Feature request for people with reading difficulties! Simple but powerful!

[LivresInOz]

Here's just a little idea I had, based on:
- what I know the devs who made Koreader can do
- what people might like/find super-helpful!

Sometimes I have just a little difficulty keeping tabs of where I am in the page of a book, especially if its not a very exciting one but I have to read it anyway (like study).

(People who have this kind of difficulty with physical books - like those with ADHD and other reading problems - might choose a special tool called a 'reading focus card'. It lets you isolate one or a couple of lines at a time. It's a black sheet of plastic with a horizontal slit in it. You look at the line through that slit.)

It'd be SO cool if Koreader could implement something like this...but perhaps even better!

I know it can already put a little ARROW next to where you are up to when turning a page (for PAGE OVERLAP). It can even grey out text to achieve the same thing. It can also put lines on the page, as it does with the speed-reading helper.

How about having a mode where you can have one of these options to help you keep your place:
- a light horizontal line across the page
- a light highlight of the current sentence
- the same little arrow, but on both sides
- or even the capacity to black out the whole page except for one to three lines (or however many the user wants).


Even better - how about having the choice of any of them?
(You could implement each over time)

If forced to choose, I'd go for the horizontal line or light highlight, because its easier to see than the arrows, and it doesn't obscure anything - which is good if you end up 'moving ahead of yourself' a bit and not actually needing the line at that moment.

It would be really simple to 'advance' the line: just hit the page up/down buttons while you are in this special mode (a small sacrifice). Or perhaps the user can use gestures: configure taps on the left and right of the page, for eg.

I would find this REALLY cool, esp when Im reading a textbook that my mind wants to wander away from !

Im sure readers would love it!

In fact, you might even really help hundreds - even thousands - of kids to (learn to) read!
.
.

[LivresInOz]

Here's even some possible names for it!

Reading Focus Tool
Reading Focuser
Focus Line
Line Isolator
Line Focus
Line Focuser


...anyone else?

Frankly I'm amazed Android ebook reader apps haven't implemented this. It could significantly increase the necessity of their products.

[Uncle Robin]

It seems like a lot of unnecessary complication and visual clutter imo. If someone has reading difficulties, would starting over from the top of a bookmarked page really be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions for them? and the idea that there might be hundreds or even thousands (or even, quite frankly, DOZENS) of kids who actually USE KOReader at all seems even more improbable (to be polite).

[pazos]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

How about having a mode where you can have one of these options to help you keep your place:
- a light horizontal line across the page
- a light highlight of the current sentence
- the same little arrow, but on both sides
- or even the capacity to black out the whole page except for one to three lines (or however many the user wants).


Even better - how about having the choice of any of them?
(You could implement each over time)
.

How the program is supposed to know in which line are you currently?

[hius07]

I think you move the line manually to the next line of text you want to read.

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

It seems like a lot of unnecessary complication and visual clutter imo. If someone has reading difficulties, would starting over from the top of a bookmarked page really be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions for them?

* It would be an entirely voluntary mode you could choose if you like, just like the speed-reading mode. Otherwise it would be turned off and invisible.

* If you lose your place thousands of times in one book, it can get very frustrating - even cause some to give up. Huge waste of time too. To the extent some end up with a B when they could have got an A. That's one side of the set of scales. On the other side is: a line on the page

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

and the idea that there might be hundreds or even thousands (or even, quite frankly, DOZENS) of kids who actually USE KOReader at all seems even more improbable (to be polite).

* Exactly: this is the argument I used to give those fools who wanted to bring in automobiles. I couldn't see anyone using them when they started suggesting the idea - so how is it going to get popular?!

Ever seen the movie Field of Dreams?

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by hius07

I think you move the line manually to the next line of text you want to read.

Yep. Either with the page turn buttons (ONLY IF in this focus MODE). Or tapping somewhere on the page. The user could choose.

[LivresInOz]

[Uncle Robin]

Will this app have a feature for controlling posts from people who mistakenly think they're funny and that they should dominate conversations by sheer weight of verbalization? Then I might indeed be interested.

Even though I find your arguments for the necessity feeble and your attempts at humor to be as amusing as DIY dentistry, I would suggest the answer is found in your own words: If YOU build it, they will come (both of them).

[Frenzie]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

(People who have this kind of difficulty with physical books - like those with ADHD and other reading problems - might choose a special tool called a 'reading focus card'. It lets you isolate one or a couple of lines at a time. It's a black sheet of plastic with a horizontal slit in it. You look at the line through that slit.)

It kind of sounds like the problem is already properly solved by buying one of those or making one yourself out of a thick sheet of paper?

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

It kind of sounds like the problem is already properly solved by buying one of those or making one yourself out of a thick sheet of paper?

It'd slide all over the place and maybe scratch the screen?

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Will this app have a feature for controlling posts from people who mistakenly think they're funny and that they should dominate conversations by sheer weight of verbalization? Then I might indeed be interested.

Even though I find your arguments for the necessity feeble and your attempts at humor to be as amusing as DIY dentistry, I would suggest the answer is found in your own words: If YOU build it, they will come (both of them).

Age and cynicism
will always try to overcome
youth and idealism.

[Frenzie]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

It'd slide all over the place and maybe scratch the screen?

Has it ever scratched a book? :P

[Martinoptic]

Originally Posted by LivresInOz

It'd slide all over the place and maybe scratch the screen?

If the person is learning to read then I would imagine they’d have the reader in a surface rather than holding it. With pbooks one can use a reading ruler - piece of flexible plastic available in different colours and sizes (a search will find them). So where’s the difference here? Also it’d be a lot easier to read a line in a different colour than just a highlight. Some colour tablet readers already have this ability.

I don’t think that rudeness even couched as humour is helpful. It disrupts the thread, and all the replies are trying to be thought provoking rather than dissing.

[LivresInOz]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Has it ever scratched a book? :P

No, but what about the cat?!