About AbookReader

AbookReader software takes a webpage (written in html) and displays it like a book using Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.

You can turn the pages by clicking. You can flip through the pages by double-clicking. No vertical or horizontal scrolling.

This webpage both describes and demonstrates the AbookReader software when it is viewed from a website with AbookReader installed.

Just to get things started, try clicking on System Requirements and see what happen. You can then click again to continue.

When you are in AbookReader view, you can click on Normal View to see the non-AbookReader view in a separate browser window.

10 sec. Summary

Here is a snap shot of what AbookReader can do.

Who is it for?

Authors of lengthy html webpages: You want AbookReader software to display your book because it holds the reader's attention and provides a very pleasant reading experience.

Readers of lengthy webpages: You want AbookReader to display a book-length webpage for the sure pleasure of reading and use the embedded dictionary at anytime just by highlighting a word.

You can bookmark a page and come back days later at the same page.

Problem with lengthy webpage

One of the most annoying things about viewing a lengthy webpage is the mindless scrolling with no point of reference. Granted, the purchase of a state-of-art wheel mouse and the use of keyboard PageUp or PageDown provide some relief at times; more often they become the greater annoyance as you end up spending time to locate a line position before reading can resume. Not a pleasant reading experience.

Scrolling up and down does not give you any idea where you are within the webpage. Unlike a paragraph in a printed book, a paragraph in a webpage has no location or position in the web browser so to go back to it you'd need to scroll back and forth searching the entire webpage. Not a pleasant reading experience.

And then there is the hyperlink. It is great for a portal with links everywhere to sell you stuff. But for reading a lengthy webpage, it is downright irritating. Click on one and you lose your train of thoughts. And you cannot get back easily. AbookReader provides a better way. Try it.

People have complained that they cannot assimilate information or gain insight from a webpage. This is because most webpages are designed as flashy (think flash-in-the-pan) advertisement content, not meant to duplicate the reading or learning experience you get from a book. Web browser is meant for browsing not reading.

What does it mean to read a webpage like a book? It means no visual distractions, comfortable font size and page size, 2-page spread, bookmarks (or dog-ears), pagination, flipping and other experiences we come to associate with reading a book before we got hit by triple w, the world wide web.

Here are the things that make reading such a pleasure. Flipping through the pages, going back to a page, knowing where each sentence is within a page, making dog-ears, pencil in some comments, and alternating back and forth between pages.

While there are things that cannot be replicated in software, they are more things that software can do that cannot be done in the physical world such as resizing, hyperlinking and access to built-in Webster dictionary by highlighting a word.

In AbookReader software you win some, you lose some; hopefully the overall experience is a net gain.

What can AbookReader do

The driving motivation is to simulate the book reading experience while viewing a lengthy webpage. It uses Internet Explorer's browser technology and the freely available Java Technology (drum rolls and applause for Sun Microsystems).

This webpage both describes and demonstrates the AbookReader software when it is viewed from a website with AbookReader installed. You are free to turn or flip the pages and come back here, much like what you would do when reading a book. You can remember this page number, go to table of contents or just flipping through the pages.

The functionalities (a technical lingo meaning capabilities which in simple English means abilities) of AbookReader software are enumerated below. Please feel free to try each described action (but remember the page number or use [back] button to come back here).

1. Format a webpage into a something that looks like a book with a 2-page spread. The length of each logical page is determined by your choice of font size and book dimension.
2. Turn the page by clicking on the right pane. To turn to preceeding page-spread, click left pane. Try it.
3. Flip through the pages by double-clicking on the right pane. Stop flipping with a single click. Flipping speed can be increased/decreased by double-clicking on same/alternate pane. Flip backwards by double-clicking initially on left pane.
4. A button to go to last-viewed ( ) or table of content () page in addition to the normal previous, next, first and last buttons. Last-viewed page feature is most useful when you want to alternately read between page 11-12 and page 23-24 (say), reminiscent of the way we alternate when reading a reference book.
5. A page number scrollbar allows you to jump to any page by clicking. Try this by moving your mouse along the bar on the right edge of the book. Click to go to a page number. Click on [back] button to come back to this page.
6. Resize "book" width and height or font size dynamically.

   It is important to note that the page numbers are also changed as a result of dynamic resizing. Because of this, it may be wise for an author to fix an optimal size and dimension for a book by setting "resize=N" option. See AbookReader options.

7. Display internal link in the alternate page, simulating a peek into the referenced page. Click on the newly displayed referenced page to jump to it, akin to turning to the referenced page; but click anywhere else would cause the referenced page display to disappear, akin to resume current reading.

   To belabour this point, let say you are reading a page such as this that has a reference to System Requirements or some page number. In real world, you may be tempted to peek at the referenced page with your finger placed in current page. At which point, you may decide to jump to the referenced page or you may decide to continue with current page. When this book/webpage is powered by AbookReader, your wish will be granted by clicking on System Requirements then click again (on left or right pane).

8. Automatically make a H1 heading starts on a new page. This is particularly useful in a book with chapters or sections when a transition in content needs to be conveyed.
9. Automatically generate a table of contents based on H1 headings.
10. Bookmark: You can mark a page using the yellow cursor along the pageNBar on the right edge of this book. Click to add a bookmark (or dogear), click again to remove. When this book is viewed again days or months later, it will be opened to the latest bookmarked page. You can mark many pages this way just like you would stick post-it notes in pages of a printed book.
11. Dictionary: There is a built-in Webster Dictionary you can access by highlighting (i.e. selecting) a word. If a dictionary entry exists for the word, its meaning is displayed in a pop-up which disappears when you move the mouse away from the word, and re-appears when you mouse over. Try selecting the word "utopia" now and move the mouse away from the word and then over the word.
12. Provision to nudge the text in a page a little up or down. This is more of a workaround than a feature. Sometimes, because of combination of font size, book dimension and complex webpage layout, the first or last line on a page may be partially invisible. One workaround is to resize the book with a different font size (say from 19px to 20px). Another workaround is to nudge the text for the affected page a little up or down to make the line visible.

    Of course, there is no reason to use this provision normally. To experience this (when you are using AbookReader with this webpage), move the mouse to where the page number is located.

Download AbookReader

AbookReader v1.2 freeware is available with no time limit. Please read the restrictions before downloading. Your agreement to the restrictions is implied when you download.

AbookReader freeware consists of all the files in AbookReaderFree.zip. To use the software, you need to copy these files to a destination folder. There is nothing to "install" as nothing will be written to the Windows registry, desktop, startup menu or hidden places. No, none of those dreaded stuff would happen. If you decide never to use AbookReader, just delete all the copied files from the destination folder, but why bother?

• Assume c:/web1 is the folder containing your webpage.
• Click AbookReaderFree.zip (less than 200KB) to download the free version with no time-limit into c:/temp (say).
• Unzip (or extract) c:/temp/AbookReaderFree.zip into c:/web1. You should see in it a subfolder c:/web1/AbookReader/ and a file c:/web1/AbookReader.htm.
• To test: Browse AbookReader.htm using Internet Explorer. When you see this webpage's layout looks like a book with left and right panes, then you have successfully copied the software.
• Click telltale.htm to read Edgar Allan Poe's stories like a printed book.

Restrictions. The restrictions are simple. Do not modify the contents of AbookReader.jar in any way. Do not change the contents of AbookReader.htm. You may however change the looks and applet options.

You are welcomed to redistribute the zip file as is without modifications. You may also distribute additional image files and instructions to customize the look as long as the zip file is unchanged.

How to use it

Assume that the webpage in your computer and your website are: c:/web1/telltaleheart.htm and http://www.isp.com/web1/telltaleheart.htm respectively. Assume that AbookReader software is copied into each folder (See instructions in Download). There are 3 ways to enable your webpage to be read like a book.

1. Method 1 requires no modification to telltaleheart.htm. Enter the webpage address in your IE browser as: c:/web1/AbookReader.htm?htmlFile=telltaleheart.htm or http://www.isp.com/web1/AbookReader.htm?htmlFile=telltaleheart.htm. telltaleheart.htm will now read like a book as a file on your hard disk or as an Internet webpage. You can do the same with any html file in web1 folder.

   This is your choice if you want all webpage in the folder to have same look. It requires no modifications on your part as an author, but the reader must enter the cumbersome URL search string: ?htmlFile=whatever.htm.

2. Method 2 requires modifying telltaleheart.htm by adding line:
   <script src ="AbookReader/AbookReader.js"></script> as the first line. Save it in the same folder. telltaleheart.htm can now be read like a book when you browse it as c:/web1/telltaleheart.htm or as http://www.isp.com/web1/telltaleheart.htm.

   This is your choice if you want the reader to avoid the cumbersome URL search string, by your addition of 1 line to the webpage in question. The drawback is that it cannot be viewed as a normal webpage anymore (unless you delete AbookReader software from the folder).

3. Method 3 requires you to create a new html page to contain AbookReader applet referencing your webpage. See telltale.htm for an example of how it is done.

   Method 3 is your choice if you want to use a book image and other options different than those used in AbookReader.htm.

All three methods can be used in any webpage as a hyperlink such as
telltaleheart Method 1,
telltaleheart Method 2 or
telltaleheart Method 3.

How to set options

There are three ways to specify the options you want when you access or link to a webpage.

1. Using URL querystring ~/AbookReader.htm?htmlFile=a.htm&fontSize=25. You append a normal webpage address with '?' plus option name and value pairs. The appended address is used to access the webpage with the specified options.
2. Using javascript var jsParam1 ="optName1=optValue1&bookH=450";. See AbookReader.js.
3. Using Java Applet's <PARAM name=optName1 value=optValue1 >. See AbookReader.htm.

In each of the methods above, you must provide the exact name of an available option and an acceptable value.

AbookReader Options

Name	Value
htmlFile	telltaleheart.htm,book2.htm,..
Npane	2(default) or 1
bookW	max(default),800,950,.. (in px)
bookH	max(default),400,500,.. (in px)
fontSize	22,16,30,.. (in px)
fontFamily	'Arial,Times New Roman','Verdana',..
resize	Y(default) or N
runningTitle	my book's title
bookImage	mybookimage.gif

How to change the look

You can change a webpage's background graphics and color of left, middle and right pane as well as page number display style. You may do that for use in your webpage and you may distribute the change as long as AbookReaderFree.zip remain unchanged.

First make a backup copy of the file AbookReader.css so that if things got messed up you can restore the original. All the permitted changes are to this single file only. It helps if you know the syntax of stylesheet, but it is not required.

• To change the background color to yellow: replace #bookLayout {background:#eeffff;} with #bookLayout {background:yellow;}.
• To change the graphic background in left, middle or right pane: replace url("AbookReaderLeft.gif");} with url("myNewLook.gif");} remembering of course to provide the gif file in the same folder. Note that it works out better when the pane background contains transparent color that allows the book's background to show through. Try to use the existing image size. For example, the image width for the middle pane is 44 pixel and any graphic replacement should also be of width 44, as other width may not display well.
• To change how the page number look: modify .pageNclass {text-align:center; font:11; color:black;} as appropriate. You may want to set text-align:left or text-align:right or font:9 or color:gray.
• To use a image for the entire book instead of individual pane image, use the bookImage option (re telltale.htm). You would need to remove the background specifications for #bookLayout and all the panes such as #lefPane, #tocPane, etc. in the .css file.

Registration

If you use AbookReader on your website you should register as soon as possible to get the latest update. Benefits (not available in freeware) are:

1. Faster loading of large books.
2. Email assistance for your technical problems such as formatting, setting options, links, etc.
3. Bookmark a page and come back the next day.
4. Builtin dictionary provide instant access to meaning of a word.
5. No acknowledgement page or attribution to freeware.
6. Software updates with minor enhancements are emailed to you.

Before making payment, please download and use the freeware on a few webpages to ensure that it works in your environments. See also System Requirements.

Payment is accepted from most credit cards through trusted ClickBank with money back guarantee.

1. Click Buy Thru ClickBank to submit payment of US$9.95 net.
2. Upon approval, you will be directed immediately to a download page (click preview) containing your ClickBank receipt number, download instructions and refund procedure.
3. Print (or save) this page then click to download one zip file.
4. Receipt number is required for 90-day refund and email support.

Money Back Guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied with AbookReader software, for any reason within 90 days, we will refund the full amount. Guaranteed. Refund instructions are in the download page.

In extreme situations, you can also obtain refund when you file a complaint with ClickBank or your credit card company, just as in any regular credit card transaction.

System Requirements

There is only one bona fide requirement, namely Internet Explorer v5.0 and better. Others are

• A computer with a processor speed of 400MHz and better.
• Microsoft Windows (XP, 2000, 98, etc). Other non-Windows systems may also work although none was tested.
• Your IE is java-enabled. This is normally the case unless you have disabled it previously. You enabled java as follows: Tools-Internet Options-Security-Custom Level: check "Scripting of Java applets". uncheck "Java permissions: Disable Java" if it was checked
• AbookReader software is optimized for Java that comes with your IE, viz Java 1.1.4. It should also work with Java plugin v1.3 and v1.5. But some versions of Java 1.4 plug-in has Sun-acknowledged bugs.

  In case of problem, you can upgrade to v1.5 or you can disable the plug-in as follows: Tools->Internet Options->Advanced: uncheck "Use Java 2 v1.3.1_09 for <applet>" if it was checked.

Contact and Feedback

We thank you for using AbookReader to enhance the reading experience of your webpage visitors. If you have deployed AbookReader in your website, we would be delighted to include it in the AbookReader showcase. Please send your webpage URL, title, author and an 80x50 image file.

We value your comments, suggestions, experiences, tips, enquiries and bug reports. Your time will be much appreciated.

showcase submission	showcase@abookreader.com
sales and refund	sales@abookreader.com
suggestions,bug,..	development@abookreader.com
business,affiliation,..	Christine Springfield, General Manager