calibre 5: Beta testers needed

[The_Ad]

And every second time I click Browse Annotations, the highlights is not appearing.

It's shown in attached video.

[nixsee]

Another wonderful improvement! I'm officially uninstalling my other ebook readers now!

Some suggestions:
1) Differentiate the Quick Highlight icon from the Notes Highlight. Perhaps a different icon, and maybe even change the color of the quick highlight to reflect the color that is set.
2) It is nice in other apps to see 3 or 4 quick highlight colors in the popup bar. So, perhaps the solution to #1 is to simply allow the user to customize which colors show up (either as a colored icon or just a colored circle) in the popup bar. If they want 1, 4 or 8, that's up to them.
3) Allow to click away from the notes editor window and it will save the note and return to text, rather than the intermediate window with all of the arrows.
4) Multi-select and delete in Browse Annotations in the main window
5) Edit annotations in Browse Annotations window
6) Export annotations from Browse Annotations window

Some related suggestions, perhaps out of the scope of this discussion:

7) Allow to search the book for the selected word(s)
8) Allow search of wikipedia for selected word

Here's a couple screenshots from Google Play Books and Kindle for PC for reference regarding many of these suggestions (although I MUCH prefer the minimalism of the Calibre popup bar)

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by The_Ad

And every second time I click Browse Annotations, the highlights is not appearing.

It's shown in attached video.

I can reproduce it here. Windows 10 x64, calibre portable 4.99.9

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Released version 4.99.9 with the following changes:

0) The viewer now supports books with right-to-left text
1) the selection bar is now fully customizable and can be disabled
2) There are new actions that can be added to the bar for one click highlight and highlight adjusting selections, and removing highlights
3) The selection bar is hidden while mouse dragging is in progress
4) The bug with the browse annotations tool restriction to types not working has been fixed
5) Multi-select is allowed int he viewer highlights panel
6) Copy button in selection bar now present in browser viewer as well

Great work, Kovid!

My impressions:

1) Very nice solution making the bar customizable.
2) The bar only appearing after the selection is finished is way better.
3) The new Quick Highlight is perfect.
4) Now the highlights are instantaneously showing in "Browse annotations" in main calibre, without having to restart (at least, this was needed for me before).

Suggestions:

1) I agree with @nixsse about different icons for Notes and Quick Highlight. I suggest changing the Notes icon, since the marker pen is ideal to represent highlighting.
2) As I suggested before, and others too: allow multi-selection, exporting and deleting from "Browse annotations" on main calibre.
3) When a book is already open, clicking on a highlight should take us to it, without opening the book again.

Bugs:

1) As reported by @The_Ad, every two clicks on "Browse annotations" make it blank.
2) Highlights are getting duplicated after I added the server user to sync with. The highlights were done in the local viewer, but they were also assigned to the server user. So, when the user dropdown is "empty", the notes/bookmarks appear duplicated. I know they are supposed to sync, but shouldn't it be displayed only once, under the original creator?
3) If a user is added once for syncing with server, even after removing it from the server and the viewer preferences, it remains listed on the dropdown menu on "Browse annotations". Actually, the viewer seems to be unaware of server users, so you can even add a non-existent user for syncing.
4) Clicking on "Edit" on "Browse annotations" on the viewer gives this error:

Spoiler:

calibre, version 4.99.9
ERRO: Error in message handler: TypeError: Cannot read property 'frameElement' of undefined

Traceback (most recent call last):
    at IframeClient.handle_message (userscript:viewer.js:15123:21)
    at IframeBoss.annotations_msg_received (userscript:viewer.js:23054:26)
    at IframeBoss.snap_to_selection [as ensure_selection_visible] (userscript:viewer.js:19342:45)
    at ScrollViewport.ρσ_interpolate_kwargs (userscript:viewer.js:2616:18)
    at ScrollViewport.viewport_to_document (userscript:viewer.js:12147:41)
TypeError: Cannot read property 'frameElement' of undefined

Info:
1) The "Browse annotations" button is not available on the server viewer. Is this expected?

[democrite]

Nice changes. Agree that the icons could be better differentiated. A trash can to delete the highlight is most clear, as the X is already use (an icon I think is unneeded as one can merely click away). Agree also with secondary popup bar with highlight colors; if one is merely highlighting, much more often used than notes I think, it is easier. The icon for highlight also agree could show the current highlight color.

Attached are screenshots of Apple Books when one taps on an existing highlight, then with color selection. Colors are also darker in dark mode. There is also a note icon in the margin to easily see that there's a note.

Concerning the colors, I think Apple Books has the best selection out of the apps I know. They are ordered by what one could call importance. The latter colors standout more as in the screenshots, easier to see if one uses various colors in the same paragraph, and wants certain passages marked as more important than others.

A single tap on an existing highlight to show the popup bar to change colors, modify, or add a note I think is quicker, and consistent with all other apps.

[nqk]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

1) The "Browse annotations" button is not available on the server viewer. Is this expected?

I wonder, too. I need to copy/export the annotations frequently.

I'm glad that there's a new button that saves me two taps each time I select the texts. But confirm button is still way too high - top right corner - on a phone. I hope "tap outside" should be sufficient.

[kovidgoyal]

Yes, there is no browse annotations in the content server viewer, I might get around to implementing it someday, after I get around to implementing bookmarks.

@nqk: Tap outside what to confirm? If you tap outside the panel showing the notes and colors, it confirms.

@democrite: you cannot have a single tap to do multiple things, that is an impossibility. And thanks for the colors, I actually like the idea of automatically adjusting colors for dark mode, I might rework how colors work to do that. So that if you send your highlights to someone that prefers dark mode, they still look decent.

@thiago: The two bugs are already fixed for the next beta. And the quick highlights icon has been changed to show the current color and distinguish it from the notes highlight button.

What is on my TODO list now is:

1) Look into export/delete from the Browse annots dialog in main calibre
2) Maybe rework how colors are done so that they auto-adjust for dark mode.
3) Look into adding an import highlights function in the viewer highlights panel. Importing highlights is a little dicey because if the book content has changed the highlights may no longer show up (rather like the disappearing highlights bug in the first beta). I will need to think how to handle that.

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@democrite: you cannot have a single tap to do multiple things, that is an impossibility.

Just an idea for touchscreens: on Kindle and iBooks, you can long tap, then slide. This will automatically highlight, without having to select > click highlight > click adjust > confirm. But, since calibre works embedded on a browser, maybe that's not possible.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@thiago: The two bugs are already fixed for the next beta. And the quick highlights icon has been changed to show the current color and distinguish it from the notes highlight button.

Thanks! Just to clarify: what two bugs were fixed? I reported what I believed to be four bugs.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

What is on my TODO list now is:

1) Look into export/delete from the Browse annots dialog in main calibre
2) Maybe rework how colors are done so that they auto-adjust for dark mode.
3) Look into adding an import highlights function in the viewer highlights panel. Importing highlights is a little dicey because if the book content has changed the highlights may no longer show up (rather like the disappearing highlights bug in the first beta). I will need to think how to handle that.

Great! If calibre could import annotations natively, that would make sharing really easy.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

Just an idea for touchscreens: on Kindle and iBooks, you can long tap, then slide. This will automatically highlight, without having to select > click highlight > click adjust > confirm. But, since calibre works embedded on a browser, maybe that's not possible.

Something to consider for the future, but for now you will have to live with a few extra taps on touch screens.

Thanks! Just to clarify: what two bugs were fixed? I reported what I believed to be four bugs.

The second invocation of browse annotations being blank and the edit button not working. The other two are not bugs. Syncing means both user and viewer will have the annotations and so they will show up twice in the browser. And yes you can add a non-existent user, if you do, simply no syncing happens.

Great! If calibre could import annotations natively, that would make sharing really easy.

It's already super easy. Simply annotate your epub file and send it to whomever you want to share it with, the annotations are saved in the file, by default.

[nixsee]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

1) Look into export/delete from the Browse annots dialog in main calibre.

And Edit annotations from the Browse Annotations dialog as well, please!

[nqk]

@kovid , are the annotations saved in the database file? If they are and if the main Calibre can read and export them, that's fine with me, because whatever I do with the annotations, I do it on a PC. However, the PC is not where the content server is running and I will just sync the library if need be (or just the database file).

[fitnesspm]

Is there a way to have the highlights sync from Windows to Android? When I run a Content Server, the highlights don't sync when I open the browser up on another device.

[kovidgoyal]

@nqk: Yes, they are.

@fitnesspm: You need to tell the viewer which content server user to sync with in the miscellaneous preferences of the viewer.

[fitnesspm]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@fitnesspm: You need to tell the viewer which content server user to sync with in the miscellaneous preferences of the viewer.

What do you mean the viewer? I'm opening it in a browser.

[kovidgoyal]

On windows you are using a browser?? if so then it will be synced automatically when you access the controls and click the sync button and also when you first open the book. If not then you need to tell the viewer program which browser user to sync with.