New to Kobo - a few questions

[4691mls]

I gave up on my Sony reader because it's apparently no longer possible to download books directly from the library onto my PRS-T3. I have now acquired a Kobo Clara and have a few questions. I hope you nice people in the Kobo forum can help me out.

1. Overdrive - I've synced the Clara and acquired the library books that were currently on loan. Am I correct that the Clara's Overdrive function does not have access to my library wishlist, holds list, and loans list, and that I should continue using my phone or PC for those purposes, then sync the Kobo reader to acquire the books once they have been loaned?

2. Navigation within a book - Am I correct that in the book/page navigation at the bottom of the screen, there is no place to enter a page number? This is something I used occasionally on my Sony and can't see a place to enter a number on the Kobo. Not a dealbreaker type of issue, just wondering if I missed something.

3. Transferring my books from my PC - I'm used to using the Sony Reader for PC desktop software and obviously i can't keep doing that. I have approximately 200 owned (non-library) epubs. About half were originally acquired through Sony/Kobo and those already loaded onto the Clara automatically when I synced it. The other half are from other sources such as Google Play or Gutenberg.

A.) Should I use Adobe Digital Editions or drag-and-drop via Windows Explorer?

B.) I don't have any obvious way to know which books on my computer came from which store. If I select all of them to copy, will the computer warn me of duplicates when it comes across the Kobo/Sony books that were already synced onto the Kobo?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I gave up on my Sony reader because it's apparently no longer possible to download books directly from the library onto my PRS-T3. I have now acquired a Kobo Clara and have a few questions. I hope you nice people in the Kobo forum can help me out.

1. Overdrive - I've synced the Clara and acquired the library books that were currently on loan. Am I correct that the Clara's Overdrive function does not have access to my library wishlist, holds list, and loans list, and that I should continue using my phone or PC for those purposes, then sync the Kobo reader to acquire the books once they have been loaned?

You can borrow books and put holds on them from the device through the Kobo store. But, it doesn't integrate the other functions. You can use the Kobo wishlist for this if you want to. And when you sync the device and borrowed books will download.

2. Navigation within a book - Am I correct that in the book/page navigation at the bottom of the screen, there is no place to enter a page number? This is something I used occasionally on my Sony and can't see a place to enter a number on the Kobo. Not a dealbreaker type of issue, just wondering if I missed something.

No, there is no way to go directly to a page number. You can go to a position with the slider.

3. Transferring my books from my PC - I'm used to using the Sony Reader for PC desktop software and obviously i can't keep doing that. I have approximately 200 owned (non-library) epubs. About half were originally acquired through Sony/Kobo and those already loaded onto the Clara automatically when I synced it. The other half are from other sources such as Google Play or Gutenberg.

A.) Should I use Adobe Digital Editions or drag-and-drop via Windows Explorer?

B.) I don't have any obvious way to know which books on my computer came from which store. If I select all of them to copy, will the computer warn me of duplicates when it comes across the Kobo/Sony books that were already synced onto the Kobo?

You can use either method or something like calibre. If the books have Adobe DRM, you will need to use ADE to put them on the device. Or remove the DRM and then you can use the other methods.

The books from Kobo are managed in a completely different way. The files are there, but, in a separate location and named in a way that it isn't obvious which is which book. Manually sideloading, or using ADE will not show if the book has been downloaded. If you use calibre, it can show the books already on the device no matter what the source.

[4691mls]

Thanks for the explanation. Since most of my non-Kobo books are from other stores and will have adobe DRM I will plan to use ADE to get those on the Clara.

Most, if not all, of my Kobo books were originally bought from the Sony store; they were later transferred to Kobo when the Sony store closed. Those books were downloaded onto my desktop when I bought them so there should be actual findable copies still on the PC.

[lumpynose]

Although you cannot do what you're asking for, note that sometimes there are numbers on the screen that you can tap and then you can change it. For example, with the forma when you're reading a book and tap in the center to bring up the settings and then click on the gear, I was using its up and down buttons to change the settings pages (I have mine set to display things in large mode so I may have more pages than you do), but if you click on the "Page 1 of 3" at the top it brings up a little window where you can enter a number. Similarly with a book that has a long table of contents.

Another example of how this new-fangled flat UI sucks (I think google made it popular). In the "good old days" they'd have had some sort of visual indication that you could click on the number.

[John F]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

...

Another example of how this new-fangled flat UI sucks (I think google made it popular). In the "good old days" they'd have had some sort of visual indication that you could click on the number.

For Kobo, I believe the rule is if it is in italics, it can be clicked on.

[4691mls]

Thanks everybody. I appreciate the tips.

I have a new question re: Overdrive.

Yesterday I synced the reader and it installed 3 books that were in my library loans. Today I used my phone to add a new book to my loans. When I synced the reader it added the new book, and also added a new copy of one (not all) of the old books. The old copy is still showing on the reader indicating "2 hours to go", but if I try to open it it just offers me "buy now" or "read preview".

I can read the new copy so not a huge deal, though I noticed it's missing the bookmarks/highlights that were in the first copy.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Most, if not all, of my Kobo books were originally bought from the Sony store; they were later transferred to Kobo when the Sony store closed. Those books were downloaded onto my desktop when I bought them so there should be actual findable copies still on the PC.

The books the Kobo desktop application downloads are the same as on the device. The filename is an identifier, not anything obvious, and they don't have an extensions. And they can have DRM. All that makes it a bit harder to find the book. Calibre plus some extensions can help with this.

[4691mls]

I installed ADE and added to ADE's library all the books from the folder where books bought for my Sony were stored, then sent all to the Kobo. Opened a couple at random on the Clara and they seemed to be OK.
Thanks for your help with my adjustment to the new system.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Thanks everybody. I appreciate the tips.

I have a new question re: Overdrive.

Yesterday I synced the reader and it installed 3 books that were in my library loans. Today I used my phone to add a new book to my loans. When I synced the reader it added the new book, and also added a new copy of one (not all) of the old books. The old copy is still showing on the reader indicating "2 hours to go", but if I try to open it it just offers me "buy now" or "read preview".

I can read the new copy so not a huge deal, though I noticed it's missing the bookmarks/highlights that were in the first copy.

Has this happened to anyone else?

After the latest sync, both copies are still showing but now only the earlier one is readable and the later copy (the one I was reading last night) is not readable. Weird.