Sage notebook functionality

[vice-versa]

I have recently treated myself with the new kobo Sage (the Elipsa was to big for my taste). I want to create a new "advanced" notebook but the sage keeps telling me I must synchronize again and again without being able to pass that stage. Am I doing something wrong or is this functionnality not working with the Sage ?

Thanks in advance for your answers

[Quoth]

The FIRST time you use the Sage you need WiFi on and to have a Kobo account logged in (can use fake email or real, if you don't go to Kobo site and add details and buy books the email is never used. No payment method needed).

Then it downloads the Nebo handwriting recognition. That was failing a couple of weeks ago so I used the files off a working Sage.

The Elipsa didn't seem to need to do this. So try using the FW file here
https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html
for 4.32.x which is allegedly same for Elipsa and Sage.
Direct linkhttps://kbdownload1-a.akamaihd.net/firmwares/kobo8/Apr2022/kobo-update-4.32.19501.zip

I have 4.32.19501 on all my Kobos as I found 4.33.x buggy. Possibly that actual file.

[DNSB]

For what it's worth, it took me 3 tries before the synchronization of what I assume was the handwriting recognition files succeeded. No matter what your firmware version, the first time needs that download.

[vice-versa]

I enable the wifi to permit my sage update juste after the purchase. Then each time it ask me to synchronize, I connect to the wifi and synchronize but with no effect..If I download the file to wich your links directs, what do I do with it then ? I'm sorry but I'm not aware on what do with that file. What does it do ? I'm French and I signed in with my FNAC account (as I have always done with all my readers, I'm a long time kobo user)

[vice-versa]

Update to my last post : I opened my sage cover and synchronized from main screen. After that, I went to my notebooks : they have disappeared ! It kept asking me to synchronize again and again. So I came back to the main screen shut it off and on again. Now I have the advanced functionnality, but my two notebooks are gone... I was at the beginning of the work I intended to do with them, but I have to start afresh.

Yet another question, I intented to use the notebook as my japanese study note book for one and Kanji study for another. Are japanese kana and kanji recognized ?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

Yet another question, I intented to use the notebook as my japanese study note book for one and Kanji study for another. Are japanese kana and kanji recognized ?

See spec of Nebo for iOS and Android.
See Nebo website

https://app-support.myscript.com/sup...rted-languages

Japanese is supported on the Android and iOS versions. But it may not work on the Sage because you can't select the Notebook language on the Sage, only the overall language.

Certainly it hardly does accents for European languages using Roman-Latin, never mind Greek or Cyrillic on the Sage. I didn't try changing the Sage UI language.

Always export docx or txt, then exit notebook to the page of notebooks when done.

The export is like doing save on a PC.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

I enable the wifi to permit my sage update juste after the purchase. Then each time it ask me to synchronize, I connect to the wifi and synchronize but with no effect..If I download the file to wich your links directs, what do I do with it then ? I'm sorry but I'm not aware on what do with that file. What does it do ? I'm French and I signed in with my FNAC account (as I have always done with all my readers, I'm a long time kobo user)

Download to PC. Unpack/unzip it into a local folder/directory.
Make sure Sage at least 50% charged.
USB mount the Kobo Sage and enable hidden files (if Linux or Mac).

Copy all what is in the unzipped folder into the .kobo directory/folder on the Kobo.

Eject. Then unplug when home screen appears.

After a while the Kobo will reboot. Wait!

When you have the home screen again, power off and on (not just sleep) to be 100% sure.

Check version in More -> Settings.

[gforgiraffe39935]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

Yet another question, I intented to use the notebook as my japanese study note book for one and Kanji study for another. Are japanese kana and kanji recognized ?

Unfortunately, Japanese kana and kanji are only recognized when the System Language is Japanese. Because of the nature of Japanese, you will have access to the Roman letter keyboards too. The Advanced Notebooks will recognize both Roman letters and Japanese when the System Language is Japanese. If your Japanese is high level, set the System language to permanently Japanese so you can search in English or Japanese.

You will not get the special European accent marks or letters or Cyrillic letters when you do this, since they are not native to English. So it won't work if you need to search French words with special accents or letters.

It is my biggest disappointment with the Kobo Sage as someone who wants to read/write on the device in Japanese, English, Korean, French, Turkish, and soon, Greek. I believe you can do all of this on BOOX, although they are quite expensive.

Tangent: Kindle has a global keyboard setting. There's also a rumor Kindle will have a handwriting-Kindle device in soon. I am looking forward to seeing how they handle it.

[Quoth]

I'm no Apple Fan, but a big iPad, $20 third party Pencil and the paid Nebo. The free Nebo in Apple Store has less features than the Sage!

I use the Advanced Notepad on Sage instead of Jota text editor on Android when my laptop is shut down. Mostly I read on it!

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by gforgiraffe39935

Unfortunately, Japanese kana and kanji are only recognized when the System Language is Japanese. Because of the nature of Japanese, you will have access to the Roman letter keyboards too. The Advanced Notebooks will recognize both Roman letters and Japanese when the System Language is Japanese. If your Japanese is high level, set the System language to permanently Japanese so you can search in English or Japanese believe you can do all of this on BOOX, although they are quite expensive.

Actually, if you can stomach the Kobo Kakugo font as the UI font, you can use @tshering's old trick of overriding the Japanese menus with the English translation file. That way, you can access the Japanese keyboard but still have an English UI.

I extracted the English translation file from nickel, named it trans_ja.qm, and copied it to usr/local/Kobo/translations. Then I set the user language to Japanese.

@geek1011 typically extracts the translation files whenever he updates patches. The archive can be found on his Github account. For example, the zip file with the translations for firmware 4.33.19611 can be found here.

Download and unzip the qInitResources_translations.zip file, take the trans_en_US.qm file and rename it to trans_ja.qm, and then copy it to /usr/local/Kobo/translations. You can ftp it over, or use kobopatch to include it with your patches. This is what my kobopatch.yaml file looks like:

files:
  src/trans_ja.qm: usr/local/Kobo/translations/trans_ja.qm

Screenshots attached to show what the UI looks like.

You'll need to download a new translation file for every firmware update though, just in case there are new strings of text that are introduced.

[gforgiraffe39935]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

Actually, if you can stomach the Kobo Kakugo font as the UI font, you can use @tshering's old trick of overriding the Japanese menus with the English translation file. That way, you can access the Japanese keyboard but still have an English UI.

This sounds promising, I have to try it! I will also try to get the NickelMenu to work properly again.
Tangent: While I am enjoying learning about Kobo stuff and it's so easy to tinker on my Mac than with Nooks where I have to open up Terminal or use Android Studio, I wish Kobo simply had a global keyboard like Amazon Kindle. They are popular in many countries, and yet don't have it.

[Quoth]

In every other respect, especially with Calibre or installing anything or patching or changing Firmware (no jailbreak needed) the Kindle is inferior. I have 3 Kindle models and have used 3 other Kindle models.

Anyhow I found the notebooks unstable on either 4.33.x firmware and the 4.32 firmware download I mentioned seems fine.

[vice-versa]

So finally I reversed back to "standard" notebook, as I couldn't write my kanji the size I wanted. It kept asking me to write smaller, I know I could have chosen to "draw" the kanji as a sketch but it's tiresome switch every few words from sketch to writing.

By the way, I'm French, so I'd rather have my main language as French rather than English or Japanese ��

I wanted uneven pages with the Kanji and even pages with the meaning, that way, I can test myself when leafing through my notebook). With the advanced notebook feature, there's no real page turning, all is as unique (and long) scroll of paper. It doesn't meet my requirements.. I'll try export to be sure I don't loose all the hard work I already did (It's already 3 times I wrote down, I think by now, I can remember those kanji ��)

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by vice-versa

By the way, I'm French, so I'd rather have my main language as French rather than English or Japanese

Well, you could sub in the trans_fr.qm file to get a French UI. Or any other language, really.

[Quoth]

My thoughts on this
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...29#post4236829

Really a Kobo is good for reading a book, and Sage/Elipsa for notes in your own language, but any eink gadget is a rubbish solution for learning a language.