The online course is nearing release. The printers are checking the course kit box design and the DVD replicators will be ready as soon as the offline media DVD image is finalised.

In the meantime though, here is a sneak preview of the new E-Text viewer application.One thing that may interest iPhone/Android users, is the chance to view the E-Text using your portable device. You can simply call up the following link in your device to see the mobile version of the textbook sample provided here.

We would very much appreciate any feedback from people accessing this demo from a portable device to get information on how useful you would find this format and indeed how well it works for your particular device.

Thanks and stay tuned for more info...

Cheers,

Rich

UPDATE: the problems with "blurry pages" on the iPad have been solved. Similarly, Table of Contents, bookmarking and full text search support is now available for mobile devices.

Direct Link for Portable Devices:
E-Text for Mobile Devices

Instructions for iPad and other portable of devices:
Single tap the E-Text page to toggle the toolbar. The Table of Contents can be opened by tapping the first icon. You can also move directly to a page by tapping the page counter on the toolbar and typing in the required page number in the input field that appears. Double-tap the page to toggle the zoom. Currently, Search and Bookmarking functionality are not available for mobile devices.

Richard
It works on the iPad. It does seem to be lacking in clarity. This is especially noticable when zoomed in on the landscape orientation. It would be good if you could control the level of zoom. All I can seem to do is have it show me full page in portrait orientation, when I change to landscape orientation, with 2 pages in view, it is too small, so I zoom in and it becomes almost blurry.
Hope this helps you
Bungee

Thanks for the feedback Bungee, it is much appreciated.

The speckling you see at max zoom is a side effect of the compression of the pages to keep the file sizes down for the mobile version. I have experimented with different settings and have found only a slight improvement but at the cost of a significant increase in the file size. You won't see this in the desktop version of the viewer.

I have updated the preview, this time it's an excerpt from the latest CPL Aerodynamics. Can you take a look and see what you reckon? You can PM me if you like.

The desktop version works a treat but we do want to make sure the mobile version is a useful tool. The mobile version currently does not have Table of Contents or Full-Text Search functionality like the normal version. However, until that is implemented, each E-Text comes with a PDF TOC that you can load either in a separate tab or print out for a quick reference.

As soon as the TOC and Search functionality become available for mobile devices, we will incorporate it into all E-Texts.

Let me know if you notice any difference in this version and thanks again for your feedback. All user reports are taken seriously and help us to fine tune the presentation to what people want.

Cheers,

Rich

Hi rich. Seems better.
A couple of items I think need attention for iPad use
1. there is only 2 view options available, full page or zoomed in to a point where the speckling is. In the full page mode the page only fills 80% of the iPad screen, and this makes the text slightly on the small side for comfortable reading. I think it would benefit by having more zoom options available, even if you could get the page to fill the full iPad screen i think that would get the text to a better size.
2. Blank pages should have something letting the user know they are supposed to be blank. I was waiting for a page to load, only to realize, there wasnt anything printed on the page... A bit of a DOH! Moment on my behalf, but hey, if it got me, it will get others.
Hopefully my feedback helps!

Thanks Bungee. I'll pass on the comments about multiple zoom levels to the developers. By the way, are you not able to pinch zoom on the page at all or only not on the zoomed page?

Good call on the blank pages. I'll see what we can do there.

> Hopefully my feedback helps!
Sure does - keep it coming

Cheers,

Rich

No pinch zoom at all. By double tapping I can zoom in, or double tap and zoom out. Ideally need something in between.

OK, thanks Bungee. I'll pass that on.

I've also included a table of contents file for mobile devices in the links for the sample E-Text above. This is how the TOC will be available to mobile devices while we are getting the functionality we need. The plan is for the user to open the TOC in a separate tab of their mobile browser in order to find the pages they need. If you get a chance to work with it, let us know how you get on.

Thanks again Bungee, much appreciated.

Cheers,

Rich

Hi Rich.
Okay, I can open the TOC and view it. But I have come across something else that needs to be thought about. If I look at the TOC and pick a page I decide I need to read, there is no other way than to go page by page to the one I want to read. Should I be able to click on a page in the TOC like a hyperlink? If not, then when I go back to the text viewer I need to be able to 'jump to' a page.

Hi Bungee,

To go to a specific page, tap at the top of the page and the page numbers should appear (if not there already). Tap the numbers and an input field will appear. That way you can navigate to a particular page. Sorry I'm a bit vague but I don't have an iPad handy (yet ) but that's how it is supposed to work.

There's no way at the moment to link from the TOC to a specific page in the mobile version unfortunately.

Cheers,

Rich

P.S. I've heard back from the developers and finger pinch zoom is high on their list of features to come. Watch this space!

Yep that works. You have to tap the page once to get page numbers to appear.