Glo Text selection problems

[SmittyBit]

First off, I'll state that I've always been a Sony Reader man, and owned the last four standard models, but I've switched to the Kobo Glo, and am pleased with the decision (mainly do to the ComfortLight), however I've been having a problem that's been driving me batty.

Text selection is absolutely atrocious, so bad in fact that I feel the need to ask others whether this is a bug or coding mistake, or whether this is the status-quo for Kobo readers? Text selection in the Sony readers is superb, accurate and fast. With the Kobo it literally takes nearly a minute to finally get a simple paragraph selected, and seems to require different 'tricks' every time I try. As well, I have to hold on one word first, then attempt (and 95% of the time fail) to drag the handles around the paragraph. Awful.

Aside from the very clunky implementation, has anyone had this problem of extremely inaccurate text selection? If the Kobo reps read these forums as I've heard, please can you tell me whether this is being looked into, as a bug or as a bad design - either way, as the whole dictionary/text_selection is a terrible mess.

[kobokobe]

Highlighting one word is easy enough, but when you move on to phrases, sentences, paragraphs it becomes an absolute pain. Wasn't any better with the Touch, hasn't gotten any better on the Glo.

[SmittyBit]

I'm a bit amazed that the folks making Kobo's firmware would not be trying to fix this, it seems like a bit of a big deal. If they could study how the Sony readers work it, I think they could implement something better, or at least workable.. To bad really, I really like most everything else about the Kobo Glo.

[murg]

The text selection is horrible.

I have a problem where moving one of the thumbs causes the other thumb to also move, which should never happen.

Also, you cannot select the last character of a paragraph. And it is very difficult to select the character next to the left margin.

At least in 2.1.4, the thumbs change from an up to down (or down to up) orientation automatically, which means that you can select text on the top and bottom lines.

[Nightyume]

I don't have the glo yet but this is the same method used on most cell phones and tablets and I find it to be horrible on them as well. I wish they'd use something a bit easier to implement, maybe hold down to highlight a word and then without lifting your finger from the screen drag it to highlight any adjacent text you want highlighted. It's actually why I chose a tablet with an n-trig screen and active stylus as it makes highlighting and notetaking so much easier (the lcd screen still sucks for reading books...)

[Neolistic]

The Highlighting feature is so terrible on the Kobo Glo that I'm already in the process of returning mine to buy a Kindle Paperwhite. I can't waste my time struggling to highlight key sentences when studying for a midterm!

Here is how the Kobo Glo's highlighting system should have worked.

Scroll to the 8:10 second mark of the video to see how much easier the Paperwhite highlights sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ysggWiLZkk

I'm actually quite furious that this key feature wasn't upgraded for the Glo!

[ltr]

Scroll to the 8:10 second mark of the video to see how much easier the Paperwhite highlights sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ysggWiLZkk

Yeah, nice.

ltr

[lioslaith]

I agree the text selection is horrid. I tried it out with mine over the weekend. It was awful and fiddly to say the least.

As other readers (as well as other touch devices) can do this more easily and accurately it should be able to improve this via updating the firmware one would think.

As I don't use it a lot it's not a deal breaker. Just annoying that having a great screen available but not being unable to use it for easy text highlighting.

[lioslaith]

Originally Posted by Neolistic

Scroll to the 8:10 second mark of the video to see how much easier the Paperwhite highlights sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ysggWiLZkk

I'm actually quite furious that this key feature wasn't upgraded for the Glo!

Now that's how I'd like the Glo to be able to highlight. If it was that good I would actually use the function more often. Without muttering and growling that I experienced trying this on my Glo at the weekend.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Neolistic

The Highlighting feature is so terrible on the Kobo Glo that I'm already in the process of returning mine to buy a Kindle Paperwhite. I can't waste my time struggling to highlight key sentences when studying for a midterm!

Here is how the Kobo Glo's highlighting system should have worked.

Scroll to the 8:10 second mark of the video to see how much easier the Paperwhite highlights sentences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ysggWiLZkk

Have you actually tried to do this with the Glo? It doesn't start the same way but, it does work like that. Do this:

- Long tap on a word to select it.
- The word gets marked, and the dictionary pops up
- Press anywhere in the text to dismiss the pop-up
- Put your finger somewhere on the text and drag it up over the screen.
- Text gets marked as you drag.
- Push one of the buttons down the bottom to save the highlight or add a note.

Other than starting it, the only difference I can see is that the highlighting while selecting is an underscore.

As to the handles, I find them fiddly but only use them to adjust a highlight. Normally I want to move them a couple of characters and that doesn't work as well.

[kobokobe]

While it is conceptually the same, Kobo's implementation is a far cry from the Kindle's. As much as I like my KT and KG, highlighting is way too laggy, jumpy, and inaccurate for me to seriously consider using it in anything but the most extraordinary of circumstances.

[buffaloseven]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Have you actually tried to do this with the Glo? It doesn't start the same way but, it does work like that. Do this:

- Long tap on a word to select it.
- The word gets marked, and the dictionary pops up
- Press anywhere in the text to dismiss the pop-up
- Put your finger somewhere on the text and drag it up over the screen.
- Text gets marked as you drag.
- Push one of the buttons down the bottom to save the highlight or add a note.

Other than starting it, the only difference I can see is that the highlighting while selecting is an underscore.

As to the handles, I find them fiddly but only use them to adjust a highlight. Normally I want to move them a couple of characters and that doesn't work as well.

You actually don't need to pop up a definition, just hold for a second and then drag your finger and it will select a block of text. Works much better than the handles (which are inexplicably laggy).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

You actually don't need to pop up a definition, just hold for a second and then drag your finger and it will select a block of text. Works much better than the handles (which are inexplicably laggy).

So you can. While it doesn't look as smooth as the Kindle video, it isn't that bad. But it makes me wonder why the handles work so badly.

[Neolistic]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Have you actually tried to do this with the Glo? It doesn't start the same way but, it does work like that. Do this:

- Long tap on a word to select it.
- The word gets marked, and the dictionary pops up
- Press anywhere in the text to dismiss the pop-up
- Put your finger somewhere on the text and drag it up over the screen.
- Text gets marked as you drag.
- Push one of the buttons down the bottom to save the highlight or add a note.

Other than starting it, the only difference I can see is that the highlighting while selecting is an underscore.

As to the handles, I find them fiddly but only use them to adjust a highlight. Normally I want to move them a couple of characters and that doesn't work as well.

Confirmed, this does work really well if you avoid the handles. Thanks for that!

[SmittyBit]

While the text selection in theory works quite similar to other readers, it's in practice,-- the execution, that fails. Bag example maybe, but both a Ferrari and a Pinto both work the same in concept, but the execution is quite different, and not in a flattering way for the Pinto.

So reading all these posts, it's pretty obvious that this is a long-standing issue, which really makes me wonder how it could have been ignored by the Kobo designers..

I wont be returning my Kobo Glo due to this, as it's core purpose - reading books - it still does quite well, and I love the front-light, it works fantastic.

Asside from that however, Unless Kobo is willing to fix this very glaring problem -- I'd go so far as to call the feature broken, I definitely would not buy the next Kobo, as by then Front-lights will be old hat. Great unit, but disappointing support (realizing I'm new to Kobo, a broken feature being left as-is for so long as it would appear is even worse than Sony's support - at least all their feature work well before they abandon the unit)

Response from Kobo maybe? I've heard they patrol these forums once in a while.

Originally Posted by Neolistic

Confirmed, this does work really well if you avoid the handles. Thanks for that!

This works without waiting for, then clearing the dictionary, but is still fiddly. The handles should work more like this to be effective it seems:
Check around 5:40