Freda - ebook reader program for Windows Mobile

[silkshadow]

So far I am really liking this app and found this forum as the possible place to get support with it? I am having an issue with table of contents. Especially with calibre generated "news books", pressing any link of the table of contents or using the menu/settings table of contents navigator just boots me back to the table of contents itself. Pressing teh same TOC link in the calibre reader acts as it should. Is there somethign I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by silkshadow

Especially with calibre generated "news books", pressing any link of the table of contents or using the menu/settings table of contents navigator just boots me back to the table of contents itself.

I've emailed you personally with a more detailed answer. But for the benefit of the forum users generally:
1) Yes it is a problem with Freda (actually a bad design decision rather than a bug).
2) It will happen whenever an EPUB archive contains multiple chapters that have the same file name.
3) I will fix it in v2.0 (which will be in beta release real soon now).

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

[Hexadrone]

Freda is a very good application! However, the Find in dictionary is not working for me. It is grayed out. I have Merriam Webster Collegiate for mobile installed on my Touch Pro 2. I can see the SlovoEd resident is running. It works in other programs like MS Word. It would be great if this would work. Thank you.

[JBlyth]

I installed FREDA on my Ipaq 214 last night, and it has already become my favourite reader!

The only thing I don't like at the moment is the slooow page change when in the landscape mode.... (which is a very minor whinge!)

The text seems to have very little formating in it, which makes it a little hard to read, but that could just be the book I am reading perhaps?

Cheers
John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by Hexadrone

Freda is a very good application! However, the Find in dictionary is not working for me. It is grayed out. I have Merriam Webster Collegiate for mobile installed on my Touch Pro 2. I can see the SlovoEd resident is running. It works in other programs like MS Word. It would be great if this would work. Thank you.

Freda v1.1 only works with the SlovoEd dictionary package. v2.0 (to be released 'real soon now' ... I promise!) allows you to specify other dictionary packages.
Jim

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by JBlyth

The only thing I don't like at the moment is the slooow page change when in the landscape mode.... (which is a very minor whinge!)

This may be because Freda is having trouble allocating enough memory. Matters may improve if you close other applications. You may also find it works better if you soft-reset your device, and then start Freda up first (before starting other programs). Freda v2 (when released) may work better, as in the new version I try to be even more parsimonious about allocating memory for displaying pages on the screen.

Originally Posted by JBlyth

The text seems to have very little formating in it, which makes it a little hard to read, but that could just be the book I am reading perhaps?

Well Freda doesn't really display a lot of formatting, and obviously it does depend what formatting info is in the book. It will do regular/bold/italic/large text, left/right/centred/justified alignment and various sizes of margin above/below/left/right. More exotic formatting (drop caps, hanging indent, image-wrap ... ) will render strangely or not at all.

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

[Jim Chapman]

Hi all,

Freda v2 is now about ready for beta-testing. Anyone who is still on for helping to test, please email me at home@jim-chapman.net, and I will send you the relevant file.

Key points / new features:

• There is no 'main menu' any more. You access all features via the shortcuts screen. While no book is loaded, a short screen-tap will display shortcuts; while a book is loaded, you may need to use a long-tap.
• The 'Library' is no longer a simple folder location. Instead, it is a searchable database of books. To add books to the library, tap the 'Library' shortcut, then use 'Actions->Add Books'. From there, you can select 'Add Folder' to get a similar function to what the old v1.1 library did - i.e. add to the library all the books in a particular folder (and optionally, its subfolders too). If your library folder structure is "/.../(author name)/(bookname).epub", tick the 'Use folder name for author name' option, and Freda will put those author names in the library database.
• You also have an option to 'Add OPDS Catalog' to the library. Specify the catalog URI (the Feedbooks one is used by default, but you could equally use a Calibre2opds/Dropbox location, or any other OPDS-compliant catalog; for local files, use a URI like file:///my documents/my books.atom). Tap the 'Open' button to open the catalog. Use the Prev/Back/Root/Next buttons to navigate the catalog hierarchy. In the display area, you will see: in blue: OPDS-catalog links; in grey: other links; in black: book entries. 'Add Books' will add to your library all the book entries on the screen. If you have selected a book entry, the 'Add' button will also allow you to add (or to add and open) just that book.
• Whenever you add books to the library, Freda identifies the place that you got those books from as a 'source'. When you wish to tidy up the library, you can select 'Actions->Remove Books' on the library screen, and it will present a list of sources; you can use this to remove from the library all the books from a given source. Note: Freda will not delete any books - it just removes them from its library database.
• The library screen offers a (rather minimalist!) search function. Use the drop-down box at the top left to say which fields you want to search, and type text into the text box at the top right.
• The 'Settings' screen is now more finger-friendly. It presents a list of settings; to modify one of them, tap on it, and a suitable dialog box will be displayed. Modified values will be shown in bold.
• The top item on the 'Settings' screen takes you to a screen for modifying 'text appearance'.
• Once you've defined the settings you want, select 'Actions->Use These Settings' to apply them.
• You can also load preset settings, and save new presets. When saving presets note: (1) if you have a book loaded, you will have a special saveable preset called 'whenever this book is loaded'; you can use this to define settings that will be applied whenever you're reading this book in the future; (2) you need to specify which settings are included in the saved preset, by ticking the relevant tick-boxes.
• When Freda is busy doing something, you will see a blue screen and/or a 'wait' cursor. If Freda is doing background processing (e.g pagination) you will see a small flickering square at the bottom right of the screen. If this square turns into a red-outlined box, it means Freda has run out of memory and is now working in 'low memory mode'. The main effect of this is that 'Find...' will not work reliably when searching in chapters other than the current one.
• RSVP/Autoscroll is implemented. It should be fairly obvious in operation, but note: the +/- buttons will speed up/slow down the reading speed; to pause reading, tap the screen; to un-pause, tap the screen to exit RSVP mode or tap the 'PAUSE' indicator to resume RSVP reading.
• The 'Lock Backlight' option will force the backlight to stay on as long as you are reading (though after 10 minutes of inactivity, it will allow the backlight to switch off anyway).
• 'Rotate' will turn the display one 'stop' clockwise. You can define what 'stops' are available using the 'Permissible Orientations' setting. There is a 'Lock Orientation' setting which, if set, will cause Freda to resist other applications' attempts to change screen orientation.
• Logographic (e.g. Chinese) and Right-to-left languages (e.g Hebrew) should work OK. Freda will activate these features based upon the 'language' metadata it finds in the book file. If Freda gets it wrong, the Settings screen lets you force it to use Logographic ('characters are words') and/or RTL features (and obviously you can use 'save preset' to tell Freda just to use these settings for the individual book concerned).
• Languages with combining characters (Arabic, Persian, Thai, various Indian scripts) may or may not work. I'd be interested to get feedback on any problems.
• Other shortcuts and settings are, I think, reasonably self-explanatory. Do please play with them - you can't break anything (or to be precise, if you do manage to break anything, please tell me!)
• Translation of the UI into languages other than English is still 'work in progress'; I'm working to fix some perfomance problems with the string-lookup function; depending on how it goes, it may be in the release 2.0 version, or it may have to wait for 2.1.
• The current beta version only works on WM6.x devices with touchscreens. WM5, WinCE6 and non-touchscreen builds are ongoing, and will be there for the final v2.0 release.

Thanks,

Jim

[starrigger]

Sounds like a lot of changes! No wonder this version has been in a works for a while. I look forward to trying it. (Sent you an email.)

Jeff

[starrigger]

First reaction to ver. 2: Wow, this is really different. It's going to take me a little while to wrap my head around the differences in the GUI.

Couple of immediate questions:

1) Is the only viewing mode now full-screen? That's how it seems. Maybe I'm missing something. That's probably okay with me, as I usually read that way. But I did wonder.

2) Is there no longer a way to override a book's justification attribute? I see an option not to force justification, but nothing that lets me force left-justify. This jumped out at me right away, as the book I'm reading is apparently justified in the original file, which I'd never noticed as I had Freda v.1 set to override to *not* justify. That was a feature in v. 1 that I really liked. I cannot stand clunky justification on a small screen, so I had to reconvert the file in Calibre to get rid of the justification. I also had to remove the book from the Freda library and add the new conversion back in, before Freda displayed it unjustified. ("Forgetting" the book didn't do it.)

3) I was in the text, then went to the menu (shortcuts screen?). After poking around, I absentmindedly hit the Back button. That took me to an error message, and not back to where I had been. I needed to go back to the contents page to find my place again.

I notice that the Library page has a space to display metadata, or at least the author. It seems that it picks up that information only after a given book has been opened. Is that correct, and by design?

Well, clearly you've been hard at work on this. BTW, that Bible I sent you to test does indeed open in this version.

[Jim Chapman]

Thankyou for the rapid feedback. To your points:

Originally Posted by starrigger

1) Is the only viewing mode now full-screen?

Yes. Providing Windowed and Full-Screen mode was complicated, and actually Windowed mode doesn't add much value (particularly as you can now put a battery and clock indicator onto the bottom left of the page).

Originally Posted by starrigger

2) Is there no longer a way to override a book's justification attribute? I see an option not to force justification, but nothing that lets me force left-justify. This jumped out at me right away, as the book I'm reading is apparently justified in the original file, which I'd never noticed as I had Freda v.1 set to override to *not* justify. That was a feature in v. 1 that I really liked. I cannot stand clunky justification on a small screen, so I had to reconvert the file in Calibre to get rid of the justification. I also had to remove the book from the Freda library and add the new conversion back in, before Freda displayed it unjustified. ("Forgetting" the book didn't do it.)

I hadn't realised that my users might want to force anything other than 'justified' layout. I will change that option in v2, so you can choose between 'force left align/force right align/force justified/don't force anything (use the book layout).

Originally Posted by starrigger

3) I was in the text, then went to the menu (shortcuts screen?). After poking around, I absentmindedly hit the Back button. That took me to an error message, and not back to where I had been. I needed to go back to the contents page to find my place again.

'Back' should undo the last 'go to' operation (i.e. moving the slider in the shortcuts screen, clicking a link or using the table of contents). I'll have a play with it and see if I can reproduce the error.

Originally Posted by starrigger

I notice that the Library page has a space to display metadata, or at least the author. It seems that it picks up that information only after a given book has been opened. Is that correct, and by design?

Yes it is by design. When scanning a folder for books to include in the library, I do not open and examine the book metadata (because it would take too long to do). Conversely, when downloading OPDS catalogs into the library, I do pick up metadata, because it can be done without slowing things down).

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

[T_Frain_K]

You´re just great, Jim.

But I´d like to point out, I always used to switch back to windowed mode to minimize Freda without closing it. That way I can jump right back using a task switcher. (the one I´m using doesn´t opt me to minimize any application). Only other chance would be to open anything else, and close that to get to my phone´s home screen.

Oh, and while I´m at it:
Could you, by any chance, see to it that Fredas temp folder is NOT scanned by the library´s sub-folder-scan, if it´s in the SAME folder (e.g. \Ebooks\Freda-temp\)?
It is in v 1.1 (I´m using build 799). It´s not that important to me, I can manage my books in a flat folder, but it does look weird to have all those temporary files inside the library.

You´ve done amazing work so far. Thanks again.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by T_Frain_K

But I´d like to point out, I always used to switch back to windowed mode to minimize Freda without closing it. That way I can jump right back using a task switcher.

I think the best fix for that is for me to organise that the [x] button at the top-right of the shortcuts screen will minimise Freda.

Originally Posted by T_Frain_K

Could you, by any chance, see to it that Fredas temp folder is NOT scanned by the library´s sub-folder-scan, if it´s in the SAME folder (e.g. \Ebooks\Freda-temp\)?
It is in v 1.1 (I´m using build 799). It´s not that important to me, I can manage my books in a flat folder, but it does look weird to have all those temporary files inside the library.

I will do that for build 102. Which will be published soon (I am just trying to correct its tendency to render Hebrew in sdrawkcab style).

Thanks for the feedback,

Jim

[starrigger]

I always used to switch back to windowed mode to minimize Freda without closing it. That way I can jump right back using a task switcher.

That was my reason for switching to windowed mode, also. You can effectively do that in v.2 now by going to the shortcuts screen. It feels a little kludgy, I think partly because if you come back to the shortcuts screen from another app, it's not altogether intuitive to then press OK or cancel. A button for "Return to [book]" might be nice.

Could you, by any chance, see to it that Fredas temp folder is NOT scanned by the library´s sub-folder-scan, if it´s in the SAME folder (e.g. \Ebooks\Freda-temp\)?

I also tripped on this. I moved my temp folder and deleted the library and started over. Deleting the library took several tries, partly because it was awkward to Select All the books, and also because I then encountered a confusing prompt to remove source files (something like that). Having the temp folder ignored would be a cleaner solution.

You´ve done amazing work so far. Thanks again.

Amen.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by Jim Chapman

I think the best fix for that is for me to organise that the [x] button at the top-right of the shortcuts screen will minimise Freda.

I wouldn't recommend that, which would be flying in the face of Windows standard icons. I would certainly interpret [x] as closing the app, not minimizing it.

Once you're in the shortcuts menu (at least on my PDA), it's possible to go ahead and open other windows. But it might be nice to add a button for Minimize.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by starrigger

I wouldn't recommend that, which would be flying in the face of Windows standard icons. I would certainly interpret [x] as closing the app, not minimizing it. .

I understand how you might have got that impression, because Windows Mobile doesn't make it easy to see the difference between a 'closed' application and a 'minimised' one. But, in fact, the normal Windows Mobile behaviour is that [x] minimises the application, but does not stop it. To actually stop an application on Windows Mobile, you need to either use an (application specific) 'close' or 'exit' option, or you need to find the application on the task list, and and kill it there. This is why Windows Mobile devices can get very sluggish after you've been using them for a while - you have a bunch of minimised applications still running, using up memory and processor cycles.

By the way, some Windows Mobile builds offer you an option to customise this behaviour (for instance, long-tap on [x] will stop the application; short-tap will just minimise it). Other builds don't do that.

Regards,

Jim