Hi Annie,
You wrote:
I am very frustrated about kobobooks, to me it does not seem to work
well. I am a braille reader, and I am not using much speech, I was
so glad, when i heard about kobobooks. I bought a book, that I would
love to read, but I got very disappointed, the app constantly says
that internet connection is timed out. And it is not very
accessible. I did not give up, so I downloaded the book, I have
bought to my mac, and then I have hoped, that I could transfer it to
ibooks, that works quite well for me. But that is not possible
because of the protected file, the file is an acsm file. Can I do
anything at all, do any of you who are reading braille have any
experiences with kobobooks.
Best regards Annie.
I don't use a Braille reader, but I am able to read Kobo books with
either VoiceOver gestures or with Bluetooth keyboard control. This
app used to work more easily for VoiceOver users when there was only
an iPhone version. It's when they introduced an iPad version, and
then integrated the iPad and iPhone versions into a single universal
binary that people encountered accessibility problems. Once you get
the setup configured you should be able to use the Kobo eReader app
fairly easily. The problem is that the setup process can be utterly
opaque to new users, and Kobo keeps changing the the reader control
interface for getting to the settings menu for making the initial set
up change. The good thing is that once you've made the set up change,
you don't have to worry about the successive changes in how to get to
the settings menu in each successive version release of the app. (So
far, this format has changed with each of the last three releases
since the app became accessible again.) The current version of the
Kobo eReader app (version 3.5, released October 7, 2010) actually
improved the method of accessing the eBook table of contents by making
it easier to get to, so it's worth describing the changes, and I'll cc
these instructions to the macvisionaries list. At the same time,
they've now mislabeled two of the buttons -- and one of the mislabeled
buttons is the one that new VoiceOver users need to get to in order to
make the initial set up change. You can't read a book with DRM that
you purchased through Kobo in iBooks or in any other app on an iDevice
or computer (except for using the desktop reader for Adobe Digitial
Editions, which is not accessible to software on any platform, PC or
Mac). However, you can transfer (DRM-free) eBooks directly to your
library for the Kobo eReader app through Drop box or through a Safari
download without having to add the ePub files to your iTunes library
and sync, as an alternate way to get the books onto your iDevice.
(This isn't possible with iBooks, but multiple ways to directly
download eBooks to your device has been a feature of the Stanza app
for some time.)
Here's the overview: when you do a read all gesture (two finger flick
down to read all from the current point or two finger flick up to read
all from the top of the page), or its counterpart keyboard shortcut
(VO-A to read from current point or VO-B to read from top of page),
VoiceOver reads to the end of the chapter and stops. This is true in
other eBook reading apps as well. In order to avoid having to toggle
VoiceOver off at the end of each chapter and having to flick right to
advance to the next chapter, then toggle VoiceOver on again, you need
to change the default page transition style (which I think is now set
to "Fade") to "Scrolling". When "Scrolling" is used, the start of
each chapter has a pair of links that VoiceOver announces as "link
image" before the text. Activating (with double tap gesture or VO-
Space keyboard shortcut) the "link image" in the top left corner of
the screen moves you to the previous chapter, while activating the
"link image" in the top right corner of the screen moves you to the
next chapter. (The first or last chapter of a book will only have one
link instead of a pair.) Similarly, at the end of each chapter there
will be a corresponding pair of links, and activating the "link image"
in the bottom left corner of the screen moves you to the previous
chapter. I believe that in a previous interaction with Kobo, it was
suggested that they label these links as "Previous Chapter" or "Next
Chapter", but as long as you understand the link layout and action,
these links are usable.
In the case of moving forwards by a chapter using the links at the
start of a chapter, focus moves to the correspondingly positioned
"link image" on the new screen (e.g., if you double tapped on the link
in the top right corner of chapter 1, you'll be positioned at the link
in the top right corner of chapter 2, and can start reading with
either a two finger flick down (from the current point) or with a two
finger flick up (from top of page), which reads out the two "link
images"). If you activate the links to move to the next chapter from
the end of a chapter (bottom right corner of the screen), your focus
moves into the first screen of the next chapter, but focus is
somewhere in the bottom half of the screen, so you should start your
reading with a two finger flick up (read from the top) or VO-B
keyboard shortcut. Similarly, if you move back a chapter from the
link at the top left corner of the screen at the start of a new
chapter, your focus moves back to the last screen of the previous
chapter, but you're placed roughly in the middle of that screen. The
only time when this behavior is different is when you have a single
screen "chapter", with link images in all four corners that you
navigate to. This might occur if there is a brief forward, or a
graphic with a map on the page. In this instance your focus from the
activated link in the first chapter will move to the corresponding
link image in the screen for the second chapter (bottom right moves to
bottom right, top left moves to top left, etc.)
In order to access the settings menu, after you've opened a book in
your library, which you should keep in list view by double tapping
"List" at the top left of the "I'm Reading" page instead of using
"Shelf" at the top right, you'll need to toggle on page controls. Do
this by touching the center of the screen and double tapping. (Once
you've set things up by hand, you can also toggle page controls on and
off with the keyboard, by navigating to a line, word, or paragraph of
text in the center of the screen and pressing VO-Space, but you should
do the initial set up by hand.) When page controls are toggled on,
you'll bring up additional control buttons at the top and bottom of
the screen. In particular, you'll find an "I'm Reading" button in the
top left corner of the screen, that allows you to navigate back to the
main screen with a list of your library contents, and the 5 buttons
for accessing your library ("I'm Reading", bottom left), the Kobo
store ("Discover", "Browse", and "Search" at the bottom center), and
your account details ("Account", bottom right).
The page control buttons at the top of the screen are: "I'm
Reading" (takes you back to your library page), "Icon_TOC" (gives you
access to a navigable table of contents for the book), and
"Icon_Gear" (switches between one of two page control views for the
page controls at the bottom of the page). In one of the page control
views, you'll find a slider at the bottom of the screen. VoiceOver
will say something like "16 per cent, adjustable; swipe up or down to
adjust the value". This is your position in the book. You cannot
actually adjust your position in the book with this slider unless you
use the VoiceOver passthrough gesture of double tap and hold, then
move your finger right or left along the slider, stopping according to
the per centage feedback announcements. Otherwise, swiping up or down
moves the slider, but doesn't cause the current page of text to
update. If you want to change your position in the book, it's better
to the use the "Icon_TOC" button at the top of the screen and to the
right and double tap a chapter location from the list view of the
table of contents. When you're done, double tap the "Back" button at
the top left corner of the "Contents" screen, and you'll be taken back
to your book.
The second page control view is required for accessing the settings
menu so you can set the page transition style to "Scrolling". This
view places two rows of four buttons each at the bottom of the screen
in place of the slider. The buttons control font size, screen
brightness, and give you access to the settings menu. There is also
a button to toggle on or off the screen rotation lock. (This works
independently of the control to lock your screen into portrait
orientation; if you don't have your screen locked into portrait
orientation from the App Switcher view, you can still lock your Kobo
eReader screen into its current orientation of either portrait or
landscape by double tapping this button. However, since VoiceOver
doesn't announce the current setting -- only the fact that you've
toggled the screen rotation lock -- you're better off locking into
portrait setting outside of the app.)
You toggle between the two page control views by double tapping the
"Icon_Gear" button at the top right corner of the screen with page
controls brought up. The settings button is at the bottom right
corner of the screen -- you can reach it by doing a four finger flick
down (to go to the element at the end of the screen), or by simply
running your finger down the right side of the screen from the
"Icon_Gear" button, or by flicking right from any of the buttons at
the bottom half of the screen until you reach the end of what
VoiceOver announces. The only issue is that this button, which used
to be labeled and announced as the "Display Settings" button, is
currently labeled "toggle night reading mode" button. In fact, all
three of the last buttons on this screen are labeled as "toggle night
reading mode" button in the current version of the (3.5, released
October 7, 2010). The actual button labels at the bottom of the
screen should be:
1a) "Reduce text size" (first row, leftmost button)
1b) "Increase text size" (first row, second button from left)
1c) "Reduce brightness" (first row, third button from left)
1d) "Increase brightness" (first row, rightmost button)
2a) "Toggle screen location lock" (second row, bottom left button)
2b) "Toggle night reading mode" (second row, second button from left)
2c) "Add or remove bookmarks" (second row, third button from left) --
(mis)announced as "Toggle night reading mode"
2d) "Display Settings" (second row, button at bottom right corner of
screen) -- also (mis)announced as "Toggle night reading mode"
To set the "Page Transition Style"
1. Toggle on page controls for your eBook by touching the center of
the screen (and possibly do a two finger tap to stop VoiceOver's
reading the book), and then double tapping.
2. Then touch the bottom of the screen to make sure you have the eight
buttons instead of the slider.
3. If you feel the position slider, double tap the "Icon_Gear" button
in the top right corner of the screen to switch to the page control
view.
4. Navigate to the mislabeled last button on the screen in the bottom
right corner (e.g., do a four finger flick down or run your finger
down the right side of the screen from the "Icon_Gear" button) and
double tap. (This is the "Display Settings" button incorrectly
labeled.)
5. Flick right to the "Page Transition Style" heading, and then flick
right past "Plain", "Page Flip", "Page Fade", and "Page Curl" to the
last entry in the list, "Scrolling", and double tap to select.
6. Double tap the "Back" button in the top left corner of the screen
to leave the settings screen.
Now, you're all set to read your Kobo eBooks with keyboard controls.
(I'll leave you to work out the Braille sequences). First dismiss the
page controls from the screen. I do this by touching the center of the
screen and doing a double tap to toggle the page controls off. If
you're using the Bluetooth keyboard (or iPad keyboard dock) to use
keyboard controls to direct your reading, navigate to any part of the
text with VO-Right arrow or with just your right arrow key if you have
Quick Nav turned on, and press VO-Space. On my iPod Touch screen the
page controls overlie the area of links. I can still get to the links
and hear "link image" announced at the top (or bottom) of a page if I
flick right to these from the page controls at the top of the screen
(in the case of the "link images" at the start of a chapter, or if I
flick left to these from the page controls at the bottom of the screen
(in the case of the "link images" at the bottom of a chapter"), and I
can also do a two finger flick up (or VO-B on the keyboard) to read
from the top of the page and reach the links, but if I touch the
screen at these positions I'll get the page control buttons at the
corners announced instead of the link images. And if I double tap or
VO-Space with my keyboard when I hear VoiceOver announce these "link
images" while the page controls are toggled on, VoiceOver will
activate the page control buttons that overlie the "link image"
controls (e.g., "I'm Reading" and "Icon_Gear" buttons at the start of
a chapter) instead of the links. The way you can toggle on (or off)
page controls via keyboard shortcuts is by doing a VO-Space on some
text in the middle of the page. For example, if page controls are on,
and I want to turn them off with my keyboard, I'll do a VO-B (read
all, starting from the top) or VO-Right arrow (or just press the Right
arrow if Quick Nav is turned on), then when VoiceOver gets past the
"Icon_Gear" button and any "link_images" that might be at the start of
a page, I'll press VO-Space. You will likely want to toggle Quick Nav
on (by pressing the left and right arrow keys), for easier navigation
(e.g. Control+Up arrow to move to start of chapter, or to first "I'm
Reading" button if page controls are toggled on; Control+Down arrow to
move to the end of a chapter, or to what should be announced as
"Display Settings" but currently gets announced as (the third) "Toggle
Night Reading mode" button if page controls are toggled on, and the
"Icon_Gear" button was pressed to toggle the second page control view
-- otherwise, you'll get the slider for your book position announced
if you're in the first page control view.) Quick Nav will also let
you scroll down (or up) by pages with Option+Down (or Up) arrow, and
move to the next or previous elements just by pressing the arrow keys
(without holding down the Control and Option/Alt "VO" keys at the same
time to navigate.)
When you come to the end of a chapter, VO-Space on the final "link
image" to move to the next chapter, then press VO-B to start reading
from the top. (If you're not using a keyboard, double tap when
VoiceOver announces the second "link image". I can do my double tap
from anywhere on the screen if I don't try to do this too fast, since
focus has moved to this link, but I usually double tap in the bottom
right corner of the screen. Then I do a two finger flick up to start
reading from the top of the page.
You can scroll up or down (three finger flicks or Option+up and down
arrow keys with Quick Nav on), and move to the first or last element
of the Chapter (four finger flicks or Control+up and down arrow keys
with Quick nav on). All the other navigation techniques with the
rotor will also work (e.g., you can navigate by headings, although I
only seem to get one heading at the start of a chapter). To navigate
to a different chapter using the table of contents, bring up page
controls (do a two finger tap to pause VoiceOver, or press the Control
key on the keyboard, then double tap in the text area or VO-Space with
the keyboard). Navigate to the "Icon_TOC" button (four finger flick
up to the "I'm Reading" button, flick right to "Icon_TOC" button and
double tap; or Control+Up arrow to "I'm Reading" with the keyboard,
then Right arrow (assuming Quick Nav is on) and VO-Space to bring up
the Contents list view screen. Flick right or otherwise navigate to
the entry you want to select and double tap. Then navigate back to
the "Back" button (e.g., four finger flick up, Control+Up arrow with
the keyboard) and double tap or VO-Space to return to your current
reading. Touch the center of the screen and double tap (or navigate
to the text area using the right arrow key of the keyboard and VO-
Space) to dismiss the page controls and start reading again from your
new location (two finger flick up or VO-B). If you happen to navigate
to a "Table of Contents" within the first few pages of your eBook,
with what appears to have selectable entries, ignore it in favor of
the Contents page your reach with the "Icon_TOC" button of page
controls. That page is only good for information purposes; you can't
use it to navigate to chapters.
One issue is that you cannot set bookmarks in scrolling mode, and if
you do switch modes and set a bookmark, it will only apply to the
start of the chapter. Further, when you switch back to "Scrolling"
mode and start reading with VoiceOver on with the bookmark set, you'll
be thrown out of the app when you start reading again. I've tried this
with various combinations of toggling VoiceOver on and off.
There is currently no "Find" command for the Kobo app as there is for
iBooks (and, for that matter, for the Stanza app), but this is coming
in a later version. If you point to a download page in Safari with an
epub file that can be downloaded, and double tap on the link, Safari
will show up with an "Open in…" button. Double tap that button and
all the apps that can open that file format will show up as buttons.
(For me this includes apps such as Stanza and Filer, as well as Kobo).
If you double tap the "Kobo" button, the (DRM-free) epub book will be
added to your library, and the Kobo app will open (in your current
book, however). To check that the new book is in your library, touch
the center of the screen and double tap to bring up page controls,
then navigate to the "I'm Reading" button at the top left corner and
double tap. Your list view of books in your library should include
the new addition. This does not work for unsupported file formats
(e.g. txt, .rtf, or other such files) and it does not work for files
with DRM -- such as for ePub files from other apps such as iBooks.
If you want to try out a direct upload to Kobo, you can go to:
http://www.epubbooks.com/
On the individual book pages for each book, you'll find a link image
to the epub book giving the size of the download. (It's right after
the information about "please check the copyright status" that follows
the description of work by title, author, and publication date.) This
download setup is not quite as slick as the way things can be set up
to automatically download into Stanza, but pretty near.
I'm sorry that this took so long to post a reply, but I lost the first
draft of this post to a mail server error, and it took some time to
recreate. I'll also point you to the earlier posts with instructions
of how to fix the setup for Kobo books, just in case there's something
that I left out from the description. The first post went up a few
days after version 3.4 restored accessibility (August 20, 2010). New
users who read and followed those instructions were able to set up
their apps successfully. However, Kobo issued version 3.4.1 (August
28, 2010) about a day after I posted my instructions. This meant that
anyone who downloaded the new version of the app, but read the old
instructions, couldn't apply the fix because simply double tapping no
longer gave you page controls that included the "Display Settings"
button -- you now had to double tap the "Icon_Gear" button to toggle
into the alternate view of page controls that showed this button. That
version of the app had three rows of buttons: two rows of four
buttons, followed by a third row of two buttons. The "Display
Settings" button was along the right edge of the screen roughly below
the "Icon_Gear" button, in that first row of four. In the present
version 3.5 of the app (October 7, 2010), the "Display Settings"
button is also along the right edge of the screen, roughly below the
"Icon_Gear" button, but it is in the last of two rows of four buttons
instead of being at the top of three rows (i.e., it's at the bottom
right corner of the screen instead of being at the right edge but
boosted up vertically closer to the mid point of the screen). It is
now mislabeled as one of three "Toggle Night Reading Mode" buttons
(which used to be the name of the button at the bottom right corner of
the screen). The addition of the "Icon_TOC" button at the top right
of the screen, accessible from either of the two page control modes,
is a plus, since this information was previously buried inside an
"Overview" button on the bottom half of the page controls, and
required multiple gestures (double tap to bring up page controls,
navigate to and double tap "Icon_Gear" button to toggle to the second
page control view option, navigate to the "Overview" button in the
bottom half of the page, then find the contents.)
Here's the link to the post of instructions on how to set up scrolling
mode for version 3.4:
http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg28833.html
(Instructions for Kobo Books: How to change to scrolling mode and do
table of contents navigation)
Here's the link to the revised instructions for version 3.4.1 posted a
few days later:
http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg29876.html
(Re: Instructions for Kobo Books: How to change to scrolling mode and
do table of contents navigation)
You shouldn't have to read these, but I went into a fair amount of
background in the descriptions, and I'm including the links in case
there's something I left out in the current explanation.
HTH. Cheers,
Esther
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