How to highlight faster

[LnxSatu]

I almost wrote a Feature Request thread, then I found out Windows already has it. I share it here in case you Calibre users don't know.

If you feel highlighting is slow because text selection is slow, then do this when selecting text:

1. Double click on a word, but don't release your mouse yet
2. With your mouse still down, drag it to any direction to select the text, like you normally do
3. You will notice it's faster, b/c you're selecting word by word, not character by character. You don't need to slow down to pin-point the mouse to the boundaries of words.

Source: https://www.addictivetips.com/window...graph-windows/

I don't think many people know this Windows tip, so it's still a good idea for Calibre to improve UX for text selection. In particular, when users select text, the app should select word by word. It's faster and do what users need most of the time. In cases where users want more precision, they can then drag the 2 text selection handlers to fine-tune the selection. Best of both worlds.

[kovidgoyal]

That is exactly how selection in calibre works as well. Double click and then drag your mouse and it wil select words.

[LnxSatu]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is exactly how selection in calibre works as well. Double click and then drag your mouse and it wil select words.

Thanks for the response.

Yes, it's how text selection in Calibre works as well, because that's how it works in all Windows programs: Notepad, Firefox, Chrome, etc.. In short, as I understand it, it's a Windows feature, and unless Calibre overrides how that feature works, it will work the same. The question is: is that good enough for all kinds of programs, including an ebook reader like Calibre E-book Viewer?

Like I said in the last paragraph of my previous post, I think the answer is No; that is, e-book reader programs should tailor text selection behavior, instead of relying on default Windows behavior.

So how should it work instead?
- When users select text, the app should select word by word, instead of character by character.

Why I thought so:
- Because when reading an ebook, that's what users want most of the time, either for highlighting or copying. (But I haven't done user experience research, how would I know? Because popular programs for ebook reader: Kindle and Adobe Reader are doing just that: select word by word, not character by character).
- Not many users know the above mentioned tip on how to select text quickly. They are being slowed down and don't even know it could be faster.
- Even if they know the tip, a double-click is slower than a single-click, and when users do a lot of highlighting, this extra effort adds up significantly to the fatigue.