For bedtime reading: New autoscroll features?
A newcomer to e-books complains: “My main problem is that it’s not as easy to reread something as it is with print, when the autoscroll is on. This is something I do a lot, since I’m a very fast reader.
“Maybe,” she says, “there is a way to retrain myself to slow down? But, I always read right before bed, in bed, and tend to drop off while I sleep–not as easy to pick up where I left off, since I can’t tell how much has scrolled.”
This is indeed a problem. Depends on the machine, but the auto-shutoff feature may not work properly when autoscrolling is in use. So what’s the fix–a possible wrinkle to add to the specs for OpenReader? Here’s what I wrote her:
What if the auto-scroll feature would not move you forward unless every X number of minutes you gave the machine a little tap to say, “Yes, keep going ahead”? And suppose a feature existed to move you back by 1, 2, 3 or 4 minutes or longer, depending on where you tapped a little line.
Needless to say, this feature could be toggled on and off.
Anyone out there with another, better approach to the above problem? Write in and I’ll share the info.
Now–what bugs you about the usability of existing e-book software? Let me know. No promises, but perhaps OpenReader can address your issues.
No problem for me on the Dell Axim: Back to the autoscroll issue. On my Dell Axim but not on my Sony PDAs, the auto shutoff works fine with autoscroll. To remind the Axim that I’m still awake, I can use the lever on the left to speed or up or slow down the scrolling. In Mobipocket, an upward press scrolls faster, and a downward press does the reverse. Since I rely on the speed control anyway, depending on the complexity of the paragraph I’m reading, this remind business is not an intrusion.
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