re/read - free browser extension: an offline library of web articles and EPUBs

[reapps_eu]

0.5.45 is released. Key changes:

- the reader's menu has a "Full screen" row. On Firefox for Android it hides the address bar and the status bar, on a desktop browser the toolbars. Especially usefull for e-readers (like boox) where pages are turned with keys, so Firefox's own "scroll to hide the toolbar" never happens. Back or Esc brings them back.

- a book added from an EPUB file keeps its pictures. They are read from the file, nothing is downloaded. The list shows how many pictures a book has and how much space they take, and the book's menu has a "Remove pictures" row that deletes the pictures and keeps the book.

- Improved editing of the range of existing highlights (they can be shortened or extended, word by word).

- On a site where only the reader is on, the bubble under a selected phrase has two buttons now: "Read in the reader" and "Open the offline reading list". The second used to look like a label, not something to press.

- Fixed: some pages opened with "There was no article to find on that page". They open correctly now.

Happy reading, thanks!

https://reapps.eu/read

[reapps_eu]

A brief explanation - to edit an existing highlight, you first need to click the highlight icon in the page header, and then click or tap on the highlight itself.

[reapps_eu]

0.5.46 is out. One change - it concerns the translation of individual words.

A translation model works on whole sentences: the meaning of a word is worked out from the words around it. A single selected word has no such context, so its translation can be arbitrary - a rare meaning, a word cut short, or a word that does not exist. Phrases and whole sentences are translated much better. For single words a dictionary is the better source: it lists every meaning of the word, and you pick the one that fits.

Until now, with a translation model switched on, the dictionary entries and the translated sentence were shown only after a press on "More" in the bubble (with the model switched off, the entries were already shown right away). From 0.5.46 they are shown right away with the model on as well, under the translation, whenever you select a word or a phrase. The "More" button is now labelled "Less" and hides them, and a new setting, "Show the sentence and dictionary entries right away" (in the screenshot), restores the short bubble. The setting is on for everyone, existing installations included. The bubble over an already saved phrase is unchanged: it shows the saved meaning, and the sentence and the entries after a press on "More".

If you do not have a dictionary yet: in the settings, under "Dictionaries", you can download a bilingual WikDict dictionary with one click, for the language you read and the language you translate into, or add your own StarDict files with "Add a dictionary from files" - a monolingual one, English-English for example, works the same way. The "Translation models" section of the settings now has a note on this too: a single word on its own is often translated wrongly, and for single words the dictionaries are the better source.


GitHub release: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/r...eleases/latest
Firefox Add-Ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reread/
Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...imcmmeeoplfcla

[reapps_eu]

0.5.47 is out - on addons.mozilla.org, in the Chrome Web Store, and as a zip for Chromium browsers on GitHub. Two changes: a dictionary can be added from a link, and on a computer the reader can be opened from the right-click menu and from the bubble.

Dictionary from a link. In the settings, under "Add a dictionary from a link", paste the address of a StarDict dictionary packed as a .zip file, choose the languages and press Download. The archive is downloaded, unpacked and added with the same checks as for files picked by hand; nothing has to be unpacked and no files have to be selected, which matters most on a phone or a tablet. One request is made, to that address, when the button is pressed; nothing else is sent, and only https addresses are accepted. Sources of free dictionaries, monolingual ones included (English-English, for example), are listed in the questions on https://reapps.eu/read: reader.dict, FreeDict, Wiktionary StarDict and others. Archives that are not .zip files (.tar.xz, .tar.zst) still have to be unpacked and added from files.

Two more ways to open the reader on a computer, for users who have not pinned the toolbar button. The right-click menu on any web page has a "re/read" entry with "Read this page in the reader" and "Offline reading list". The bubble over a selected word or phrase has a third icon after the speaker and the copy icon, a page, which opens the page in the reader. Both do the same as the toolbar popup and the Alt+Shift+R shortcut.

GitHub release: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/r...eleases/latest
Firefox Add-Ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reread/
Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...imcmmeeoplfcla

[Gormagon]

I updated the extension (just by copying and replacing the old files in the folder) and it shows "re/read 0.5.47" on the bottom of the settings menu. Afterwards I started the browser.

In settings there's the option
"Switched-off sites
A list of websites where the extension is switched off (no translation or underlines). You can add sites here using the extension icon in your browser's toolbar."

I don't see such an option when I click on the icon on a website, see the attached screenshot. Also it would be nice to have an option to manually add sites in the settings menu.
I also don't see re/read in the right-click menu. I only see "Open in reading mode". After I've disabled "Pin to toolbar" and reloaded the website there's still only this one option.

Do I have to delete the extensions folder for each update? I did this with previous versions but then all my dictionaries were lost as was the library.

[reapps_eu]

Thank you for the report - three separate things:

1. The switch for the site is missing in your popup because of two settings that are on: "Use without a translation model" (the checkbox in the popup) and "No bubble when selecting text", which is on the settings page, right under "Use without a translation model". With both on, the extension does nothing on ordinary pages (no bubble, no underlines), so there is nothing to switch off per site, and the popup hides the switch. The text under "Switched-off sites" did not say this; it will in the next version, and the next version also lets you add a site by typing its address in that section.

2. The "re/read" entry in the right-click menu is created when the extension is installed or reloaded. Replacing the files in the folder and restarting the browser skips that step in Chromium, so the entry never appeared for you. Two ways to get it now: press the reload arrow on the re/read card in chrome://extensions, or wait for 0.5.48, which creates the entry on every browser start as well.

3. Do not delete the folder. For an extension loaded from a folder, Chromium derives its id from the folder's path, and the data - dictionaries, reading list, saved phrases - is stored under that id; a new folder means a new id and an empty store. Replacing the files inside the same folder keeps everything, as it did for you this time. After replacing them, press the reload arrow in chrome://extensions and reload the tabs you had open: Chromium does not update the extension's script in pages that were already open, so the bubble, the underlines and the popup's site switch in those tabs run the old version until the page is reloaded.

[reapps_eu]

v0.5.48 is already available on Mozilla Add-Ons and GitHub, and should be available on the Chrome Web Store in a few hours

[Gormagon]

Thanks for the fast reply and the new version as well.

Reloading did it, and the re/read entry appeared.
With "No bubble when selecting text" disabled I can now see the entry "enabled on [domain]".
Adding domains manually works for me with the version 0.5.48.

[reapps_eu]

Great, thanks for the feedback!