Search capabilities with different file formats?

[Doranwen]

Hi everyone, this is my first post (it helpfully suggested introducing myself in the Introductions Forum, but I'm just going to do that here as part of all of this post since I won't be able to make this a regular part of my Internet activities).

I've been contemplating an e-book reader for a couple years now, but previously had no money to speak of (so buying one was quite out of the question, and I wasn't likely to get any relatives to purchase one for Christmas/b-day present). At one point I was considering a different device (can't even remember what now, it wasn't anything well-known), but upon discovering they were somewhat fading out, and this one is inexpensive, is based on more open lines than the very very proprietary Kindle and Nook (I'm very much into open source/Creative Commons sorts of things and really hate DRM), and allows more file formats than just about any other . . . I have e-books as html, txt, pdf, lit, doc, rtf, (rarely) pdb, (very rarely) cbr, even some mht files I saved (which I know I'll have to convert to something else to transfer over). My main desire for an e-book reader was to have somewhere away from a computer that I could read fanfic, lol! (Granted, I have a few e-books I would love to read elsewhere than a computer, but my library has way more fanfiction in it than real books--and some of the fanfics are BETTER than most published books, mind you. )

Anyway, I just ordered two of the 5" ones, one for me and one for my brother. My brother is trying to collect all of Ellen G. White's writings (he was going to get physical copies of all the books, and presumably still is, but that may take a while and they're not as portable as an e-book reader). Since she died a little before 1920 (1914-1919 or so, I forget when), all of her books are public domain and most can easily be found multiple places. They can also be found in multiple formats, which brings me to my main question (and purpose for this post):

How does the file format affect the availability of searching for words? I have little use for this but my brother needs it for his purposes, so I need to know what format/s I should be trying to find the books in. I read something somewhere (but now I can't remember where or seem to find it again) about certain file formats having search capability and others not . . . I'm going to guess that pdf is one of those that would not. Since he's going to be visiting for just a short time I wanted to get a head start on stocking up all the books to put on his, and realized that I don't know which file format/s I should be going for.

And a minor (maybe related?) question:

Most of my regular ebooks are pdf (I find them much easier to read on the computer than most other formats); most of my fanfics are either txt or html. Are some formats harder to zoom in on than others? For instance, if I have a pdf with tiny text, will I be limited in how much I can zoom in compared to a txt file? I have an awful lot of pdf files, so restrictions on pdfs are something I'm particularly interested in learning about. (Any such restrictions aren't going to change my mind about getting the EZ Reader, because I have so many files in formats I know should be just fine that I can't WAIT for it to get here so I can finally read my favorite stories in bed without a clunky laptop across my lap!)

I'm sure these have been answered somewhere, I just can't seem to find it. I must not be running the right searches. Apologies if the answer is right in front of me and I'm just oblivious.

[Davimee]

Originally Posted by Doranwen

Hi everyone, this is my first post (it helpfully suggested introducing myself in the Introductions Forum, but I'm just going to do that here as part of all of this post since I won't be able to make this a regular part of my Internet activities).

I've been contemplating an e-book reader for a couple years now, but previously had no money to speak of (so buying one was quite out of the question, and I wasn't likely to get any relatives to purchase one for Christmas/b-day present). At one point I was considering a different device (can't even remember what now, it wasn't anything well-known), but upon discovering they were somewhat fading out, and this one is inexpensive, is based on more open lines than the very very proprietary Kindle and Nook (I'm very much into open source/Creative Commons sorts of things and really hate DRM), and allows more file formats than just about any other . . . I have e-books as html, txt, pdf, lit, doc, rtf, (rarely) pdb, (very rarely) cbr, even some mht files I saved (which I know I'll have to convert to something else to transfer over). My main desire for an e-book reader was to have somewhere away from a computer that I could read fanfic, lol! (Granted, I have a few e-books I would love to read elsewhere than a computer, but my library has way more fanfiction in it than real books--and some of the fanfics are BETTER than most published books, mind you. )

Anyway, I just ordered two of the 5" ones, one for me and one for my brother. My brother is trying to collect all of Ellen G. White's writings (he was going to get physical copies of all the books, and presumably still is, but that may take a while and they're not as portable as an e-book reader). Since she died a little before 1920 (1914-1919 or so, I forget when), all of her books are public domain and most can easily be found multiple places. They can also be found in multiple formats, which brings me to my main question (and purpose for this post):

How does the file format affect the availability of searching for words? I have little use for this but my brother needs it for his purposes, so I need to know what format/s I should be trying to find the books in. I read something somewhere (but now I can't remember where or seem to find it again) about certain file formats having search capability and others not . . . I'm going to guess that pdf is one of those that would not. Since he's going to be visiting for just a short time I wanted to get a head start on stocking up all the books to put on his, and realized that I don't know which file format/s I should be going for.

And a minor (maybe related?) question:

Most of my regular ebooks are pdf (I find them much easier to read on the computer than most other formats); most of my fanfics are either txt or html. Are some formats harder to zoom in on than others? For instance, if I have a pdf with tiny text, will I be limited in how much I can zoom in compared to a txt file? I have an awful lot of pdf files, so restrictions on pdfs are something I'm particularly interested in learning about. (Any such restrictions aren't going to change my mind about getting the EZ Reader, because I have so many files in formats I know should be just fine that I can't WAIT for it to get here so I can finally read my favorite stories in bed without a clunky laptop across my lap!)

I'm sure these have been answered somewhere, I just can't seem to find it. I must not be running the right searches. Apologies if the answer is right in front of me and I'm just oblivious.

First of all, welcome! And congratulations on your Pocket Pro! I've got one, and I love it! And to be honest... I love fanfic as well! In fact, lately that's mostly what I've been reading. The shows I like don't have much to offer in the area of books, especially ebooks, so I get my fix that way. I love sci fi, and there is plenty of fan fiction out there!

I've found that I convert most of mine to .rtf and read them in the CoolReader program that was in the latest firmware upgrade. Unfortunately, that firmware has been taken down because of battery drain issues, and I'm not sure what the CoolReader looks like in the previous issue. I like the way a book is formatted better in epub, so anything in epub will work well. You can search and also easily increase text size in epub, so I would recommend that for your brother's books.

Do you have Calibre? That's a great (free!) program for converting books to whatever format you need.

I know .txt and .html can be read on the Pocket Pro, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know how it looks. I think the next time I download a fanfic I'll try it in html and save myself a step.

PDF can zoom, but if I'm going to zoom I prefer epub. .rtf zooms well in CoolReader, but again that's the latest one, and I'm not sure how the December one does. (Really the main reason I like the newer firmware is because you can set it to have a visible clock in the CoolReader program, and I need that so I don't get carried away and read way too late. )

If I didn't answer something, or didn't answer clearly enough, let me know! I'll be back to the forums either later tonight or tomorrow. But there are many others here who can help you out, as well! Welcome!

[Spiffy]

I don't believe there's any search capability, of any kind, with any file format.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I am (because there's no text entry system on the unit, although with number keys a nice T9 text-entry system should at least be programmable).

[Davimee]

To search within epub, open the file, then press the OK button. (That's the one that looks like a crescent moon, on the far right at the bottom.) It will come up with a menu. Press 7, which is search. A keyboard comes up on the screen, and you just press the number that corresponds with the letter you want, like on a cell phone. It does take a little getting used to, but it's not too bad. When you have the word you want, press OK again. It will underline the first occurrence of the word you've entered. Then just press the 0 key (it has the right arrow on it) and it will take you to the next occurrence, and so on. Once you find the section you want, press the button that looks like a return arrow, just to the left of the OK button, and it will quit searching.

Hope that helps!

[Spiffy]

Son of a gun. I never noticed that before.

Coolreader's website (now that I'm looking after the fact) actually just says "text search", so I suppose that's not very specific about what file formats it works with.

Okay. Next step? The ability to do search the unit for a filename! No? Okay... add it to the wish list.

[Doranwen]

Thank you--that was quite helpful, actually. Now I can show him how to do it when he gets here for his visit.

I took your advice and downloaded Calibre. Soon as I get a bit of free time, I'll play around with it. I don't intend to use it to manage a library (I have a management system that works great for me), but the conversion bit looks just what I need.

I guess I'll just stick with epub as far as possible then; most of them seemed to be already downloadable in that format, and the rest are just a conversion away.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Doranwen

Hi everyone, this is my first post (it helpfully suggested introducing myself in the Introductions Forum, but I'm just going to do that here as part of all of this post since I won't be able to make this a regular part of my Internet activities).

I've been contemplating an e-book reader for a couple years now, but previously had no money to speak of (so buying one was quite out of the question, and I wasn't likely to get any relatives to purchase one for Christmas/b-day present). At one point I was considering a different device (can't even remember what now, it wasn't anything well-known), but upon discovering they were somewhat fading out, and this one is inexpensive, is based on more open lines than the very very proprietary Kindle and Nook (I'm very much into open source/Creative Commons sorts of things and really hate DRM), and allows more file formats than just about any other . . . I have e-books as html, txt, pdf, lit, doc, rtf, (rarely) pdb, (very rarely) cbr, even some mht files I saved (which I know I'll have to convert to something else to transfer over). My main desire for an e-book reader was to have somewhere away from a computer that I could read fanfic, lol! (Granted, I have a few e-books I would love to read elsewhere than a computer, but my library has way more fanfiction in it than real books--and some of the fanfics are BETTER than most published books, mind you. )

Anyway, I just ordered two of the 5" ones, one for me and one for my brother. My brother is trying to collect all of Ellen G. White's writings (he was going to get physical copies of all the books, and presumably still is, but that may take a while and they're not as portable as an e-book reader). Since she died a little before 1920 (1914-1919 or so, I forget when), all of her books are public domain and most can easily be found multiple places. They can also be found in multiple formats, which brings me to my main question (and purpose for this post):

How does the file format affect the availability of searching for words? I have little use for this but my brother needs it for his purposes, so I need to know what format/s I should be trying to find the books in. I read something somewhere (but now I can't remember where or seem to find it again) about certain file formats having search capability and others not . . . I'm going to guess that pdf is one of those that would not. Since he's going to be visiting for just a short time I wanted to get a head start on stocking up all the books to put on his, and realized that I don't know which file format/s I should be going for.

And a minor (maybe related?) question:

Most of my regular ebooks are pdf (I find them much easier to read on the computer than most other formats); most of my fanfics are either txt or html. Are some formats harder to zoom in on than others? For instance, if I have a pdf with tiny text, will I be limited in how much I can zoom in compared to a txt file? I have an awful lot of pdf files, so restrictions on pdfs are something I'm particularly interested in learning about. (Any such restrictions aren't going to change my mind about getting the EZ Reader, because I have so many files in formats I know should be just fine that I can't WAIT for it to get here so I can finally read my favorite stories in bed without a clunky laptop across my lap!)

I'm sure these have been answered somewhere, I just can't seem to find it. I must not be running the right searches. Apologies if the answer is right in front of me and I'm just oblivious.

Dear Doranwen:

First off, the search function works for PDF and EPUB for sure. I believe those are the only ones!

Info on the search function is on the FAQ sheet at: www.theEZreader.com/html under "support".

Yes, PDF, being essentially a picture of a page, has limited zoom (font increases). EPUB has nine for example. Most others have three or five.

Clear and easy, unless you are accomplished at file conversion, everything seems to work better with EPUB (font increase, font styles, Text-To-Speech, etc.). EPUB is a Universal Standard and that is always safe and easy.

Ellen G. White books (6-8 of them at least) can be downloaded FREE at www.EZread.com They are in the Google Free eBook Library. CLICK THE GOOGLE BUTTON FIRST and then do an author search!! You will need to become a member but it is free to be a member. Also, the "pay" titles are far less expensive on this site... so do some shopping!! Your brother may also love books by Independent Authors and we have them on out site!

Thank you so much for posting!!!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

I don't believe there's any search capability, of any kind, with any file format.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I am (because there's no text entry system on the unit, although with number keys a nice T9 text-entry system should at least be programmable).

Dear Spiffy:

IF I remember correctly, the December, 2009, firmware upgrade brought the Pocket PRO a Search Function and Hyperlinks. It is on there, I just do not know if it was December or not. That search function uses a type of "soft keyboard' to input info. Instructions are on the FAQ sheet at: www.theEZreader.com/html under "support".

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Davimee

First of all, welcome! And congratulations on your Pocket Pro! I've got one, and I love it! And to be honest... I love fanfic as well! In fact, lately that's mostly what I've been reading. The shows I like don't have much to offer in the area of books, especially ebooks, so I get my fix that way. I love sci fi, and there is plenty of fan fiction out there!

I've found that I convert most of mine to .rtf and read them in the CoolReader program that was in the latest firmware upgrade. Unfortunately, that firmware has been taken down because of battery drain issues, and I'm not sure what the CoolReader looks like in the previous issue. I like the way a book is formatted better in epub, so anything in epub will work well. You can search and also easily increase text size in epub, so I would recommend that for your brother's books.

Do you have Calibre? That's a great (free!) program for converting books to whatever format you need.

I know .txt and .html can be read on the Pocket Pro, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know how it looks. I think the next time I download a fanfic I'll try it in html and save myself a step.

PDF can zoom, but if I'm going to zoom I prefer epub. .rtf zooms well in CoolReader, but again that's the latest one, and I'm not sure how the December one does. (Really the main reason I like the newer firmware is because you can set it to have a visible clock in the CoolReader program, and I need that so I don't get carried away and read way too late. )

If I didn't answer something, or didn't answer clearly enough, let me know! I'll be back to the forums either later tonight or tomorrow. But there are many others here who can help you out, as well! Welcome!

Dear Davimee:

It was not so long ago when you were a newbie! Now you are one of the ever-helpful and quite wonderful people on this forum!!

I thank you for helping so many new people get adjusted to the device!!