{"id":3752,"date":"2010-05-24T07:38:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/palblog.fxpal.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2010-05-23T23:24:57","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T06:24:57","slug":"iannotated-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/?p=3752","title":{"rendered":"iAnnotate revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I wrote<\/a> about iAnnotate, a document annotation app for the iPad. On Friday, the folks who develop the app left a comment<\/a> on the blog enumerating some of the changes made to program. In addition to redesigning the document view, the most significant change made it easier to import documents. Now not only can you download documents through a dedicated server that you run on the network (I run it on my laptop) but also from an integrated web browser. This makes it easy to collect PDF files and then to switch back to the reading mode of iAnnotate to read the newly-downloaded documents.<\/p>\n

Annotation and navigation are still works in progress, however. In addition to not tracking the pen fast enough for writing, there are a few issues that need to be resolved:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. All annotations created during a single mode switch are all grouped together, even if they occur on different parts of the page. It is not possible to edit or erase some strokes (such as ones created accidentally) without exiting the annotation mode, deleting all strokes created in that episode, and starting over. This does not make for a smooth annotation experience.<\/li>\n
  2. Highlighting text is still confused by some PDF documents that fail to represent text bounding boxes correctly. In the absence of properly-positioned bounding boxes (something that seems to happen frequently), highlighting does not work at all or leaves unpredictable, sporadic marks, such as the ones shown below.
    \n    \"\"<\/a>
    \nIt would be better to have free-form highlighting rather than the structured kind implemented by iAnnotate because the freeform version would be more predictable. In the cases when a significant portion of the stroke matches word bounding boxes, the ink could still be constrained to the text to make it “neater.”<\/li>\n
  3. Navigation around reading documents is somewhat laborious: to switch to the references section of a paper, for example, I need to either remember the page number I am on, or to create a bookmark to represent the current reading position. Creating a bookmark involves the following steps:\n
      \n
    1. Press and hold my finger on a page to open a pop-up menu.<\/li>\n
    2. Select “Bookmark” from the menu<\/li>\n
    3. Optionally add a comment to indicate the purpose of the bookmark<\/li>\n
    4. Close the editing mode of the text window associated with the bookmark by tapping the close button<\/li>\n
    5. Close the text window by tapping the close button again<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Navigation to the references section involves either knowing or guessing the page number, and then<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Pressing on the document tab<\/li>\n
      2. Selecting “Navigation…”<\/li>\n
      3. Selecting “Go to Page”<\/li>\n
      4. Entering the page number<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        To go back to the reading position requires<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Pressing on the document tab,<\/li>\n
        2. Selecting “Navigation…”<\/li>\n
        3. Selecting “Bookmarks”<\/li>\n
        4. Selecting the previously-saved bookmark<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          There are tedious operations that can interfere with one’s engagement with a document. Compare this with a paper version that lets you keep your place with a thumb while temporarily flipping to another portion of the document. Since the kind of reading supported by the application often involves intra-document navigation, better support for this common activity would increase the usability of the tool.<\/li>\n

        5. Transferring files from the server is still somewhat problematic, as the client often fails to find the server. This may be a problem with the network integration between the iPad and my domain, but it is still troubling. Despite Bonjour running on my ThinkPad, auto-discovery does not work, and specifying the IP address doesn’t seem to help when I am at home with a VPN connection open on my laptop.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          In my paper<\/a> for the Books Online 2008 workshop, I had compared the Kindle and the iRex Iliad for usability with respect to active reading using the familiar Consumer-reports style rating system with colored circles. Here I reproduce that table with an extra column for the iAnnotate application on the iPad. See the paper for more details on the various criteria. If you don’t have access to the ACM Digital Library, a version<\/a> of the paper is available on the FXPAL web site. The upshot is that the iAnnotate app is a lot better than the (older) Kindle, and somewhat better than the iRex Iliad. It does, however, still have a lot of room for improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
          <\/strong><\/td>\nKindle<\/strong><\/td>\niLiad<\/strong><\/td>\niAnnotate on the iPad<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Reading<\/td>\nDownload books<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Through Kindle store<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Through a PC from MobiPocket or other source<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Download documents<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Only through e-mail<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> WiFi\/USB\/memory card<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> From web or server on the network<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a> From the web while using an internal browser<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

          Document formats<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Pre-processed, re-flowed PDF\"\"<\/a> Kindle books<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Regular PDF, image formats
          \n          \"\"<\/a> MobiPocket books<\/td>\n          		\"\"<\/a> Regular PDF only<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Annotation<\/td>\nTypes<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Text highlighting;<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a> Limited number per book due to DRM concerns<\/td>\n

          		\"\"<\/a> Digital ink<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Text highlighting<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a> Digital ink<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a> Text notes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

          Use<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Can export text; cannot manipulate<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> On-device annotations shown when document is shown; cannot filterNeed PC software to create annotated document on PC<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> On-device annotations shown when document is shown; cannot filterCan export marked-up PDF<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Quoting<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Saved clippings (same as annotation)<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Not supported<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Not supported<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Comparing<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> One page at a time<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> One page at a time<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Can switch among several tabs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Information Seeking<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Searches contents, the Amazon store, Wikipedia, and the web.<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Searches for file names only<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Simple keyword search across documents, filename search, tags<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Note taking<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Text only<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Text and ink; handwriting recognition; various notepad templates<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Text notes on document only. Hard to write with free-form ink<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Sharing<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Hard to share<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Can export files to computer<\/td>\nCan export to computer or via e-mail<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Mobility<\/td>\nPhysical factors<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Lightweight
          \n          \"\"<\/a> Controls: next\/forward buttons are too easy to press by accident<\/td>\n          		\"\"<\/a> A bit heavier to hold<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a> Page turning control is too sensitive<\/td>\n

          		\"\"<\/a> A bit too heavy to hold for prolonged periods, but one can rest the device easily on one\u2019s lap.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          Context awareness<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> None<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> None<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a> Limited ability to discover document servers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

          Comparison of Kindle and iLiad devices. Legend:\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> Excellent, \"\"<\/a> Good, \"\"<\/a> Neutral,\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> Poor,\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> Bad. Note that the Kindle comparison is with respect to the older Kindle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          A couple of weeks ago I wrote about iAnnotate, a document annotation app for the iPad. On Friday, the folks who develop the app left a comment on the blog enumerating some of the changes made to program. In addition to redesigning the document view, the most significant change made it easier to import documents. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[57,191,175],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fxpal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}