How to read eBooks and PDF files

[peter]

The Read activity can be used to download eBooks and PDF files.

Downloading the Read Activity

• Visit the the Read activity wiki page in your browser. Follow the installation instructions.
• This involves clicking on the Read.xo link on this page and then clicking on another Read.xo at the top of the page.
• When the download is complete, click on the "OK" button.
• Go to your Journal, click on the Read.xo activity, and choose "Resume".
• The read activity should now be installed.

Reading an eBook

• The instructions on the Read activity wiki page say it all.
• To read a document, download the document to your Journal. CLick on the document. Click on the "Resume" icon in the top right hand corner of the screen to "Resume" the Read activity on the document.

If you have any questions, ask them here. We'll be happy to help!

[ylsf]

Is there an easy way to launch the read application via terminal? I want to setup MC (Master commander) to call on the reader program whenever I open a .pdf from MC interface. I don't really like Journal (especially for large directories)

[Ben James Ben]

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
#
# readit
#
# Runs the Read Activity from the command line.  A specified URI
# is used.  The Read Activity is run in the background.
#
# Usage:
# readit [URI]
#
# Example:
# readit "file:///usr/share/activities/worldfactbook-maps/asia.pdf"
#
# This script is basically a shortcut for the following command:
# SUGAR_BUNDLE_PATH=/usr/share/activities/Read.activity sugar-activity readactivity.ReadActivity -b org.laptop.sugar.ReadActivity -a fakeactivityid -u [uri] &

SUGAR_BUNDLE_PATH=/usr/share/activities/Read.activity
_ACTIVITY=readactivity.ReadActivity
_BUNDLE=org.laptop.sugar.ReadActivity
_ACTIVITY_ID=fakeactivityid

sugar-activity ${_ACTIVITY} -b ${_BUNDLE} -a ${_ACTIVITY_ID} -u $@ &


Example of running the script:

Code: Select all

$ chmod 755 readit
$ ./readit "file:///usr/share/activities/worldfactbook-maps/asia.pdf"


I'm not sure what problems, if any, using a fake activity id might cause with Sugar. I suspect that using the same id more than once at the same time might cause problems.

[dpbsmith]

I typically read books downloaded from manybooks.net with the PDF, Large Print option.

1) When I select "Keep" from the Activity menu, I always get an error message simply saying that there has been a "Keep error," every single time, no exceptions. Why?

2) Since I cannot "Keep," I simply Stop the application. When I Resume the journal entry, I get capricious and unpredictable results with regard to where the book re-opens. Sometimes it does resume at the page I was reading when I stopped, but more often it loses my place and re-opens at page 1. This is very frustrating, particularly since I can't find any Bookmark feature.

How can I resume reading where I left off?

[jess_bikerider]

I change the name of the book I am reading to ["title" page number], which means when I reopen at page 1, activity gives me the title of the book and the last page i was on. Not really a fix, more like a go around....
but it works for me.

[jakeosx]

I typically read books downloaded from manybooks.net with the PDF, Large Print option.

1) When I select "Keep" from the Activity menu, I always get an error message simply saying that there has been a "Keep error," every single time, no exceptions. Why?

2) Since I cannot "Keep," I simply Stop the application. When I Resume the journal entry, I get capricious and unpredictable results with regard to where the book re-opens. Sometimes it does resume at the page I was reading when I stopped, but more often it loses my place and re-opens at page 1. This is very frustrating, particularly since I can't find any Bookmark feature.

How can I resume reading where I left off?

i am pretty sure this is a known bug with Read. i've not had success either, i just simply have to remember basically where i was. i haven't upgrated to update.1 yet, so don't know if has been addressed.

i too use manybooks.net, great site for this purpose.

[palani11in]

download from websites such as scribd.com

[danieltooop]

Hi guys, i followed these steps,
This is given in wiki pages..
* To use the reader, download the .xo file shown above, using the Browse activity.
* When it has downloaded, save it to your Journal.
* Go to your Journal, click on the Read.xo activity, and choose "Resume".
* The read activity should now be installed.
But, i tried this things but read activity is not installed? what is the problem?


________________
With Regards,
Daniel - Web Designer.
drug rehab

[LeonidAdams]

I change the name of the book I am reading to ["title" page number], which means when I reopen at page 1, activity gives me the title of the book and the last page i was on. Not really a fix, more like a go around....
but it works for me.

thanks for so intresting solution

[elizajohn12]

Hello Peter,
This is John from UK and reading books is one of my hobby. So I always search e-books on Internet.But sometimes I face problem in downloading and reading e-books. But by links, which is given by you, is becoming very useful to me. Therefore I can download and read e-books very easily. Because of this help, I am thankful to you.and you can also download e-books by searching on google website. Thank you so much for your help.

[carseats]

I change the name of the book I am reading to ["title" page number], which means when I reopen at page 1, activity gives me the title of the book and the last page i was on. Not really a fix, more like a go around....