Biblia.com on Amazon Kindle browser
I posted this on another thread:
Thank you. Biblia is certainly heading in the right direction.
I have, however, hit three problems in viewing the new version of the site on my Kindle:
1. Once I go to the full-screen view, I have no way of getting out of it or navigating. I cannot get the cursor to go up to the controls at the top: on reaching the top of the text pane it simply scrolls the text. I think I could get to the controls if I went right to the top of the text, but that would mean scrolling back 500 pages. In the multi-pane views I can simply move the cursor to the side to get out of the text pane. In the full-screen view I think I need a narrow strip on the left side that allows me to get out of the text pane and move my cursor to the controls at the top.
2. On entering the full-screen view I seem to move back about 50 pages and, because of problem 1, the only way to get back to where I was reading is to page down a few hundred times. This may only be when I have the text size increased, but is such a faff that I haven't experimented fully yet.
3. Pop-ups often fall off the edge of the screen. They are not confined to the text pane that I am reading. Presumably in full-screen view the other panes are still there but hidden, and the page is displaying the pop-up over one of the invisible panes.
Any help is appreciated.
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Having experimented a bit further, problems 2 and 3 seem to be mainly related to my desire to use a larger text size. Kindle offers only the opportunity to magnify the page not to actually change the text size, although on Biblia.com it does actually increase the text size while the main body of text (in the full-screen view) remains correctly placed. Pop-ups, however, are also magnified and fall off the page. There is no opportunity to scroll to be able to see them.
I can barely use the single-column or two-column views, even at the default text size, because the pan and zoom controls that appear on most websites on Kindle don't appear on Biblia.com. I can, therefore, only see the left-hand side of the page.
How far back the text jumps when I go to full-screen view seems to depend somewhat on whether I am using the magnification or not. If I am, it jumps back to page 360 of the book I am reading, no matter which page I was on. If I am viewing at normal size, it jumps to the start of the chapter I was reading, or the previous chapter.
It is difficult to say how much of this behaviour is due to the limitations of the Kindle browser and how much is due to Biblia.com.
An option to change text size within Biblia.com (perhaps retaining a smaller size for the pop-ups) might get around these problems.
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Although problems 2 and 3 can be worked around if I stick to the normal text size, problem 1 remains the major issue. I need a way to be able to get to the controls at the top of the full-screen view. Because of the device I am using, I do not have a mouse that can move anywhere, I only have a cursor controlled by up, down, left and right buttons. At the top of the page it scrolls the text and the cursor won't move any further.
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The Kindle's smaller screen size makes it difficult to work well with Biblia's layout. You might have a better experience on the mobile version of the site. There's a link in the sidebar that takes you to the mobile version. The mobile version doesn't have all the features of the full site (yet!), but it's designed for smaller screens and less-than-full-featured browsers.
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Thanks Bryan. I tried the mobile version for a while and also reverted back to library.logos.com for a while. However, the two big things missing are:
1. footnotes,
2. the ability to resize text, either with the browser settings or in Biblia.
When do we get an update to the mobile version? Surely Biblia is primarily of use to those using mobile devices. If I want to view these resources on a computer screen I'll use Logos Bible Software.
Thanks for all your efforts.
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We deployed a very minor bug-fix release today which might have fixed your problem with getting out of fullscreen mode on the Kindle. If you could check to see if it did and get back us it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Jonathan - do you have the Kindle 3?? If so, I am very interested in your Biblia experience. I am anxiously awaiting my Kindle and wondered (with all the latest improvements to Biblia) how it displays and performance
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Thomas Beirne said:
We deployed a very minor bug-fix release today which might have fixed your problem with getting out of fullscreen mode on the Kindle. If you could check to see if it did and get back us it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Sorry, no joy, still the same problem.
If it helps, the behaviour is essentially the same in the "single column" and "stretch across both columns" views. If I am within the text pane, when I reach the top of it, it scrolls the text back rather than moving the cursor to the controls at the top. This applies until I reach the top of all of the text in the book.
If I move the cursor sideways out of the text pane I can then go up to get to the controls. However, in the fullscreen view the text pane occupies the whole width, giving me no option of going sideways. The answer seems to be to provide a narrow strip on one side or other of the screen which is not part of the text pane.
A couple of other comments:
The mobile view in its latest incarnation is easier to use. The side panels make changing page easier, without hunting for an arrow. I do note that there is now a horizontal scrollbar present all of the time. I don't know if this intentional or if the changes have inadvertently resulted in the total width of the content being slightly more than 100%. However, this only applies on my Kindle and not if I view the site on my computer.
The other issue was viewing footnotes. It is nice to have them in the mobile view now. They are a bit fiddly at the moment, because when I click on a link and then click on Back on my browser I am not returned to the same place on the page and have to hunt for where I was in the text. This may partly be because to read comfortably in Kindle I have to use the Zoom In function, which resets to normal zoom when I change page.
Quick access to footnotes via pop-ups would be the ideal, whether on hovering (as on the standard view) or clicking (as at library.logos.com). This would avoid the need to change page and reset the zoom (unless I want to read a longer bible section). Given the need to often zoom in on text to make it readable, and the problem I have on the standard views of pop-ups falling off the edge of the screen, perhaps the answer (certainly in the mobile view) is that pop-ups should be the width of the text pane (or a certain proportion of it) and centred, no matter where on the line the link for the pop-up is.
Plenty of work for you to do, but please do keep up your efforts. Thank you.
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Jonathan Sine said:
Jonathan - do you have the Kindle 3?? If so, I am very interested in your Biblia experience. I am anxiously awaiting my Kindle and wondered (with all the latest improvements to Biblia) how it displays and performance
I'm not sure about version numbers, but I bought it quite recently, so it is the latest version, with 3G as well as wifi.
The Kindle browser is a bit hidden, in the Experimental section of the menu. It is also a bit primitive, giving you a crude cursor to navigate rather than the flexibility of a mouse, trackpad or touchscreen.
The overall reading experience on the Kindle is good. So far I have used it more to view Logos books rather than Kindle books.
I hope what I have written above gives you an idea of the limitations at the moment. Practically I can only use the mobile version of Biblia, which would be fine if we could sort out pop-ups for the footnotes and bible references. I sometimes quite like the way that it gives you only one chapter or section of the book at a time: I can judge whether I have time to read that section before going to sleep, work etc. Where I have found it a bit awkward is viewing the NIV, which we read in church: you only get one pericope at a time (rather than a whole chapter of the ESV), and on 3G it takes a little too long to load the next page if we are reading on into the next pericope.
The continuous text of the standard version works (to my surprise). However, two of the views do not display well, with the resources falling off the side of the page. The fullscreen view solves this but is impossible then to navigate out of (see my comments above).
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Jonathan Pitts said:
I'm not sure about version numbers, but I bought it quite recently, so it is the latest version, with 3G as well as wifi.
Jonathan:
Go to your Kindle home screen. Click on MENU and then on SETTINGS.
You will see at the bottom of the screen on the right, "Version: Kindle ........."
Mine says, "Version: Kindle 3.0.3 (536720111)
Mine is the newest one available.
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Jonathan -
Thanks! This is very helpful. Hoping to receive my Kindle in the next day or two.
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