Freda Ebook Reader for Windows and Android

[stjoe]

sorry .. posted in the wrong forum

[Jim Chapman]

Freda update 4.41, 8th August 2023: Change Log

• Minor bug fixes and updates to the versions of some third party libraries
• Changes to support the imminent update to Freda version 5

Freda will be updated to version 5 in the coming days.

After the update, Freda will display a ‘first run’ popup, and will offer to load your old (version 4) Freda content – this is optional, and if you choose not to load it, Freda will discard the old content, and re-initialise its bookshelf, settings and book sources. If you do wish to keep your existing Freda content, please be sure to complete this ‘first run’ task when prompted.

Additionally, to reduce the risk of problems you may: (1) using Freda’s backup function, make a backup of your bookshelf and other Freda content to your OneDrive (2) in addition, if you have bookmarks that are important to you, open each book that contains bookmarks, view the bookmark list for that book and then close it again.

[Jim Chapman]

Freda update 5.00, 17th August 2023: Change Log:

The major update to version 5 is now live, and being progressively distributed to Windows and Android users.

Changes include:

• Application settings have been overhauled and rationalised, introducing a broad class of settings that allow you to tell the app to extract a value from the book file if provided (with a default if not) or else to override the value from the book with some specific value.
• Other settings have been renamed or removed, where this makes sense.
• Legacy mode rendering is removed (but an option is offered to instruct the renderer to use a simplified layout if you need it).
• Popup ribbons, menus and dialogs now have ‘drag handles’ so you can move them around the screen. The ‘read aloud’ (etc.) ribbon has been redesigned.
• Reading page UI has been improved, adding a ‘magnifying glass’ for selected text, and offering additional options for text scrolling and page turning.
• There is an ‘accessible menu’ mode, in which the book navigation (etc.) tasks can be done using a single menu, and the ribbons are disabled. The other app pages use a page-level app bar menu for their various tasks.
• Book synchronisation is entirely reworked, allowing you to tell the app to continuously synchronise reading position, library contents, book sources, bookmarks etc. across multiple devices – or to perform such synchronisation on demand if you prefer.
• Hyphenation now uses proper hyphenation rules (selected according to the language of the book).
• CODE and PRE content is now handled more accurately, so that whitespace doesn’t get accidently skipped or wrongly added.

After the update, Freda will display a ‘first run’ popup, and will offer to load your old (version 4) Freda content – this is optional, and if you choose not to load it, Freda will discard the old content, and re-initialise its bookshelf, settings and book sources. If you do wish to keep your existing Freda content, please be sure to complete this ‘first run’ task when prompted. If you should, subsequently, want to go through the 'first run' process again, it's available as an option on the 'support' menu.

Impact on the Freda+ app:
For historical reasons, there is a paid-for Freda app (called Freda+) on the Microsoft Store. That’s not going to be upgraded to version 5, so if you’ve already bought it on the Store, you can continue to use it for as long as you want, though it will not receive further updates and will eventually become obsolete. If you’re using Freda+ at the moment you should NOT remove it from your device(s), even if you decide to install the new Freda version 5 app. This is because right now, the Freda app will be unable to recognise the past purchase of Freda+, and it will therefore disable the premium features package. Within a few weeks, a new capability will be added to Freda (and the old Freda+ app) to connect to the Freda licence server, so as to allow existing users of Freda+ to use Freda's premium features without having to pay for them again - but this capability will not work if Freda+ is no longer installed on any of your devices.

[Jim Chapman]

The update to version 5.1 is now live, and being progressively distributed to Windows and Android users. Various bugs and niggles have been fixed, but the main change is that you can now, if you wish, share a 'premium features' licence between Freda installations. For instance if you've paid for Freda in the Microsoft Store, you can unlock premium features on the Android app without paying again. To begin, choose the 'licence' option on the main menu, then tap the 'sharing' button.

[Jim Chapman]

Freda update 5.2 is now being deployed. This release includes various bug fixes, and a transition to more up-to-date versions of various code components (which may mean improved stability, or may not). The major changes are:

• Google Drive browsing is no longer supported, because Google's access policies have changed
• It's now possible to sideload Freda from my web site, and there is the option to purchase a premium features licence for a sideloaded installation

If you want to sideload Freda on Windows (i.e. install it without using the Microsoft Store) please refer to https://www.turnipsoft.com/freda/sideloading.html