a decent compact & slim laptop (Mac, Windows, Linux or ChromeOS).
The question was really more about being to edit epub on an ereader. There are certainly ereaders where you can edit / write actual text (Kobo Sage, Elipsa, any Android based model. The reMarkable and Kindle Scribe have "issues".), but you'd have to copy the text to a real laptop or PC to further edit and create ebooks. Even the best Android tablets with a keyboard are worse than ChromeOS due available Apps and limitations of Android. The iOS has different issues and doesn't yet replace a Mac Book Air with MacOS. Even a small ChromeBook is pretty rubbish to make / edit epub from scratch compared to a small& slim laptop (Mac, Win or Linux).

I have real keyboards that work on both an eInk Android and a Lenovo tablet. I've tried an iPad with a keyboard. Even my old 2016 Lenovo E460 laptop is far far better and not that heavy compared to decent 2000 to 2008 laptops.