Bookshare Reader User Guide

Welcome to Go Read

Go Read is developed by Bookshare and is available for free in the Google Play Store.

This is the beta version of Go Read. Your feedback is valuable to us. Please post feedback and ideas to our UserVoice forum (http://bookshare.uservoice.com/forums/137554-go-read) or contact us with your ideas for improvement. Your feedback will help us improve future versions of Go Read.  Furthermore, if you wish to improve this manual, you can edit it at http://booki.flossmanuals.net/bookshare-reader-user-guide/_edit/

Intended Audience

The current release of Bookshare Reader is based on the existing FBReader app and has been enhanced with features for blind and visually impaired users.  Some of the features described in this user guide are only available if you have Android accessibility enabled. 

Where to start:

If you would like to know how to setup your Bookshare account then proceed to How to obtain Bookshare content.

If you would like to know how to navigate within a book then proceed to Navigating Books section.

If you encountered some issue, then please review our Known issues section or go to Settings to find ways to contact us.

Overview

To obtain Bookshare content you need to have an account with Bookshare.org . Depending on the type of membership you have with Bookshare, you can download different types of contents. To find out more about memberships please visit www.bookshare.org 

Logging In

From the “Main Menu” click “Get Bookshare Books”.

In the Bookshare login screen provide your Bookshare Email and Password and click on the Log In button. 

If login is successful you will be presented the Bookshare menu. On the Bookshare menu you have the options to browse, search and logout.

Accessing Bookshare Content Without Logging In

There is an option to access the Bookshare content without login. The type of content you can download through this option is limited to non-copyrighted. If you would like to do so, then click on “Continue without login in” button.

Just keep in mind; you will be able to the search the whole Bookshare collection.

Finding Books

There are two ways to find books in Bookshare:

Search the collection by:

Title Search: From the Bookshare menu select Title Search. Search result will be displayed in the order of relevance

Author Search: From the Bookshare menu select Author Search. Search result will be displayed in the order of relevance

ISBN Search: From the Bookshare menu selects ISBN Search. Search result will be displayed in the order of relevance

Once search results are displayed. Go to Search Result and Download section.

Browse the collection by:

Latest Books: From the Bookshare menu select Latest Books. A list of latest books will be displayed in the order of recent to old.

Popular Books: A list of latest books will be displayed in the order of popularity.

Navigating Browse or Search Results 

Browse and search results will display in order of relevance to your search criteria.  Tapping a title will read the title and author out loud. You can go back and go through the next title, till you find the book that you want.

After finding a book, simply tap “Download” in the Book information screen and the download will start immediately.  Large books may take slightly longer to package and download, but most books will download and appear on your Downloaded Books immediately. 

Once your download has completed, you can read the book by clicking on “Downloaded, Read Book”, or you can go back to continue search more books.

Logging Out

To logout of the Bookshare click on Log Out of Bookshare option in the Bookshare menu.

You will be presented with an alert confirming that you really want to log out of the Bookshare catalogue.

Once you click “Yes”, you will get a logout successful message and be taken to the Main Menu.

Overview

The Downloaded Books is the place where all your downloaded books are available. You can browse your books, favorite or un-favorite them or delete from your library in the Downloaded Books.

Accessing Your Downloaded Books

From the Main Menu, select click “Downloaded Books”. You will be presented with Downloaded Books menu. From top to bottom you have the Favorite, Recent, By Author, By Title, File Tree and Search sub menus.

Favorites

List all of your favorite books. Navigating up or down will read the title of the books in the list. Clicking on the title will give you the choice of following actions: Open the book, Remove from favorites, or Delete book

Recent Books

Lists all recently opened books. Navigating up or down will read the title of the books in the list. Clicking on the title will give you the choice of following actions: Open the book, Remove from favorites, or Delete book

By Author

List all books sorted by author. Navigating up or down will read the title of the books in the list. Clicking on the title will give you the choice of following actions: Open the book, Remove from favorites, or Delete book

By Title

List all books sorted by title. Navigating up or down will read the title of the books in the list. Clicking on the title will give you the choice of following actions: Open the book, Remove from favorites, or Delete book

File tree

It allows you to browse the file system to any Bookshare books that you have already downloaded on your device.

Search

Allow you to Search your current downloaded books. Clicking on the Search will present you with a search box where you can type your search keywords. When you click you will be presented with the search result, navigating up or down will read the title of the books in the list. Clicking on the title will give you the choice of following actions: Open the book, Remove from favorites, or Delete book

Overview

To read a book, go to Bookshare Reader main menu, and select “Read to Me”. The Bookshare Reader will start reading the book from its last position. You can use Playback menu or gestures to navigate in the book.

Using the Playback Menu

When Bookshare Reader has a book open you will also have Playback menu available. The book Playback menu has following buttons from your left to right.

Previous Section: Clicking on this button will take you to the previous section in the book. If you are at the beginning of the book, it will just produce sound and will stay put.

Play/Pause: Play/Pause button toggles between playing and pausing the play of the book.

Table of Contents: Clicking this button will present the book’s table of the content.

Next Section: Clicking on this button will take you to the next section in the book. If you are at the end of the book, it will just produce sound and will stay put. 

Using Gestures

During book playback you may also use gestures along with playback menu.

Previous Section: Swipe left for the previous paragraph.

Play/Pause: Double tap to toggle between play or pause.

Next Section: Swipe right for the next paragraph.

Table of Content: Swipe up for the table of contents.

Main Menu: Swipe down for the Main menu.

Navigating by Table of Content 

There are two ways to go to a Table of Content, one from the “Main Menu” and second from the Book Playback menu.

From “Main Menu” select Table of Content, and you will be presented with the table of content.

Alternatively you can select the Table of Content button in Book Playback menu any time and you will be presented with table of content.

Once you are presented with a table of content, the first level of navigation item will be selected, in most of the Bookshare books it is the copyright “Notice”.

Moving up or down will announce the headings. If a heading has sub-headings it will be voiced. You can choose to go to that heading or its sub headings when you click on it. 

Navigating by Page

From Main Menu, click on Navigate to Page. This will present you with Navigate page edit box where you can type the page number you want to go to. Using a numerical keyboard you can type the number for the page. Bookshare Reader will announce the page number you selected and will take you to that page. 

Navigating by Bookmarks

From “Main Menu” if you click on Bookmarks you will be taken to the bookmarks page. You can view all the bookmarks in currently loaded book or all the books in library.

If you navigate down in the current book tab, the first menu option is “Add new bookmark”. If you click this, a bookmark will be placed at the current location in the book.

If you have already created any bookmarks then you will see them below the “Add new bookmark”. By clicking a bookmark you can open or delete it.

If you would like to see all the bookmarks in your library, navigate to the tab “For all the books in library”.

Overview

Bookshare Reader offers the ability to get the contents from non-Bookshare catalogs.

Caution: We have not made the Other Catalogs Section accessible yet.

From the “Main Menu” select “Get Books from other Catalogs”. You will be presented with “Other Catalogs” menu.

In the “Other Catalog” menu you can search books in all catalogs, access an existing catalog or add a new catalog.

Search Books in other catalogs

When you click on Search in the Other Catalogs menu, you will be presented with an edit box where you can type your search keywords. You can scroll up and down in the search result and click enter to select a title.

Free books will present you with an option to download the books. Paid books will give you an option to buy the book or read a sample. 

Navigate to an existing catalog

You can scroll down the “Other Catalog” menu to select an individual catalog. When you click a particular catalog you will be presented with their search/browse menu.

Add Catalog

You can add a custom OPDS catalog through this menu option. To be able to add a catalog successfully you either need to enter a URL or scan for OPDS files on your network.

Help Documentation

Bookshare Reader User Guide is always available in the Downloaded Books section. When you start the Bookshare Reader for the first time, this will be the only book in your downloaded books.

You can search this just like you would search any other book. One way to look for this user guide is search by author in downloaded books and look for Bookshare. You can also add Bookshare User Guide to your favorites. For more information on how to find books go to Finding Books & Downloading Books section.

Overview

From the “Main Menu” select Settings. In the settings menu currently you have the following options.

Editing the Books Directory

Click on Directories under the Settings menu. You will be presented with Directories menu. Selecting Books Directory will present you with an alert that has the current books directly path. A word of caution: Do not edit Books Directory path, unless you are really fluent with Android operating system.

About Bookshare Reader

Version: This will tell you about your version of the Bookshare Reader.

Visit our website: Clicking on this option will take you to Bookshare’s website.

Send us an email: Clicking on this option will allow you to send an email to Bookshare Reader support. This is a great way for you to give us your feedback and ideas.

Follow us on Twitter: Clicking on this option will take you to the Bookshare twitter account. You can follow us and join the conversation.

Minimum Google Android OS Requirements

Minimum Google Android 2.2 (code name: Froyo)

Accessibility Requirement

Prior to using Bookshare Reader you need to setup accessibility related settings on your Android device.

Enable Accessibility Settings

Go to Settings in the Android Main Menu. Click on Accessibility sub menu. Check the Accessibility setting.

TalkBack Settings

Go to Settings in the Android Main Menu. Click on Accessibility sub menu. Check the Accessibility setting on. Make sure that under the Accessibility Services you have TalkBack checked.

Enable Eyes-Free-Keyboard Settings

This setting only applies to devices where there is no physical keypad or pointing device, or the physical keyboard does not have arrow keys

Go to Settings in the Android Main Menu. Click on Language & Keyboard sub menu. Under the Keyboard Settings section on this menu make sure two things. First, have Eyes-Free-Keyboard checked.

Second, make sure Eyes-Free-Keyboard is your input method. To do that click on Input method. This will give list of all the input methods available on your device. Make sure to select Eyes-Free-Keyboard.

Switching Between Various States

Once you have activated both TalkBack and Eyes-Free-Keyboard, you can switch the keyboard among three states by long-pressing the volume up/down buttons:

Hidden: The Eyes-Free-Keyboard is not displayed. 

Navigating: You get access to an on-screen virtual D-Pad, along with Back, Home, Search, and Menu buttons.

Typing: You get an on-screen qwerty keyboard.

Physical dPads, Virtual dPads and Keys

Different Android devices use different ways to navigate. If your device does not have a physical dPad or keyboard you will need to us virtual dPad.

Accessibility Information from Google

If you really need more information about accessibility on Android devices, please check 

TalkBack and Eyes-Free settings by Google team

Android Accessibility by Google team

Below is a list of some of the known issues in this version of the Bookshare Reader:

There is no support for zipped books. If you have books in zipped files on your computer then you would need to unzip them prior to transferring them to the Bookshare Reader folder.

Non Bookshare Catalogs may have accessibility issues. Other Catalogs section has not been made accessible yet. If you encounter any problem, please use the back button to return previous menu.

DAISY 3 text only books for non Bookshare sources have not been tested and there may be issues.