beta 2.3 V2.0.0.53

[mibbj]

I love the new way of Highlighting and erasing, it’s fantastic! I am having a little harder time getting the Circular menu to come up unless I have something highlighted. A Simple click and hold (either by pen or finger) anywhere should bring up the menu. Here is a list of things I have noticed.


Links - I noticed that the links in books like "Marriage and Family Relations Participant's" seem to have no sign that there is a link there while in sepia tone view (I have to look hard to see the color difference. In case someone wonders about my color setting on my screen I do use Spyder 4 elite to calibrate my monitors as I am an illustrator by trade and color matters . A fix might be a color change, however I think either underling or bolding the link would work better.

Crashes - occasionally crashes when trying to select the circular that shows up after highlighting text (when trying with pen/stylus). Crashes sometimes when trying tap hold function. Crashes at times when you are using windows 8 split window function. Example I have beta 2.3 open on one half of the screen while on the other half I have Microsoft word opened writing this. Switching between the two will cause beta 2.3 to crash and close (this seems to happen more when going between two programs while using pen/stylus in both).

Notes – It can be difficult to get the circler menu to come up to input a note. I will ether get nothing to happen unless I Highlight/select text or because I get a Circular menu without the note option on it.

Freestyle - being able to use your pen as a pen to write notes in the margins or wherever would be a fantastic audition to studying the scriptures.

Tabs – Can’t wait.

Pens/stylus – one and two side buttons, such as the Wacom stylus (an example). I suppose Wacom really has four buttons, pen tip, eraser tip, and two side buttons. I suppose all that is really needed is better pen support.

This is all for now

[ToManyLetters]

mibbj,

Many of the features you've mentioned in your post are still in Preview. Preview Features are incomplete, buggy, or merely placeholders (and often a mix of the first two).

The Live Pen (dedicated stylus support) feature has only just been brought into Preview Features and still has a long way to go before it is ready for prime time.

The sepia theme is similarly a Preview Feature. It, too, has more work before it is ready for prime time.

Crashes are always something we look into, and we'll be looking into them as the beta progresses for sure, but ensure that these crashes occur with Preview Features turned off. Again, as mentioned previously, Preview Features are often incomplete and buggy.

Notes are similarly in Preview Features.

"Freestyle", while something everyone on the team would love, is not currently supported by the annotations web service. This is a feature that would need to be able to sync in the background to work, like the highlights, notes, etc., do now. Freestyle also poses many other problems, including what do to once a user adjusts font sizing. Again, while we'd love to implement this feature, it's not something that is practical at this time.

Tabs - Neither can I. They're coming, hopefully in the not too distant future, and they'll be the best Tabs feature on any platform.

[mibbj]

On the home screen the "library", "Inspirational Messages" are too far left. They are right next to the right side on multiple platforms. With a half inch on the left side. This cause tension on the right side which distracts from the material in the columns when scrolling.

[mibbj]

mibbj,

Many of the features you've mentioned in your post are still in Preview. Preview Features are incomplete, buggy, or merely placeholders (and often a mix of the first two).

I do understand that many of the features are still buggy, hence why I created the post so myself and others can help find the bugs. I assume one of the main reason why allowing people to download and play around with the beta, preview features or not so we can help find bugs and add suggestions.

[mibbj]

mibbj,

"Freestyle", while something everyone on the team would love, is not currently supported by the annotations web service. This is a feature that would need to be able to sync in the background to work, like the highlights, notes, etc., do now. Freestyle also poses many other problems, including what do to once a user adjusts font sizing. Again, while we'd love to implement this feature, it's not something that is practical at this time.

Although, this may be a bear of a project to add this kind of feature, it can be done. Look at adobe Acrobat for example you can write free hand on anything. Microsoft programs are another example where even in word you are allowed to use freehand to write your notes. This feature can work really well while in review mode especially.

Font sizing could be done still, looking at how its done in Microsoft word might help. You could enlarge the font while keeping the margins the same width. Writing in the margins would only have to be link to a chapter, unless the individual link the note to a verse. These would work a lot like text boxes now. the only difference is what you put in them and there location (such as in steady of a white box on the top or bottom of a verse for your note these notes would be on the side vertically or horizontal ether would not matter with a text box which allowed free hand). The initial text box size is based on the amount of spaced used when writing your note. The text box would be scaled based on font size as while. pen stroke size could be selected like it is in Microsoft One-note. There are so many features that could be added. examples text to type, selection of hand writing text box and moving it, scaling it.

As before mentioned these are suggestions hence these forms right . Again I understand this would be a bear of a project but you are adding pen support all ready which is a big part of the battle as well. thank you for listening and considering these suggestions.

[ToManyLetters]

I do understand that many of the features are still buggy, hence why I created the post so myself and others can help find the bugs. I assume one of the main reason why allowing people to download and play around with the beta, preview features or not so we can help find bugs and add suggestions.

We're not asking for feedback or bug reports for Preview Features because we know they're broken already. They're not done, and that's most of the reason they're buggy. Once we've moved them out from behind the Preview Features toggle, they're free game. Until then, it's like grading a student's outline as if it were the final draft of a research paper. The idea may be there, but it's not done, nor is it ready to be graded.

Although, this may be a bear of a project to add this kind of feature, it can be done. Look at adobe Acrobat for example you can write free hand on anything. Microsoft programs are another example where even in word you are allowed to use freehand to write your notes. This feature can work really well while in review mode especially.

There two huge obstacles to getting a feature like this in the application: one, as I've mentioned, is that the annotations web service has to be able to synchronise the marks you make with your pen. If your handwritten notes don't, sync, there's not much of a point in making them. We do not control the annotations web service, as that's an entirely separate team. We merely write the application for Windows. We can suggest support for the feature, but even storing the SVGs of 1-3million people is a LOT of data that would need to be housed on the servers--far more than data than the current ranges and a storage of the font color.

Even if that weren't an obstacle we need to overcome, text reflow is still the biggest issue for inline notes. You mention Word, but even that doesn't work. Resizing text in the application causes text to reflow (of necessity), which means that words then show up at different respective locations on the page. "Thus ended the first year of the reign of the judges" suddenly ends up on a different line altogether. This effectively rules-out in-line annotations (at least for now, while we work on discovering potential solutions).

The other option you've brought up--the 'boxes' or 'margin notes', still runs into the first issue. We don't have any way to synchronise that data with your LDS Account because the annotations web service does not support it. We can and may research alternate means of storing this data--but that data would likely then only be available on Windows devices. As you can tell, there obstacles for this sort of feature are too big to be focused on at present when so many other features in the application need attention. The app still has a sizable distance to go before it reaches feature parity with iOS and Android--and while we definitely want Windows' to be the gold standard of Gospel Library applications--we need to focus on getting the most critical features implemented first. As you've mentioned, there are quite a few features that are incomplete behind the Preview Features toggle. Some haven't even made it that far.

Among the features we still have to implement on Windows are the following:
• Notebooks
• Notes
• (Potentially) Download All/Download Section
• Journals
• Tags
• Links
• Printing
• Multimedia (Audio, Video playback for a LOT of content)
• Tabs

This isn't even remotely close to a complete list of the features we still need to implement. We also currently have a list of 33 bugs and known issues that we need to fix, not to mention the loads of polish that need to go in in many places throughout the app. I suppose the short answer here is this: we, too, really would like to be able to do handwritten notes in the application, but there are barriers that are preventing us from doing that, not the least of which are practical issues of backend support or features that are incomplete or non-existent in the Windows beta version of the app, but exist on iOS or Android. We're not saying never, but we're also saying it's probably best not to expect it soon.

[mibbj]

As before mentioned these are suggestions hence these forms right . thank you for listening and considering these suggestions.

need i say more. I feel that you are all upset and frustrated. again there just suggestions.

We're not asking for feedback or bug reports for Preview Features because we know they're broken already. They're not done, and that's most of the reason they're buggy. Once we've moved them out from behind the Preview Features toggle, they're free game. Until then, it's like grading a student's outline as if it were the final draft of a research paper. The idea may be there, but it's not done, nor is it ready to be graded.

Well someone's not being truthful then not only did it say in the beta app release notes but also in the setting area where i found the link that all commits and suggestions are welcome and to be posted here with a link provided, or in email with a email link. If you don't want feed back then dont say its welcome with links to where to go.

You related this to a students outline as the final product, but i don't see any where in my writing where i am complaining/grading your work as though it was done. i worked for HP for a few years as a beta tester for printers, and so i understand the difference between final release and beta. i also know that engineers usually like feedback on errors found in beta products. one of the main reasons company started doing public betas were to cut down on the cost of having in house testers. In this way the public can find, suggest, and peer review the beta project to help get the project out sooner, and with fewer bugs.

I am not grading your work but merely pointing out suggestions and problems i found thus far. and even an outline and drafts of a paper will be peer reviewed, edited and peer reviewed many times before the final and good writer never calls their work done or prefect. I hope i have been helpful to someone this is my whole reason for writing and posting to begin with. but if your not wanting feedback then i will stop. i just wish to be helpful not painful.

[ToManyLetters]

Well someone's not being truthful then not only did it say in the beta app release notes but also in the setting area where i found the link that all commits and suggestions are welcome and to be posted here with a link provided, or in email with a email link. If you don't want feed back then dont say its welcome with links to where to go.

It's good to see that someone actually reads those long update notes. You'll remember, then, this section in them, a variation of which has been found in the notes for each update:

Preview Features

Please remember that while the Preview Features toggle in the options menu is very tempting to turn on, we ask that any feedback you give only pertain to features that are visible when the toggle is turned off. This is because most features hidden by the Preview Features toggle are incomplete and are still buggy or are merely placeholders. This includes, but is not limited to, features like the tabs feature, notes and many types of pinning in the circular menu, audio playback features, sheet music view for the hymns and Children's Songbook, and Night and Sepia themes.

Again, thank you for your enthusiasm for Gospel Library for Windows. As these features currently hidden as Preview Features get further into development, we'll absolutely look forward to more feedback from you on them. In the interim, if you have comments, suggestions, or bug reports on features currently exposed without the toggle turned on, we'll gladly take those as we'd love to get them well-polished before initial release.

[ByerJE]

Update on Themes.
The Themes feature (Default, Night, and Sepia Themes) has been completed and moved out from behind the Preview Features in the latest beta version 2.0.0.55. Thanks for the suggestion of changing the links color. Check it out in the latest version and let me know if we got it right.

Thanks.
Jim