Calibre difficult to use with touch screen?

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by apricoto

Huge whoops: right should have read 'left'. I have edited the comment to correct that error.

The exact same is true for the left margin, except the direction of movement is backwards not forwards. There are of course the top corners where tapping will open controls, but then a corner has to belong to either top or side margins, in calibre's case they belong to the top margins.

[compurandom]

I wonder if a settings screen or help screen in the reader clearly showing tap zones (and gestures?) would help.

[apricoto]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The exact same is true for the left margin, except the direction of movement is backwards not forwards. There are of course the top corners where tapping will open controls, but then a corner has to belong to either top or side margins, in calibre's case they belong to the top margins.

That isn't what I am experiencing here. I am not clicking or tapping near top or bottom margins.

I should indicate my margin settings, in case this makes a difference: top 20, bottom 15 left 20, right 20. landscape orientation set to 2, maximum screen width: 750. length 0.
i am using landscape for reading.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by compurandom

I wonder if a settings screen or help screen in the reader clearly showing tap zones (and gestures?) would help.

There is one that shows up the first two times you use the reader.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by apricoto

That isn't what I am experiencing here. I am not clicking or tapping near top or bottom margins.

Yeah, but that's not intended behavior, and seems to be unique to you.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by compurandom

I wonder if a settings screen or help screen in the reader clearly showing tap zones (and gestures?) would help.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

There is one that shows up the first two times you use the reader.

I thought I remembered one. Is there a way to trigger it intentionally?
I'd dig now, but I don't have the beta on the laptop I have with me.

[kovidgoyal]

No there is no intentional trigger for it. Its pretty simple anyway, there are only three touch zones. Upper, for controls. and right and left.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by apricoto

thanks. Again, looks like i wasn't clear with my question. I am not looking for a pdf reader.

I am interested in other users' experiences using calibre with touchscreens.

Why are you converting ePub to PDF and then using the Calibre viewer when the viewer converts the PDF back to ePub?

[apricoto]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why are you converting ePub to PDF and then using the Calibre viewer when the viewer converts the PDF back to ePub?

books originally in epub. I wanted option of highlights/annotations which calibre couldn't provide. pdf readers could do highlighting, so i used calibre to convert epub to pdf.

when I heard that current calibre beta is doing highlights/annotations I decided to try it. so I am reading one book as epub in calibre. this is my first experience reading in calibre. as my previous posts, here and in the beta thread, have indicated, it hasn't been problem free.

[aborel]

Originally Posted by apricoto

when I heard that current calibre beta is doing highlights/annotations I decided to try it. so I am reading one book as epub in calibre. this is my first experience reading in calibre. as my previous posts, here and in the beta thread, have indicated, it hasn't been problem free.

Please everyone: don't misunderstand my comment below as an angry rant. I'm just really curious about the choices of some people.

I know it will not help much to answer your questions, but I just have to ask, as it isn't the first time I notice this. Why do people with no previous experience of calibre choose to start with the beta? There's a pretty stable regular version around, for which they can get support from a big crowd of more experienced people, whereas with the beta questions will be much harder to answer. One needs to know about it (not everybody wants to be a beta tester), and if one does, one needs to determine whether the cause is the new code that is being tested or just something the new user did not understand.
I'm not blaming new users for not understanding everything about a complex piece of software, that's completely normal. But why do some of them make the learning curve even steeper by selecting a preliminary version instead of the stable one?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by aborel

<snip>
But why do some of them make the learning curve even steeper by selecting a preliminary version instead of the stable one?

In this case because the OP (apricoto) needs an epub viewer that supports annotations so that he can avoid EPUB to PDF conversions. The BETA version of the calibre viewer has an annotations feature - the only one I know of.

You'll find his annotation specific issues in the beta sticky thread at the top of the calibre forum.

BR

[apricoto]

Originally Posted by aborel

Please everyone: don't misunderstand my comment below as an angry rant. I'm just really curious about the choices of some people.

I know it will not help much to answer your questions, but I just have to ask, as it isn't the first time I notice this. Why do people with no previous experience of calibre choose to start with the beta?

Fair question. I downloaded the beta because Kovid sent me the link in another thread. The issues i've posted about in this thread, presumably haven't to do with the annotations/highlighting feature being added, but who knows. I did comment about a few things relating to that feature in the beta thread.