Navigating search results

[pssquirrel]

When searching for text within books, I sometimes end up with hundreds of search results and they always start at the beginning of the book.

Is there a way to quickly navigate through the search results -- say, skip to page 100 or 200 of the results -- instead of going through them one page at a time starting from the beginning? I've tried tapping various parts of the screen hoping to bring up a navigation menu, but so far no luck. Paging through the search results one at a time is tedious and impractical when you have, say, 300 pages of results!

Thank you.

[pssquirrel]

Perhaps I should re-phrase my question, as I suspect there is no easy way to navigate when search results number in the hundreds.

What do experienced Kindle users do when faced with hundreds of pages of search results?

• Give up the search?
• Page through every single page?
• Turn to another ereader with a more usable search function?

I find myself doing the latter, which seems a little crazy considering the Kindle Voyage is supposed to be a premium ereader

So what do you do? Suggestions?

[HarryT]

If you're getting 300 pages of results, the issue would seem to lie with your search string, not with the device. There would seem little point in searching for something that gives you so many results.

[pssquirrel]

I occasionally trace the plot-line of a single character. I do this by searching for the character's name, thus the voluminous search results.

When I search on my Sony (or Calibre or Mantano), it takes me to the next search result starting from the point I started the search. If I'm in the middle of the book and search for Character X, it takes me to the next time he appears. Perfect. In Marvin and Bluefire Reader, it shows all the results starting from the beginning (similar to Kindle), but the results are easily scrollable so I can quickly navigate to the section of the book I'm working on and find the next reference. The Kindle, however, shows search results starting from the beginning of the book, and navigating beyond the first few pages is a painfully slow and tedious process.

Any suggestions on how such a search (which is easy on a Sony, Calibre, Marvin, Mantano, Bluefire Reader) might be accomplished on a Kindle?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

I occasionally trace the plot-line of a single character. I do this by searching for the character's name, thus the voluminous search results.

When I search on my Sony (or Calibre or Mantano), it takes me to the next search result starting from the point I started the search. If I'm in the middle of the book and search for Character X, it takes me to the next time he appears. Perfect. In Marvin and Bluefire Reader, it shows all the results starting from the beginning (similar to Kindle), but the results are easily scrollable so I can quickly navigate to the section of the book I'm working on and find the next reference. The Kindle, however, shows search results starting from the beginning of the book, and navigating beyond the first few pages is a painfully slow and tedious process.

Any suggestions on how such a search (which is easy on a Sony, Calibre, Marvin, Mantano, Bluefire Reader) might be accomplished on a Kindle?

I guess you and I look for very different things--For me, I wouldn't want to see the next reference to a character--I'd be too worried about spoilers. Usually if I'm searching on a character's name, it's to find out what the character has done in the book already.

That being said, X-ray may do what you're looking for, if the book has x-ray enabled. For instance, if I touch and hold the name of the main character of the book I'm currently reading, when I let up a box will pop up with options, one of which is X-Ray. There is a description of the character in the box when I choose X-Ray, and the option to "Open X-Ray". When I open X-Ray, I have the option to look at "Notable Clips", which only goes up to the point in the book I am currently at, or "All Mentions" which seems to go all the way to the end of the book.

If your book isn't X-Ray enabled, I believe that there's a way to build an X-Ray file for the book. I've never done this though, so I can't vouch for how helpful it is.

Shari

[pssquirrel]

Thanks Shari! I will look into this x-ray feature.

P.S. I generally do these searches after I've finished reading a book -- e.g., if I want to go back and trace the character development of a single character or analyze how a specific plot-line was put together, etc. So spoilers aren't generally a problem