IF you could design the user interface for the next Kobo Firmware

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

One thing that has been bothering me is that when you manually choose to mark a book as finished, it doesn't get flagged as finished in the reading stats. I know it might be a silly thing, but if the option is there to mark books as finished, then why not make that reflect in the one place where stats are shown?

Also, annotations - it shouldn't be tied in to books alone. All annotations should be accessible from a centralized location, the way Sony e-readers do it. If I hightlight stuff in a book, I don't want to keep reopening that book later just to see those highlights.

My first Kobo also had the option to close books - not sure why, but I miss that option. I have opened a few books by mistake, and I would like to close it the same way I can close a real book and put it back on the shelf...

I agree with you regarding the annotations and as well as marking a book as unread.

regards

jack

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Hmm... I thought TOC (Table of Contents) for epubs were constructed within the epub.

The reading software (Adobe Reader Mobile) would be extracting, using and presenting the TOC already in the epub. Just extracting the data contained in the TOC, for the database, when first accessing the file should be instantaneous by human perceptions.

I completely miss whatever logic there would be for having data from each "split" in the
database, at all. They are accessed sequentially by the reading software and are indexed for random page access, already. I doubt very much that Adobe made a special reader program that uses Kobo's database, for anything.

Luck;
Ken

Hey Ken, How would you expand on this and what changes would you suggest be made?

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

One thing that has been bothering me is that when you manually choose to mark a book as finished, it doesn't get flagged as finished in the reading stats. I know it might be a silly thing, but if the option is there to mark books as finished, then why not make that reflect in the one place where stats are shown?

Also, annotations - it shouldn't be tied in to books alone. All annotations should be accessible from a centralized location, the way Sony e-readers do it. If I hightlight stuff in a book, I don't want to keep reopening that book later just to see those highlights.

My first Kobo also had the option to close books - not sure why, but I miss that option. I have opened a few books by mistake, and I would like to close it the same way I can close a real book and put it back on the shelf...

This is a great idea Omnimodis78, How would you make your idea better and what would the benefit be in your opinion to the user?

[seabee]

Didn't read the whole thread yet but these are the features i'd REALLY like to have, most important (to me) first:
1) next to the home button when reading a book, a return/back button to leave the book, returning EXACTLY to where I opened it from (Home, a collection or the whole library, on the page where the book appear). Sometime, I browse books searching for something and this is a real pain (the number of SOOOO SLOW operations to continue the search on the next book is appalling).

<edit>Just read in previous posts that this button existed and was removed by Kobo, now I'm really : </edit>
2) both for home and library screen, a mode to have only one line of text for each book (super compact third mode). To me, reduced books covers are almost unrecognizable anyway (hence the home is often unusable). And multi-page-home (remember at least the 20 most recently read books).
3) in the library, a column on the right of A...Z * buttons to quick jump to the corresponding first letter corresponding to the active sort mode (not the same as search at all, much faster to use and only match the beginning of the active key mode).
4) an optional hierarchical mode when sorting the library by author (browse authors only then choose among books of this author, no need to build collections by author).
5) history of the ~10 last fast movements in the book with the slider (not page by page moves, and validated by closing the slider) to be able to return back to old positions quickly without using temporary page earmarks.
6) for search, a list of the 10 most recently searches (can edit the text before re-use).

I'm not interested at all with reading life/social features.

[uboot]

What's the difference between this thread and this one?


I'm also interested in how much Kobo officials are aware of our suggestions... I mean: this is customer feedback for free - no expensive product research necessary... They simply _must_ be aware of it... (but I doubt, they are... like many other manufacturers )

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by seabee

Didn't read the whole thread yet but these are the features i'd REALLY like to have, most important (to me) first:
1) next to the home button when reading a book, a return/back button to leave the book, returning EXACTLY to where I opened it from (Home, a collection or the whole library, on the page where the book appear). Sometime, I browse books searching for something and this is a real pain (the number of SOOOO SLOW operations to continue the search on the next book is appalling).

<edit>Just read in previous posts that this button existed and was removed by Kobo, now I'm really : </edit>

It is coming back in the next firmware version. Or at least it is for the lit devices.

2) both for home and library screen, a mode to have only one line of text for each book (super compact third mode).

Not something I would use, I like the covers, but I can see the use of it.

To me, reduced books covers are almost unrecognizable anyway (hence the home is often unusable). And multi-page-home (remember at least the 20 most recently read books).

If you sort the library list by "Recently Read" you get fairly close to this.

4) an optional hierarchical mode when sorting the library by author (browse authors only then choose among books of this author, no need to build collections by author).

Yes, an author list and a series list that look similar to the shelf list.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It is coming back in the next firmware version. Or at least it is for the lit devices.

I understand that the back button only goes back to the start of the previous level and no further. Does not actually go back reliably to where you were. (where did I hear that) same as it does in 2.61 on the Aura now. And slow enough that you might as well start over I think.

I seem to recall a better functioning back button last year on my mini.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I understand that the back button only goes back to the start of the previous level and no further. Does not actually go back reliably to where you were. (where did I hear that) same as it does in 2.61 on the Aura now. And slow enough that you might as well start over I think.

I seem to recall a better functioning back button last year on my mini.

As far as I can see and remember, it works exactly the same as before. From a book, it goes back to the list you opened the book from and you are positioned at the same place in the list.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

As far as I can see and remember, it works exactly the same as before. From a book, it goes back to the list you opened the book from and you are positioned at the same place in the list.

Ahh. I understood that from a shelf it went back to the top of the shelf. Besides wondering why it would not be the same for both, I guess I could just open a book in the shelf list whether I wanted to or not and then it would go back to the same place in the shelf?

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Ahh. I understood that from a shelf it went back to the top of the shelf. Besides wondering why it would not be the same for both, I guess I could just open a book in the shelf list whether I wanted to or not and then it would go back to the same place in the shelf?

Yes, turn to the tenth page of a long shelf, open a book, press the "Library" button in the bottom left and you will be back at the tenth page of the shelf. It also works the same from the library list, the search list, the Pocket articles list and ... I feel like I have left a list out, but can't think what it is.

If you go to the list by some other method, from the home screen or switching lists, it always opens at the top.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes, turn to the tenth page of a long shelf, open a book, press the "Library" button in the bottom left and you will be back at the tenth page of the shelf. It also works the same from the library list, the search list, the Pocket articles list and ... I feel like I have left a list out, but can't think what it is.

If you go to the list by some other method, from the home screen or switching lists, it always opens at the top.

Seems odd but I will wait till I see it in action. Probably I am missing something


Helen