AZARDI-R2 Help Guide
Help & tutorials
Introduction
This is AZARDI Release 2 (4th April 2009). This is a beta release. This release of AZARDI introduces two new major user interface features: Reference Mode and Edit Mode. It is an open source ePub e-book reader.
Help
Interface
Toolbars
Book Navigation
Library
Reference Mode
Edit Mode
Font size
Help & Close
Settings
Font settings
Margin width
Viewport size
GNU General Public License Information
Overview
AZARDI is a simple "strict" ePub reader designed for the evaluation and improvement of the content engagement and reading experience across a wide range of subject material. AZARDI allows you to create, experiment with, and distribute the following types of content:
- Novels and trade books
- Academic books with heavy linking (there is a link return button)
- Textbook with sidebars, margin notes and numbered referenced figures and tables
- Manuals, catalogues, business documents
- Training courseware
The AZARDI focus is on content, content presentation and content interaction.
Interface
Toolbars
There are four simple toolbars. These can be dragged and positioned on any sides of the reader interface. In this version the toolbar position is not retained between reading sessions.
Book Navigation
Link Return previous page Next page
Back Button. (Backspace) After using an internal hyperlink, use this button to return to the link start position.
Previous Page. (Left Arrow Key) Click this button once to move up one page of visible content.
Next Page. (Right Arrow Key) Click this once to move down one page of visible page content.
When using the Previous and Next Page buttons the application will automatically move across section boundaries.
Scrollbar. You can also move through a page using the scroll bar in the normal manner. The scrollbar is restricted to the section file that is loaded and will reflect the file structure of the book.
Library
To open you file Library (F2).
The Library button opens the Library folder. Click it once to access to your ePub library folder.
Click once on any ePub file in the directory and it will immediately open in Reader mode.
If you have a book open and change to library view, click the library button once again to return to your last reading view.
Note that there are no library shelf or organization functions in the current version. To make an ePub file available in the library, just copy it to the AZARDI library directory. Next time you open your library you will be able to access any files you have added.
Reference Mode
To activate Reference Mode, Click the Reference Mode button to show the active state.
While Reference Mode is active, any book you open from the Library will automatically go through the ePub Check routine. NOTE. This is and intensive process and may take some time depending on the size of your book.
You can watch the progress of the validation on the AZARDI Status Bar. When the validation is complete the short report dialog will open showing the Check Status of your book. In addition a detail report is generated and saved in the directory:
C://azardi/reports/
The Short Report dialog has a "Detail Report" link at the bottom. Click this to open the detailed report in your active browser. This gives you a full examination report of your ePub. You can print this report if required.
Detailed reports are saved with the ePub name with a date-time stamp attached. Therefore every time you generate a report an new report file is saved.
NOTE: Reports are accumulated in the /reports/ directory. AZARDI does not delete or over-write reports, you will have to maintain them yourself.
Click on the OK button on the Short Report dialog box to move through to Reading Mode for the selected book.
All books you open while Reference Mode remains active will open and first go through the ePub Check routine.
Note that the check includes full validation and statistics generation of all your content files. This may take some time.
Edit Mode
Edit Mode works on the current open book. To activate Edit Mode for the current book, click the Edit Mode button (F4). The interface will change and you will see the first Spine file open ready for editing and the Edit Toolbar options.
The Table of Contents changes to an expandable file navigation system with files organized by type.
You can open any XHTML, HTML, XML and CSS file for editing by selecting it from the Contents panel.
You can directly start editing any file when it is open.
Save (Ctl + S). When you click Save, only the current file that is open is saved to the temp location.
Cancel (Esc). When you click Cancel, any changes in the current file that is open is reverted to the previously saved version. No page edit changes are recorded.
Preview (F5). When you click Preview. AZARDI returns to reading mode, at the current open file. It refreshes and displays the page that is in the temp directory with your changes. Note at this stage your ePub HAS NOT been repackaged. If you close AZARDI or open another book you will loose any changes. After checking your changes have been made, return to edit mode. If you have not navigated in Reader Mode, the same page will open and you can continue to edit.
NOTE: If you were editing a non-content file when you click Preview, the Preview will open at the first file in the Spine.
Package ePub (F6). A Save dialog will open. You have the option to change the ePub name. If you do not change the name the original ePub will be over-written. The saved ePub will be reloaded for immediatel inspection.
Font Size
To Increase the font size (Ctrl + =). Click the large A button.
To Decrease the font size (Ctrl + -). Click the small A button.
If your ePub style sheet allows font-size changing, you can change text from 0.8em to 2em in 0.1em steps using the two font sizing buttons. This fine grained control means your text will not reflow too dramatically on each size change and you will be able to retain your reading position.
Contents & Settings
Table of Contents
To Open the Contents & Settings panel (F3) default View. Click the Button or use F3 to show and hide the TOC panel.
Click the Contents button to view the eBook Table of contents.
If your book Table of Contents has parts and chapters, they may be nested inside an expanding/collapsing list.
To navigate through a book click once on each Contents entry to immediately open that section.
Settings
When you open the Table of Contents panel, you will see the Settings Tab. Click this to access the settings options. Inside setting you can change the default font, margin widths and viewport size.
Font settings
If your ePub has embedded fonts, they will be shown in the interface.
If you ePub has font statements that correlate with fonts installed in your operating system, they will be shown in the interface, the system will not over-write them.
If your ePub does not have any font statements you can select the default presentation font from this interface
Left and Right Margin Adjustment
You can change the size of your reading margins from 10px to 60px, left and right using the margin slider. This
clears the content away from the edges of the viewport to give a better reading experience. Adjusting the margins changes the width of your text galley.
Margins open at 20px by default.
Slide to the right to increase the width of the margins. Slide to the left to reduce the width of the margins.
Viewport size
You can adjust the viewport width to any custom size at any time, using the normal operating system window resizing border controls.
There are eight predefined viewport settings. Four online settings, and four pseudo mobile display settings.
The online modes from narrowest to widest are:
- Novel, or general trade books. This width is based on a standard Demy book and sets the viewport width to 470px.
- Academic. This width is based on a standard 6in x 9in book size and sets the viewport width to 575px.
- Document.This width is based on a standard A4 sheet size (210mm x297mm). and sets the viewport width to 650px.
- Textbook. This width is based on a large size textbook page (9.5in x 10.5in) and sets the viewport width to 790px.
The four pseudo mobile display modes from smallest to largest are:
- GDA. 240px x 240px
- GDA2. 240px x 480px
- iPhone v. 320px x 480px with a portrait aspect ratio.
- iPhone h. 480px x 320px landscape aspect ratio.
Online Reading Modes.Select an online Reader Mode from the dropdown selector. The Viewport width will immediately resize to the new setting. This will not change the height of the AZARDI viewport.
Important. In online modes AZARDI does not change the viewport size when you open and close the Contents
panel. When you open the Contents panel, the AZARDI reading Viewport will move to the right by the width of the Contents pane. This prevents page reflow and the reading position being lost. This feature is designed primarily for users of textbooks, training and manual content where inter-section navigation and linking is intensive.
Pseudo Mobile Emulation Modes. Select a pseudo mobile Reader Mode from the dropdown selector. The AZARDI Viewport height and width will immediately resize to the new setting. The iPhone modes will also change the font size. Note that depending on the styles applied to the book, the mobile emulators will be more or less successful at presenting your book.
Contents & Settings behaviour change. In mobile emulation mode, when you click the Contents and Settings button, the table of contents fills the entire screen. Click on a chapter title and the reader will immediately open the reader viewport at the selected chapter.
Help Close Help and Close
Click on the Help button to open this Introduction & Help page.
To open Help (F1).
If you are Reading a book, click the Help button or F1 again to return to reading mode.
To close Azardi (Ctrl + W). Click on the Close AZARDI button to immediately close the reader without any warning. Very handy if you see the boss coming. If you're the boss you didn't read this.
Other Useful Information
External Links
All links to external URL's open the default application (IE. Remote links do not open in AZARDI). This means http, ftp and email links can all be included in documents and used to launch the appropriate default application.
Future versions of AZARDI will allow nominated URLs to open inside the Reader application. This will allow training and education programs to have extension sites that link directly from ePub documents and be presented in that context.
Scrollbar behaviour
The scrollbar displays in the context of the current open file. It does not try and show the position in the entire book. This is because full book scroll operations (for example on an 800 page text book) are generally counter-productive.
Because convenient text-book and document reading are specific aims of AZARDI, scrolling near the reading position to view images, charts and tables must be easy. If the scroll mechanism is across the whole book, then a small movement on the scroll bar could result in loss of reading position.
Library Sub-directories
The Library view will not allow you to open directories inside the Library folder in this version. This will change in a future version depending on the library organization features that are included in future releases.
OeB Headers, Footers and Columns
AZARDI supports OeB headers and footers if they are included in a file. They will be displayed at the top and bottom of the viewport.
Library and Resource Locations
The default library and processing directory locations are:
library_path = C:\Azardi\library cache_path = C:\Azardi report_path = C:\Azardi
You can change the path locations by editing and saving your your config.txt file in the application installation location. Do this before adding any books into AZARDI.
Inspecting your ePub files
When you open a book, it is unzipped and placed into the folder
.../Azardi/temp/bookfiles
If you are interested, you can open the various files and look at them in a text editor or browser. Alternatively you can directly inspect them in Edit Mode
The files are deleted when you close AZARDI, or anytime you open a new book.
Likewise, you can view your validation reports which accumulate in the reports directory,
64 bit Windows Vista installation
If you are installing AZARDI ona 64bit version of Vista you may have to edit the configuration file to view some image formats. From the installation location, normally
c://Program Files (x86/infogridpacific/azardi
locate the file
qt.config.
Open this in a text editor.
Find this line:
Prefix = C:/Program Files/infogridpacific/azardi
Edit it to read
Prefix = C:/Program Files (x86)/infogridpacific/azardi
Save the file and reopen AZARDI.
Additional Note: Images may not display in 64bit Windows Vista installations until after a system restart.
The name AZARDI
AZARDI is an expression of the Hindi word Azadi meaning freedom. The "R" is included to provide pronunciation guidance for those of us who are not skilled in linguistics and phonetics. It is pronounced in three parts az-ar-di, with emphasis on the middle syllable. AZARDI is free software, but the more important concept is freedom to let electronic content be what it can be.
GNU General Public License
The AZARDI eReader is Copyright (C) 2008 Infogrid Pacific Pte. Ltd.Contact enquires@infogridpacific.com.
The AZARDI eReader is available under the GPL.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (Version 3), which can be accessed at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. (See licence.txt in the application installation location.) If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
