µBook (MicroBook, "you"-Book, "uh"-book, you choose) is an HTML / PDB / PRC / RTF / TXT reader that displays the data in a book-like format (commonly referred as e-Books). The text is divided into numerated pages like a paper book. The viewing window can be of any size, which will affect the number of pages. It remembers the last page read for each book, the last book read and a list of previously read books. Additional Annotations and Bookmarks can be added and reached easily. The history of book read can be traversed backward or forward (like in a web browser).
µBook offers many Options for customisation of fonts, colours and skins. The display can be set to Portrait or Landscape mode, the later mostly practical on handheld devices.
µBook offers the possibility to change its appearance using templates called Skins. A few simple ones are distributed with µBook, but it is easy to create new skins. See also the www.GowerPoint.com web site for some user designed skins.
µBook comes with µLib, a library manager. It lets you associate Icons and Text Information with any file. A classic use would be to put the Book Cover as Icon and the Author or Version as added text. Up to 30 pieces of text can be associated with any file. µLib can automatically scan and build Icons for any given Folder.
µBook can also decompress on the fly document in ZIP compressed archive files. Those files are handled the same way as directories in µBook's file Browser document. An external API allows users/programmers to add and share input modules for file types not handled by µBook.
µBook also has a text search function and generates an automatic Table of Contents for each book that is opened. It looks for keywords like "CHAPTER", "PART" or numerals, including roman numerals. The building criteria can be customised.
µBook offers different sizes of smooth fonts with contrast adjustment to allow a nice reading experience on CRTs and LCDs. JPG, GIF and BMP pictures in or out of HTML, PRC and RTF documents are handled (as well as embedded WMF bitmaps in RTF files). Images Zooming and Panning is available. If there is an image in the same folder as the file being read that seems relevant, it will be considered as the "Book Cover" and shown as such. An external API for images is also available for users/programmers to add their favourite unhandled image file format.
Optionally, If an image is selected, a Slide Show document of all the images in the same Folder is displayed, one per page, starting at the page of the selected image. You can move around the Slide Show the same way as a normal book.
If you like reading without having to touch your computer (while driving for example, although we deny suggesting this...) µBook offers an Auto-Scrolling mode where new lines of text are added to the screen at a configurable interval, in fractional seconds or based on your words-per-minute reading skill.
Hyperlinks in HTML or PRC are handled as long as the destination remains local (i.e. somewhere inside the local computer/network, no security holes here).
µBook comes with a very simple dictionary (based on the Webster 1913, every word not in "Of Mice and Men" stripped out...). Better dictionaries can easily be built or downloaded.
µBook caches pagination files to the local disk to allow quick reopening of books. µBook is small and requires little resources.
To open a file you must first access the File menu (the -?- sign usually on the lower left of the page). There you can either go into the Recent Files sub-menu to find the five most recently viewed files or select Open... to bring up a Browser document to select a file.
When a document is selected for the first time, you quickly see the first page and then you can see the page count increase as µBook pre-paginate the book internally. You can start reading right away, you just can't reach pages beyond those already paginated (Note that on fast Computers, Pagination time is sometimes barely noticeable).
When the viewing window is resized, the same process takes place, but the document isn't available until the page that was currently read (or close to it) is reached.
The viewing area is divided into two sections: text and control. Text is where the book content appears while control is used to move around and to show page numbering. The control part is divided into many zones. The -?- sign is the File menu, the -§- is the Page menu. If the time is available in the current skin, clicking on it will open the quick-skin menu, where you can alternate between your favourite skins (i.e. if you have one for night time reading and one for day time reading.)
Optionally the two «« and »» signs are used to move Backward and Forward in the document history, the two «‹ and ›» signs are used to move between Annotations and the two ‹: and :› signs are used to move between Sections in the generated Table of Content.
If the skin in use doesn't have a usual Windows™ border, two + and - signs are hot zones to Maximise or Minimise µBook. Or on Pocket PCs to lower or raise the window to access the Start Menu. The page numbering, « n / m », is also a hot point to open the Content menu. Note that if no Cover is available, no Table of Contents was generated for the current book or no Annotations have been made the Content Menu won't be available.
The space, on either left («) or right (») of the page numbering, is a page move zone. Clicking once on the left will move back one page, and clicking on the right will move forward one page.
If available, a keyboard can also be used to move around a book. The Left or Up arrows and the Page Up key can be used to go back one page, while the opposite keys lets you go forward one page. Home and End keys can respectively bring you to the beginning or end (warning you might see something that will ruin your reading enjoyment!) of the book. You can also find those last two options in the Page menu.
Another way to move around the text is by using the Text search function.
If a Keyboard is available, the following Key Shortcuts are defined:
Menus are available by clicking on specific marks on the viewing area. See the Reading a book section for more details. Note that depending on the skin used, menu marks can be different.
The File menu is available by clicking the -?- mark on the viewing area.
This sub-menu let's you see the five most recently viewed books. Just select one and it will be reopened and reset to where you were when it was closed last.
Advanced Hint: if five is not enough for you, the uBook.ini file can be edited with the Notepad. Find the line MAX_FILES=5 and change 5 to whatever you prefer up to 16. Note also the LAST_FILES_SUBMENU=1, if you set it to 0, the Recent Files sub-menu will not be present but all its entry will be shown directly in the File menu.
Brings up the Browser document to select a file to open.
Brings up the Options Document that displays the current state of options and offers alternative choices for configuration.
Shows µBook title / version / copyright page.
Shows this document.
Exits µBook.
The Page menu is available by clicking the -§- mark on the viewing area. It contains function to simplify moving around the text.
Note: For Simplicity reason, if the current Skin has direct-click Zones for the Menu Item described here, their entry won't be shown in the menu.
µBook keeps a history of the last 64 locations (document and page) when moving around with Hyperlinks, Annotations or Changing Documents. By selecting Back or «« you can go back to the most recent one. By selecting Forward or »», if the Back button was previously used and no user interaction created new entries in the history, you can go forward in the history log.
Let's you Minimise or Maximise µBook's Window.
Let's you move quickly to the first or last page of a document.
This opens a number entry dialog where you can type in the page number where you want to go. Enter the page number then hit OK or Enter on the Keyboard.
This opens an alphanumeric entry dialog where case insensitive text can be entered. Enter what you want to search for, then hit OK or Enter on the Keyboard. The page will be updated to show the first occurrence of the searched string. The found text is shadowed with the Selection Colour.
Next you can select Find Next or F3 on the keyboard to go to the next occurrence in the text.
This item lets you enter the Auto-Scrolling mode, where lines of text are added one by one to the screen at a configurable rate. All Forward / Backward zones can be used, while in Auto-Scroll mode, to increase / decrease the scrolling speed. Clicking anywhere on the screen will pause auto-scrolling and bring a menu offering the choice to Resume or Stop auto-scrolling.
The Content menu is available by clicking the page numbering « n / m » marks on the viewing area. It contains function to display different sections of the text.
Note: For Simplicity reason, if the current Skin has direct-click Zones for the Menu Item described here, their entry won't be shown in the menu.
This shows the cover image. This entry is shown only if a Cover is available (i.e. there must be an image file within the same folder as the current text. If there's more than one, the most appropriate is used, i.e. containing the word "cover", "front", or having the same name as the text file.)
When the cover is displayed just click on it to access the Image Zoom/Pan menu.
This moves you to the automatically generated Table of Content for the current document. See also Table of Contents Criteria for Automatic Creation and Annotations Menu for information about manually adding TOC entries.
When a Table of Contents is available these functions let you jump to the first page of the next or previous entry in the TOC. The page number of the Previous or Next section is also displayed beside the entry in the menu, which is often the only information wanted.
This opens the Annotations Summary document of all the Annotated and Bookmarked text in the current document. See the Annotations Menu for information about creating them.
When Annotations have been created, these functions let you jump to the first page of the next or previous entry. The page number of the Previous or Next section is also displayed beside the entry in the menu.
The Image Zoom/Pan menu is available by clicking on any image inside a book or on the cover of a book. It contains function to change the zoom level and or focus point on the image. The parameters set apply to all images inside the current document. If an image is zoomed, a coloured border will appear (in Selection colour). It's a quick indicator that some visual information is missing.
This allows you to zoom in or out, by 66% for every step.
This allows you to pan in the appropriate direction, by 10% for every step.
Ok closes the menu, while Cancel resets the zoom level to a full view.
If the current image is a book Cover, this allows you to return to the book Text. Back or Forward would move you to another document.
Creating Annotations, Bookmarks or TOC sections is easy, just click on the first character to mark then go to the last one and click on it, a menu will open. From there select the type of marking:
Alternatively, the selected range of text can be copied to the clipboard by selecting Copy or looked-up in the active Dictionary by selection Lookup....
To delete or change a mark, just click on it and select Delete or another type of marking to change its look.
Cancel removes the selection.
Note that if you want to select text that starts or ends on an hyperlink, you should hold the SHIFT key, which will prohibit the system from following the hyperlink.
See the Content menu and Table of Content / Annotations Summary for information on how to review or move between Annotations.
The right mouse button menu offers quick access to menu items available in other menus. See their definitions in the previous sections.
If the time is available in the current skin, clicking on it will open this menu, where you can select your favourite skins. A quick link to the Skins Options is also available. The main use for this menu is to alternate between a nighttime and a daytime reading skin.
The Browser is the navigator for your collection of e-books. At each step, the Browser displays the list of Sub-Folders, Compressed Archives, Books and Images in the current Folder. All are displayed as hyperlinks. Directly select the desired file or Folder by clicking on the appropriate link.
For quick access, a Section List with alphabetical index can be displayed at the top of the Browser Document. You can select Show or Hide it, by clicking on the appropriate word in the Content header.
If µLib is activated, Each Entry (except Folders) can have an associated Icon, which is a reduced version of any selected image. Each entry can also display user-defined piece of text (up to 30) like Author, Version, etc...
ZIP files can be opened through the browser, in fact they are considered directory-like and can even be nested, i.e. ZIP inside ZIP inside ZIP...
You can also add the current Folder to a list of (up to 6) favourite Folders. They are listed at the beginning of the Folder section. Use the + link to add the Folder to the favourites and the × link to remove one from the list.
Options affecting the Browser look and behaviour can be found at the bottom of the last page.
When in the Browser, the Next Section / Previous Annotation zones lets you move to the next / previous missing icons in the current directory.
Lets you select a different font size for the Browser than the one for normal reading (Set in the Options Document).
This forces the browser to show All Files or Known Books and Images files.
This function lets you reduce filenames to 64 characters so that book collections can be easily burned onto CD-ROMs. Filename larger than 64 characters are reduced to 56 characters plus a hash number. A uBook.map file is created in the selected base folder (all sub-folders are done at the same time). The function to undo the mapping is available. The mapped name is invisible to µBook, which will still show the original name (as long as the uBook.map file isn't moved or destroyed). Note that uBook.map can also be renamed uBook.bat and executed to restore files to their original name.
Note that if two map files are in the path, only the closest one to a file will be checked.
Depending on the state of activation of the Current Folder, Options from the following set will be available:
If Hidden, the Browser doesn't associate or show any Icons or Text alongside entries. Once Shown, a Folder must be Prepared for Icons and Text to be visible. Once prepared, Icons are show to the left of a File and defined Text Fields are shown under it.
Prepare enables µLib for the current folder. All files will be "scanned" and the most appropriate Icon will be digitised and associated with it. A uBook.ubi file is created in the first writable directory found in the current path (i.e. if inside a ZIP file, the uBook.ubi file will be created in the folder where the ZIP file is). Once Prepared, Icons and Text can be edited. Before preparing, it is suggested that you check the other available options, to set your preferences.
Update let's you re-scan the current folder to find Icons for newly added files. Re-Digitise will recreate the Icons. It is useful if you have changed the original Image file or the Size or Quality of Icons (see below). Clear lets you disable µLib for the current Folder. Note that clearing will delete all Text Fields associated with Files in this folder.
When Editing, editable entries will be shown below the file name at the right of the Icon.
For Icons, they are Link and Image. Link is the file that will be opened if the user click on the Icon and Image is the source Image from which the Icon was digitised. When the Folder is first prepared, Link will be automatically filled based on the New Icons Link to File or Image option below.
For Info, the fields are text associated with the file and (if different) the Info fields defined (see below) are shown with hyperlinks, allowing their value to be edited.
You can always select the × to remove or disable a field.
If Sub-Folder Icons are shown, under each Folder there will be one or more row of Icons, one for each file in the Folder. These Icons are Shown in the Size currently selected for the current Folder.
The "Save" link will let you save a text list of all the icons missing. The file is saved in the parent directory to the current one, with the name directory_missing_icons.txt.
As stated before, the Previous / Next Mark... can be used to move through missing icons and/or sub-folders not "prepared". The later will have a "Prepare" link shown instead of a list of Icons.
Here you can select the Digitizing or Display size of Icons as well as the Digitizing Quality (low quality equals small memory use, and vice-versa) of Icons. Once an Icon has been digitise, if the Size here is changed, at display time the Icon will be stretched or shrunk accordingly with the new Size. Re-Digitise (see above) can be used to apply the new Size and recreate the Icon so that no additional stretching or shrinking is required (dynamic stretching or shrinking is slower and can diminish the output quality).
Based on this settings, when a folder is Prepared, new Icons will be linked with the Image used or the File it is associated with.
This lets you set a template of Editable Text Fields that can be associated with a File.
Here's an example on how I have set-up my own Library of e-Books. First using Windows™, I have created the following folder and file hierarchy:
By painstakingly searching on the internet I found JPG images of cover for these books, which I have then added in the zip files. Then I went in each Author folder and 'Prepared' it (as a shortcut, I use 's' on the keyboard). Note that if an image has some keywords like 'cover' or 'front' in its name, it will be selected before any other image file. Once this is done, I went back to the category folder, i.e. Crime, and selected the Show Sub-Folders Icons option. Since my Collection is a bit bigger than what is shown here, I then changed the Icon Size to in the Crime folder to be 32 by 48 instead of 64 by 96, the default. No need to re-digitise, because the Icons are not Hosted in the Crime Folder, but in the Author Sub-Folder. Now I can see my whole Crime collection at once (well on a few pages at least). Next I am going to go back and for each book (using Edit Info) I will add Version Information (1.0, 1.1 etc...) based on the Guttenberg catalogue.
The Options Document displays the current state of options and offers alternative choices for configuration. Select Back in the menu or «« on the screen to return to the previously viewed document.
For quick access, a Table of Content is displayed at the top of the Options Document.
This shows the options available for µBook's font.
Let's you select between Smooth and Sharp fonts. Smooth fonts appear rounder and more blended while Sharp fonts, the normal Windows™ fonts, gives a better contrast with the background.
Let's you select between the Legacy (old grey engine; will be removed someday), Grey and RGB engines. If RGB (recommended) is selected a few more options will appear.
Based on your display, you should set the orientation of the RGB matrix. Most CRTs are Left (to right). Most LCDs are Left too except iPaq Pocket PCs which are Down. If you use a rotation on the display, you will need to update the RGB orientation to be relative to that orientation.
Characters outline can be improved on some display by tweaking these values. They defined how each RGB sub-pixel is combined with its neighbours to create the final RGB value. 3, 2 and 1 is the default. On Some LCDs, 5, 2 and 1 works well too.
For Smooth fonts only, this let's you apply a contrast factor. Depending on your colour choices this can help the visual definition of fonts. The only way to find out is to try...
Let's you select the default font for text rendering. By clicking on the (+) or (×) links, new font available on the local machine can be digitised or removed from µBook's list of fonts.
Let's you select the default font size.
This shows the options available for µBook's viewing area.
This let's you hide Annotations on the page. If Shown, a list of all Annotations Type is given so that each type can be turned on or off independently. See Annotations Menu for more information about Annotations.
This let's you change the orientation of the display. It is mainly useful for Handheld devices.
When enabled, if the mouse button or stylus is held longer on the page move zones, the full window becomes a sliding pad where you can move quickly in the book by moving the cursor or stylus left and right far or near from the starting point to increase or decrease the moving speed and direction.
This shows the options available for µBook's colour customisation.
This opens the standard Windows™ colour selection dialog (or a simple manual entry RGB dialog on Palm-Sized PCs) where you can select a colour for the desired item. Background and Text are the main page colours. Link is for HTML / PRC Hyperlinks. Separator applies to the shaded colour shown under section header in the Options, Browser and Help documents. Selection applies to the result of the Text search function. Highlight and Selection applies to Annotations.
Here you'll also find the list of available Skins. Just select a skin and it will become the active skin for µBook. Note that once a skin is selected, some skin specific options will be shown underneath, if it has any.
See the Space.usk skin for details on how to create your own skins. Skin files (*.usk) can be edited using notepad or wordpad.
Here you'll also find the list of available Dictionaries. Just select a dictionary and it will become active, i.e. the destination of any Lookup query. You can also access the Table of Content of the dictionary (if any) by selecting the (Content) link besides it.
Lets you Blank the remaining space around µBook's window for a less distracting reading.
When in Single mode, any invocation of µBook will replace the previous one. In Multiple mode, a second (or subsequent) window will be opened.
To limit the amount of disk space used, µBook keeps information for a limited amount of books. This limit can be set by the user. Note that when setting up µLib, it's possible that you will open may files, which might mean that Annotations and Options for some older file might be destroyed.
When Enabled, if an image is selected, a Slide Show document of all the images in the same Folder is displayed, one per page, starting at the page of the selected image. You can move around the Slide Show the same way as a normal book. When Disabled, only the selected image is shown, and no movement except "close" is available.
This Option lets you turn enable or disable the use of the ENTER key, or the main Button on most portable units, for Auto-Scrolling.
This Option lets you chose between two delay methods between auto-scrolled lines: Fixed or Words-per-Minute. In Fixed mode you can enter the delay in decimal seconds, while in Words-per-Minute you can enter your reading speed.
These Options affect the look of the currently viewed document. Once a good set of options are defined, they can be Saved as Default, which means that newly opened books will used these options. Alternatively, the current book options can be reset to the saved one by Loading Defaults. The same process can be done for specific File Types, by selecting the second set of Load / Save functions (i.e. Save as HTML Defaults / Load HTML Defaults).
Depending on the type of document, Options are:
It is possible that some PRC, HTML or other file is really formatted as a Plain Text or HTML file. Forcing the use of the Plain Text or HTML parser should make them more readable.
By selecting one of these items, the HTML, PRC or RTF parser will ignore any font name, absolute size or colour it finds in the text. It allows the use of your own choices all through the text.
Some RTF files have formatting commands that make text look less like a book. By ignoring those commands, the text might end-up having better margins and justification.
Some TXT or PDB documents are already well formatted for reading. This option allows the turn-off of µBook "intelligent" paragraph detection algorithm.
Some MS-DOS formatted text use a different characters set, which causes accented characters to show wrongly. Turn this option on or off if that is the case
Some RTF or TXT files, especially when they come out of an OCR program, often have no defined paragraph but are merely a series of lines. By turning this option on, about 60 to 70% of those lines will be combined into paragraphs, improving the reading enjoyment with µBook. Note that the first few pages, which are often title pages and table of contents, might look worse but the rest of the text should be better. The only way to find out is to try...
Some Documents, like Plays, read better if there is an extra space between paragraphs. You can use this option to force that extra space.
If you don't like justified paragraphs, you can disable them with this option. By using Left Aligned Paragraphs your eyes have to travel less. On the other hand Justified Paragraphs look better. It's a matter of preferences.
The Indent size, the space at the left of the first character of a Paragraph, can be set here. Either in fixed Pixel number or relative to the page width. Changing one will affect the other.
The Interline size, the extra space between rows of characters, can be set here. Either in fixed Pixel number or relative to the current line height. The defaults are 4 pixels or 1/5 of the current line. Changing one will enable it, and reset the other method to its default.
This section allows the customisation of criteria used to generate a book Table of Contents. There are Seven default criteria and a way to add more. Criteria are made of three parameters. A state ON [¤] or OFF [.], a matching mode (Starting with, Ending with, Containing or Is) and the matching text. The Seven defaults criteria are slightly different, while the first three can be used to match numerals (numeric, roman or textual) the last four can be used to match any Bold, Italic, Bold-Italic or Underlined text.
New criteria can be added by clicking on the (+) link and they can afterward be removed by clicking on the (×) link on their right.
There are two ways to invoke this document view, through the Table of Contents... menu item or the Annotations... menu item. Each will open the same document but in different sections. Note that when first invoked, this document will be opened so that the initial page has information (Table of Content Section or an Annotation) close to the page that was viewed in the related document
The Table of Content is first build automatically base on user-defined Criteria. The created table can be augmented by manually selecting text and annotating it as Section. Alternately, from the Table of Content, items can be removed by selecting the (×) link on their right.
Each item in the Table is a link to the listed Section in the main document.
The Annotation section has the same presentation as the Table of Content, but also offers a filter to enable or disable the listing of annotations by their type. There's two way to export this list, either by copying the content of the PGN/uBook_books.ini file (which contains annotations for every book) or by selecting the whole section (from the A in Annotations to the - in the last underlighted line) and Copying it to the clipboard, then pasting it in your favourite editor.
Here's some answers to common questions we are receiving:
The explanation is probably:
It is possible that some text uses some form of HTML or RTF unknown to µBook and in some case make it crash. If it happens it would be appreciated if you could send us a bug report with a link or zipped copy of the file (insuring first that no copyright is violated by the distribution of such file). Please e-mail report to: info@gowerpoint.com
The PGN directory contains pagination files for each opened text. The PF1 directory contains µBook font files. The uBook_books.ini file keeps tracks of bookmarks, options and current page for all you books. On the Windows™ version of µBook, if the PF2 files are deleted they will be regenerated at the beginning of the next run. On Pocket PC or Handheld PC they SHOULD not be deleted. Windows™ PF2 files can be copied to Pocket PC or Handheld PC versions.
You are probably viewing an HTML or RTF files that has one or many of these settings forced. To override this go to the Options document and select to Ignore the item you want overridden.
Go to the www.GowerPoint.com web site. There you will find a list of legal sources.
µBook supports only "non-secure" PRC files.
All the available instructions are in SKINS/Space.usk which is a readable text file. Note that basic programmation skills help, but are not required.
Go to the www.GowerPoint.com web site in the Download section and download the sample RAR and BMP dll package. A C compiler is required.
A dictionary is a zip file (with no subdirectories) containing:
There seems to be inconsistency between unicode and non-unicode version of PPCs and HPCs. Open uBook.ini file and locate:
CLIPBOARD_UNICODE=n
Where if n is 0, change it to 1 or vice-versa.