Kobo future firmware feature request thread

[shalym]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Another case of wanting the software to read your mind!

How is it supposed to know the difference between opening a finished book to check something or opening it to reread the book? Or the times you reopen a book to check some detail, but end up rereading it.

For this sort of thing, there has to be a decision made in the design of the application on what to do. Kobo made it in a fashion you don't like. From a usability point of view, I believe this way works better. Reopening the book is treated as starting to read it. If that isn't what is happening, you mark it as finished when you close the book. Otherwise, you would need some other mechanism to indicate the reread.

Hmmm...What I would like is for the software to be able have a book marked as "finished" stay marked no matter what. Even if I do decide to re-read the book, I still finished it at some point, so it should still be marked as "finished". Why couldn't it be marked as both "finished" and "reading" simultaneously? Is there only one field in the database for status? If so, wouldn't it be possible to make multiple yes/no fields?

Shari

[John F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

...

For this sort of thing, there has to be a decision made in the design of the application on what to do. Kobo made it in a fashion you don't like. From a usability point of view, I believe this way works better. Reopening the book is treated as starting to read it. If that isn't what is happening, you mark it as finished when you close the book. Otherwise, you would need some other mechanism to indicate the reread.

Or you could get rid of the "automatic" marked as finished (which isn't very reliable) and "reading" and make it clearer to the user by changing the "finished" to a check box and leave it up to the user what they want.

Having to go in and continuously having to mark a "finished" book as finished seems very poor from a usability point of view.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by John F

Having to go in and continuously having to mark a "finished" book as finished seems very poor from a usability point of view.

Can I ask why you would "have" to do this anyway? Why is it a problem to have a reference book you dip into marked as some random percentage read, instead of 'finished'?

I guess my suggestion, if this is important to you, is to create a collection called "Completed" or something, and manually add books to it when you finish them.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by meeera

Can I ask why you would "have" to do this anyway? Why is it a problem to have a reference book you dip into marked as some random percentage read, instead of 'finished'?

I guess my suggestion, if this is important to you, is to create a collection called "Completed" or something, and manually add books to it when you finish them.

Because I'm not talking about a "reference" book. I'm talking about any book. For example...I'm reading the Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint. Yesterday, I was reading something in the third book in the series, and I came across something that caused me to go back to the first book to look up a specific reference. This caused the first book's status to be changed to "reading", when I had, in fact finished it. This is annoying. Yes...I COULD long press on the book in the library and re-mark it as "finished", but I shouldn't have to.

Shari

[compurandom]

After it reopens the book at the beginning, you can go back into the library list, long press on the book, and mark it as finished again.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by compurandom

After it reopens the book at the beginning, you can go back into the library list, long press on the book, and mark it as finished again.

I believe I mentioned that already...

Originally Posted by shalym

Yes...I COULD long press on the book in the library and re-mark it as "finished", but I shouldn't have to.

Shari

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by shalym

Hmmm...What I would like is for the software to be able have a book marked as "finished" stay marked no matter what. Even if I do decide to re-read the book, I still finished it at some point, so it should still be marked as "finished". Why couldn't it be marked as both "finished" and "reading" simultaneously? Is there only one field in the database for status? If so, wouldn't it be possible to make multiple yes/no fields?

It's software, you can do anything you want to. If you spend the time designing the interface, the database and the code. And then write the code, debug it and test it. All it costs is money and time.

As to the current reading state, it is stored in three column. One is the percent read, the second is a bookmark to the exact position in the book and the third is the actual state (unread, reading, finished and there used to be another state but I haven't noticed it recently). And of course, you could add another column for another set of states. Or two columns for two sets of states. Or three... But, when do you stop?

Originally Posted by shalym

Because I'm not talking about a "reference" book. I'm talking about any book. For example...I'm reading the Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint. Yesterday, I was reading something in the third book in the series, and I came across something that caused me to go back to the first book to look up a specific reference. This caused the first book's status to be changed to "reading", when I had, in fact finished it. This is annoying. Yes...I COULD long press on the book in the library and re-mark it as "finished", but I shouldn't have to.

All this depends on the definitions used. Kobo used one that you disagree with. I happen to agree with them. If I open the book even just to check something, I am reading it. Therefore it is not finished at the moment. When I close it, I need to decide what to do with it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by John F

Or you could get rid of the "automatic" marked as finished (which isn't very reliable)

Are you saying that when you complete the book by paging past the end of the last page, it isn't being marked as finished? If so, what firmware and type of book? It has been a VERY long time since I saw any sort of problem with this.

and "reading" and make it clearer to the user by changing the "finished" to a check box and leave it up to the user what they want.

A check box where? I can't think of where you would do this so that it was a better user interface to what they currently have.

Having to go in and continuously having to mark a "finished" book as finished seems very poor from a usability point of view.

Having the an opened book not recognising it is open seems pretty bad to me as well.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Are you saying that when you complete the book by paging past the end of the last page, it isn't being marked as finished? If so, what firmware and type of book? It has been a VERY long time since I saw any sort of problem with this.

A check box where? I can't think of where you would do this so that it was a better user interface to what they currently have.


Having the an opened book not recognising it is open seems pretty bad to me as well.

Ok...so if "percent read" is a separate field, what happens if I mark a book as "finished" when I haven't actually finished it on that device? I read books on multiple devices at the same time, and there have been many times when I finish a book on my Kindle, but it is only 80% read on my Kobo. I will then go in and manually mark it as "finished" by long pressing on it in my library. Does the "percent read" field change at that point?

Shari

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by shalym

Ok...so if "percent read" is a separate field, what happens if I mark a book as "finished" when I haven't actually finished it on that device? I read books on multiple devices at the same time, and there have been many times when I finish a book on my Kindle, but it is only 80% read on my Kobo. I will then go in and manually mark it as "finished" by long pressing on it in my library. Does the "percent read" field change at that point?

From memory, the percent read is left alone. But, it doesn't matter. Reopening a book that has the finished status will start from the start of the book.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by davidfor

From memory, the percent read is left alone. But, it doesn't matter. Reopening a book that has the finished status will start from the start of the book.

Ok, so there is some sort of logic in the software to tell it to NOT show the percent read if the book is marked as either finished or unread, correct? And there is no way to right-click on a book and manually change the status to "reading". So...if you accidentally mark a book as either "finished" or "unread" there is no way to automatically go back to where you were in the book.

Am I wrong?

This would seem like a bug to me, especially since "Mark as unread" is right next to "View details" in the long press menu, and therefore easy to touch accidentally.

I don't know...I think I'm done with this discussion, as it seems that most requests in this thread get a reply that amounts to "you're doing it wrong" rather than an acknowledgement that it may be a valid concern for some people.

Shari

[John F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Are you saying that when you complete the book by paging past the end of the last page, it isn't being marked as finished?

no.

A check box where? I can't think of where you would do this so that it was a better user interface to what they currently have.

i didn't think it through.

I think I'm agreeing with the OP, no "automatic" marking of a book as read once it has been marked as finished.

[John F]

Originally Posted by meeera

Can I ask why you would "have" to do this anyway? Why is it a problem to have a reference book you dip into marked as some random percentage read, instead of 'finished'?

I guess my suggestion, if this is important to you, is to create a collection called "Completed" or something, and manually add books to it when you finish them.

For a reference book, I tend to read it thru once, and than I consider it finished. I may look at it again in the future, but it is still finished, to my way of thinking.

This is all just my opinion on the way I would like to see things. I may or may not be using the functionality.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by shalym

Ok, so there is some sort of logic in the software to tell it to NOT show the percent read if the book is marked as either finished or unread, correct? And there is no way to right-click on a book and manually change the status to "reading". So...if you accidentally mark a book as either "finished" or "unread" there is no way to automatically go back to where you were in the book.

Am I wrong?

This would seem like a bug to me, especially since "Mark as unread" is right next to "View details" in the long press menu, and therefore easy to touch accidentally.

Yes, that is correct. Personally, if it is a bug it is in usability, not function. Putting those menu items together might be wrong, but I don't believe that the basic function is incorrect. We'll have to disagree on this.

I don't know...I think I'm done with this discussion, as it seems that most requests in this thread get a reply that amounts to "you're doing it wrong" rather than an acknowledgement that it may be a valid concern for some people.

Yes, you are correct. But there are a plenty of suggestions for something that the firmware already does. Or there is a way to achieve something similar until Kobo decide to implement the requested feature. And a lot more are so badly described that I don't what is meant, so I ask. The post that started this is an example. I don't really know what vandafc was asking. I'm pretty sure that PeterT was wrong, but I'm not convinced your interpretation is correct. That might just be because I think the current behaviour is correct and hence can't see it. But, when I first read it, my response was "What?".

And of course there are a few suggestions that I completely disagree with. And yes, I express that opinion. If someone has the right to suggest features they want, and others to post "me too", then I think I have the right to express that I don't want them. If Kobo is actually paying attention to this thread, I want to make sure they understand that some of the suggestions might not be supported by everyone.

[__taori__]

I have been using Kobo Glo Hd for some months now and I have the following suggestions:

1 - Add Uncategorized Collection: I'd like to see a collection called "Uncategorized" or "None" to easily spot new ebooks that hasn't been assigned a collection yet.

2 - backlight on/off button: I'd like to have a button to switch the backlight on/off in addition to the backlight percentage/level. In this way the preferred light percentage/level is not lost every time it is switched on/off

3 - Search in ebook results: the results should contain the page or book percentage where the word is found

Thank you