Comments on: PDA owner poll: Do you autoscroll when reading e-books?

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:10:00 +0000

“There’s an e-book reader out there that I wanted to try, where the top of the page is being rewritten while you read the bottom; just haven’t had the time yet.”

Hmm. I wonder if there’s a way that E Eink machines could use that concept. Probably not or it would be done. But I’m curious.

David

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:37:48 +0000

I voted ‘never’, but that’s not quite true. Or rather, I do use autoscroll, just not while reading. I use autoscroll when I need to make an annotation; I flip the page to above the line where the annotation needs to go, then autoscroll to that position. Weasel does a pretty good job storing positions with annotations.

There’s an e-book reader out there that I wanted to try, where the top of the page is being rewritten while you read the bottom; just haven’t had the time yet.

I experimented with autoscroll, but I did not like the loss of control. I felt forced to keep up with the autoscroll feature, rather than changing the pacing to my liking. I guess if a device came with a sort of jog/shuttle IO device, so that I could change the scroll speed …

The great thing of paging, after all, is that you get to set the pace, not the device or the author. As writer of comic strips, I know how hard this can be on authors. A film writer can allow him- or herself small continuity errors, because the viewer is generally forced past them at breakneck speeds. But the reader can pause and view a single panel for minutes. If something’s wrong with the panel (or the paragraph, or the page) it will be noticed.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:25:56 +0000

Auto scroll on a very small screen (2.9″) makes me goggle-eyed.

I read using ubook on my ppc phone, my solution to flipping pages is to use a separate mini bluetooth keyboard with one of the keys set to mimic the buttons assigned on my phone. This is especially good in bed or at the gym as I can prop my phone up and not have to keep reaching over to turn the pages.

cheers

Mark

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:40:18 +0000

Hi, Karen. The old Clie is an SJ122/U. I also have a newer, eBay-bought Clie with a scrollwheel (an NX60/U) and agree with you. But I’ve also used the button at the bottom, not just the 22′s scrollwheel, and, yes, the scrollwheel should have worn out first.

By the way, I hope you try PalmFiction yourself and will come back with a report. I can’t say enough good things about that program—I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more attention in the e-book world, at least here in the States.

Thanks,
David

By: Karen Lofstrom

Karen Lofstrom — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:53:01 +0000

If you have a Clie, why would you use anything other than the scrollwheel? I can hold my Clie in one hand and scroll with my thumb. I love the scrollwheel so much that when my old Clie died, I bought a remaindered one (they’re no longer made, alas) on eBay just so that I could keep my scrollwheel.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 17:24:12 +0000

Thanks for the autoscroll-related thoughts, and I hope they continue. Meanwhile I’ve had a chance to try out the toolbar-modification feature of dotReader and now have the autoscroll-toggle visible at all times—ready for the stylus. I’ve also found a toolbar addition to show me the scroll setting, which of course I can change with the up or down controls. – David

By: elduende

elduende — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:42:02 +0000

I don’t like the standard autoscroll, but with palm fiction autoscroll is another experience, just try “smooth rotation” or “page rotation”.

By: Macimp

Macimp — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:31:21 +0000

If you have a relatively big rectangular screen as on the Palm TX, it helps to keep it in the normal “portrait mode” (buttons below text) when you autoscroll. If you switch to landscape mode (buttons to one side), the text column becomes too wide for most people to read if they are autoscrolling.

By: Andres Borbon

Andres Borbon — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:28:26 +0000

I used to be an autoscroll-guy, but I discovered exactly what you said: One speed does not fit the entire book. I think autoscroll is great if you want to finish books faster, but it is not the perfect tool for reading carefully, tasting the words. In adition, after hours of reading with the autoscroll on, you probably feel dizzy. But the most important: If you autoscroll, you drain the battery of your mobile device two times faster. The battery of my iPaq rx3715 lasts for about 12 to 14 hours, but the autoscroll function downs this time to 6 hours.