ebook-viewer has lost its borders and much of its functionality

[porphyry5]

I use calibre on current arch linux. Recently I noticed that ebook-viewer has changed its appearance and lost much of its functionality. It has lost its border with all the menu buttons, leaving only the text window, and while it responds to PgUp and PgDown and arrow keys, it no longer responds to Ctrl-Q to quit. The only way I have found to close it out is as follows

~ $ ps ax|grep ebook-viewer
   5755 pts/3    Sl+    0:03 /opt/calibre/bin/ebook-viewer Alan Hollinghurst; The Stranger's Child.epub
   5823 pts/2    S+     0:00 grep ebook-viewer
~ $ kill -9 5755

It does not respond to pkill pgrep or an unforced kill command.
Bearing in mind the calibre site's admonition not to trust one's distro's calibre package, I uninstalled arch's version of calibre, and reinstalled it directly from calibre's download site only to find it exactly the same as the arch version.

I really don't mind this stripped down version, it still works fine for reading ebooks, but does anyone know a convenient method of closing it out, or should I just write me a bash function to automate the above commands?

[BetterRed]

What's in Preferences (right click in text area or press Esc)->Keyboard Shortcuts->Interface->Quit the Viewer - I thought the default was Ctrl+Q.

Just noticed that if you change a shortcut, you can't get back to, or see, the default value

BR

[porphyry5]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

What's in Preferences (right click in text area or press Esc)->Keyboard Shortcuts->Interface->Quit the Viewer - I thought the default was Ctrl+Q.

BR

Many thanks. Not a default, had to activate it as you specified, but now it does respond to Ctrl-Q. And in this right click menu the calibre version is much different to the arch version, which as I recall offered only Esc to escape the Preferences menu.

[kovidgoyal]

Huh? You can simply use whatever keyboard shortcut/GUI control your desktop environment offers to close windows to quit the viewer. There is no need to kill it. And of course, as BR points out there is a dedicated shortcut for it as well.

[bb84000]

Hello,
I've not found in the new viewer a way to open a new book when a book is already loaded, as it was possible in version 3 by clicking on the open file button...
Have I missed anything ?
Thanks,
Bernard

[kovidgoyal]

Right click and select "Open book"

[bb84000]

Hello !

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Right click and select "Open book"

Thanks,

Bernard

[arturox]

I've been using calibre for a number of years, and find it a most excellent app.

Today I installed an update that took it to version 4.2 and it continued to work as it usually does.

But catastrophe! When I clicked to actually view an Ebook, instead of the expected sophisticated reader with a tool bar down the left hand side all I got was a white tool-less rectangle.

Yes, escape does display some tools in a very crude fashion... I'll leave it at that. :-(

Questions:

1) Is this how the reader is going to be now and forever?

2) Can we (Users) get the old Reader to work again?

3) If not, how can the tools display be changed so it doesn't sit like an unwanted hat over the top of the reader?

In other words, match the quality of the calibre UI.

Don't get me wrong, I still think calibre is by far the best Ebook manager I've found, but this new reader is a substantial step backwards in development.

Ax

[theducks]

If you had read many of the posts,
you would find these answers

I suggest you roll back to 3.48

[arturox]

You can't rollback, it requires an uninstall then a new lnstall of the older version.

But whatever... It doesn't solve the problem if future updates are required.

I want the old style Viewer back.

Aside from this thread, I didn't find any other postings about the new style E-book Viewer.

Ax

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by arturox

You can't rollback, it requires an uninstall then a new lnstall of the older version.

But whatever... It doesn't solve the problem if future updates are required.

I want the old style Viewer back.

Aside from this thread, I didn't find any other postings about the new style E-book Viewer.

Ax

There are multiple threads.

You can install an old version of Calibre Portable and the newest version of Calibre on the same computer at the same time. Then associate your ebook files with the viewer of Calibre Portable and uncheck them from the internal viewer of the new Calibre. This way you can use the new Calibre with the old viewer.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by arturox

You can't rollback, it requires an uninstall then a new lnstall of the older version.

But whatever... It doesn't solve the problem if future updates are required.

I want the old style Viewer back.

Aside from this thread, I didn't find any other postings about the new style E-book Viewer.

Ax

Yes. Uninstall. That leaves your Library and settings intact
( Kovid will warn us IF the DB structure changes in the future.) ( KEEP A FULL Library backup before doing any major version change, just in case you need to use the old style)

Don't rely on MR tags to find the dozen+ threads griping about the viewer (or editor)

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by arturox

But catastrophe! When I clicked to actually view an Ebook, instead of the expected sophisticated reader with a tool bar down the left hand side all I got was a white tool-less rectangle.

Is the book displayed in the viewer?

Originally Posted by arturox

Yes, escape does display some tools in a very crude fashion... I'll leave it at that. :-(

I'm genuinely curious, once I setup the viewer there is no need to fidget with it beyond the TOC which you can show with ctrl-t and leave it up so it shows by default whenever you open a book.

Originally Posted by arturox

2) Can we (Users) get the old Reader to work again?

Simply install the old version. On Windows I use the 64 bit version of calibre, but I could also install the old 32 bit version or place the portable version on my machine. Then I could use the old viewer via the "Open With" plugin or by telling the 64 bit version not to use internal viewer to view calibre files and have the OS default for ePub or your format of choice to the old viewer.

Originally Posted by arturox

3) If not, how can the tools display be changed so it doesn't sit like an unwanted hat over the top of the reader?

I'm still confused by worrying about the preference interface since it is not needed while you read a book. What preferences do you need shown? Maybe Kovid could make some dockable in the future.

[arturox]

Well, how about that...

Portable version on a desktop... That had not crossed my mind, even though I do have a number of portable apps on a small USB SSD I take with me when I'm away.

Installed a portable version of Calibre 3.48 on the desktop computer. Joy! now have a suitable Ebook viewer available.

The only thing K... needs to do now it return the old style (aesthetically superior) viewer to the 4.nn version then I'll be totally happy.

But I guess that ain't gonna happen.

Ax

Nb: Thanks to all who offered thoughts... Appreciated.

Footnote:

FWIW. I'm not the only one here (Home) who is lost as to why such a downgrade of the Ebook viewer was even considered...

SWMBO was most annoyed (I'm being polite) when her Calibre 3.nn updated to 4.nn before we were aware of the change.

Ax

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by arturox

The only thing K... needs to do now it return the old style (aesthetically superior) viewer to the 4.nn version then I'll be totally happy.

Ax

I'm curious as to what is aesthetically superior about the previous default configuration. When reading both a paper book, and most e-readers, the default is "nothing but text" (more or less), the new Calibre viewer defaults to the same style, showing only the book you're actually (at least allegedly) interested in reading. Unless it's the configuration options that are somehow more important to one's reading experience - which strikes me as more than a little odd.