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Sumatra Highlight Helper
Nod5:
updated to version 150314
red green highlighting now work also with selection on multiple pages
fix color bug when hotkey press without selection
superboyac:
interesting. and we were just talking about how to bridge the gap between physical books and ebooks. this is one of those tools.
Nod5:
interesting. and we were just talking about how to bridge the gap between physical books and ebooks. this is one of those tools.
-superboyac (March 14, 2015, 01:42 PM)
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Thanks. That is the plan, to bring back navigation and rereading tools everyone takes for granted with physical books (highlights, dots/marks in the margin, earmarks for easy flipping between pages). If you can think of some other feature of that sort that is used for physical books then do tell and I'll see if I can emulate that in this app too. I plan to add an extra hotkey to set one single page as a special location and then a hotkey to jump between the present page and the special location and back. Kind of like holding a finger between some pages near the end of a book for easy flip to read an endnote and then flip back.
superboyac:
interesting. and we were just talking about how to bridge the gap between physical books and ebooks. this is one of those tools.
-superboyac (March 14, 2015, 01:42 PM)
--- End quote ---
Thanks. That is the plan, to bring back navigation and rereading tools everyone takes for granted with physical books (highlights, dots/marks in the margin, earmarks for easy flipping between pages). If you can think of some other feature of that sort that is used for physical books then do tell and I'll see if I can emulate that in this app too. I plan to add an extra hotkey to set one single page as a special location and then a hotkey to jump between the present page and the special location and back. Kind of like holding a finger between some pages near the end of a book for easy flip to read an endnote and then flip back.
-Nod5 (March 14, 2015, 03:45 PM)
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I've had discussions about this recently. here are some of the ideas:
the earmark is a key feature. Especially for long books or reference books. Keep a finger her, flip to there, etc. How to do this digitally? not sure but I'll offer a suggestion. let's say I'm reading, i hit a point where i want to now flip to somewhere else for a bit and come back. so i press some button, and that point is now saved. But not just bookmarked (I've tried this with acrobat, it sucks). It needs to retain the whole view...exactly where i am scroll-wise, and the zoom position, etc. exactly the way it looked when i left. Once i save that spot, a bright circle with a number could appear on the border or something. Now, I flip to somewhere else. Maybe I want to save that spot too. So i hit the button again, and another circular symbol appears next to the other one, maybe a different color and the next number. SO now i have to colorful circles indicating my saved spot. i click on either of these circles and that takes me back to their positions. but it needs to be quick, easy, etc. don't make me write a title for each thing, etc. make it easy to make it or remove it.
The other thing is the visual awareness of where i am in the book position. When you read a book, there's this visual satisfaction as you go through it where the thickness of pages starts accumulating on the left. I don't know how to do that digitally, but i've heard that mentioned from people who prefer the real books. I know we have page numbers like 121/315. But it's not the same, it's not visual. of course, there are those scrollbars that fill up as you read along, that's visual. But somehow, it's not very satisfying.
and regarding the earmarks...
as you flip around, it would also be nice if the program automaically remembered the places you are jumping from. Like an automatic bookmarking history. so if i flip around a few times, it has a convenient list somewhere where it shows where i left off. But the key thing here is that it saves the entire view, not just a simple bookmark. it really needs to look like exactly how it was when i left.
Nod5:
Thanks for brainstorming!
the earmark ... let's say I'm reading, i hit a point where i want to now flip to somewhere else for a bit and come back. so i press some button, and that point is now saved. But not just bookmarked (I've tried this with acrobat, it sucks). It needs to retain the whole view...exactly where i am scroll-wise, and the zoom position, etc. exactly the way it looked when i left. Once i save that spot, a bright circle with a number could appear on the border or something. Now, I flip to somewhere else. Maybe I want to save that spot too. So i hit the button again, and another circular symbol appears next to the other one, maybe a different color and the next number. SO now i have to colorful circles indicating my saved spot. i click on either of these circles and that takes me back to their positions. but it needs to be quick, easy, etc. don't make me write a title for each thing, etc. make it easy to make it or remove it.
-superboyac (March 27, 2015, 11:21 AM)
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Your idea with the circle/marker on the border sounds like a digital version of those small colored sticky bookmark tabs for physical books. Neither of my two Sumatra helper tools has an always visible list of jump locations like that. Saving the entire view (zoom level, scroll position, other settings) can be challenging I think. Isn't it often good enough to highlight/mark an exact location on a page? Highlight Helper can do that.
Both Sumatra Highlight Helper and Sumatra Earmarks enable speedy page jumps already (next/prev/first/last). With Sumatra Earmarks you can also right click the upper corner square and get a visual jumplist for all earmarked pages.
One use case that Highlight Helper doesn't handle good enough yet: when the user wants to both highlight text *and* jump to/from a few locations throughout the same session. One workaround is to use one highlight color only for the jumppoints and then use the color filter jump hotkeys. But I think some temporary jump location hotkeys would be better.
The other thing is the visual awareness of where i am in the book position. When you read a book, there's this visual satisfaction as you go through it where the thickness of pages starts accumulating on the left. ... we have page numbers like 121/315. But it's not the same, it's not visual. of course, there are those scrollbars that fill up as you read along, that's visual. But somehow, it's not very satisfying.
--- End quote ---
I've also always liked that when reading physical books. Especially when plowing through a thicker book like a novel there is this satisfactory tactile feedback as the story is progressing. And it simply feels nice to riffle through the page edges with your thumb sometimes. I can't think of any good way to emulate that feel digitally today.
Some attempts to transfer a book like appearance instead feel cheesy and annoying, like all page flipping animations and page flipping sounds I've encountered. They feel even cheesier now when many other applications go for a flatter GUI design.
One possibility: pdf files can have a table of contents bookmarks structure that Sumatra displays in a sidebar to the left. The current section is highlighted there. That is already a form of visual position orientation. Maybe it would be possible to color text there or add some other visual markings.
as you flip around, it would also be nice if the program automaically remembered the places you are jumping from. Like an automatic bookmarking history. so if i flip around a few times, it has a convenient list somewhere where it shows where i left off. But the key thing here is that it saves the entire view, not just a simple bookmark. it really needs to look like exactly how it was when i left.
--- End quote ---
We could have a script save a "browser history" trail of displayed pages for each pdf document. In Sumatra there are already previous/next buttons (and hotkeys alt+left/right) for jumping in that trail.
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