FR: Device-specific presets

[RobinD42]

I've been playing with Codexa over the past few days and I'm mostly liking it so far.

I've noticed that the custom presets seem to include things that would probably be better as device-specific settings rather than shared across all devices. For example, I might want to use different settings for the font size and margins on my phone than the ones I use on a tablet, and in the desktop browser things should be very different.

Perhaps there could be different kinds of presets, one type ("theme") for things to be shared across devices and one type ("layout"?) for things that should be local to the current device. For example, the global theme presets could include things like the colors, font face and the status item settings. The device preset could include the font size, margins, padding, page layout, etc.

[thehijacker]

Presets were in fact a feature request by some user and I also find them useful. I currently use them per device I am reading on with Codexa. So I have:

• Desktop (Windows desktop browser: 2 page, mouse wheel navigation, ...)
• E-ink (InkPalm Plus: APK (or now from Google Play Store), older Webview, bigger font, different margings, tap zone navigation, ...)
• iOS (my iPhone: different margings, tap zone navigation, ...)
• Android (my Android phone: APK, navigation using volume keys, margins, tap zones, ,...)
• Palma 2 (Boox Palma 2 reader: APK, e-ink theme, tap zones, ...)

That is also the goal of presets. Not to share them among the devices, but rather to create a preset for a specific device with its specific settings.

[thehijacker]

@RobinD42 Happy with my explanation and I can close this ticket?

[RobinD42]

Mostly, but I still feel like there are some unnecessary complications there. Maybe it can be solved in a different way. My pain point is that if I have some presets created for my different devices, and then later I decide to make some changes that I want to apply to more than one, then I have to make the same changes over and over. For example if I come up with a better color combination, or I decide to include different elements in the status bars.

Maybe there could be an option to update a preset with elements from another preset. It wouldn't need to be every individual element, but categories. For example, colors, font settings, margins & padding, status bars, etc. Almost the same as the current tabs I guess, although some things may may more sense to be separate categories, like page layout.

Here is an example workflow:

1. Activate the preset I want to update.
2. Select "Update from..."
3. The app gives me a list of other presets, I click one.
4. The app gives me a list of categories to copy, I click one or more and then Ok
5. The new settings are applied. If I like it then I can click Update to update the current preset.

Now that I've written that out it does seem overly complex... Part of my confusion came from combining Themes and Presets in my head. So having the ability to save custom Themes separate from the Presets, and not including the colors in the presets, would go a long way towards solving this for me. In that case, when reading I would select one of the presets for that type of device if it isn't set already, and then select whichever theme is my favorite that day, and be good to go. Once I have a Preset set up for a device it would probably stay fairly static, but I'm often playing with colors and will use different ones in different environments.

[thehijacker]

I have to agree. When I read this it is in fact way too complex for such a simple task. To be honest, how often do you change settings? I have the exactly same settings since day 1 when I started building Codexa. Same Sepia theme on all color devices and e-ink theme on e-ink devices with Bookerly font everywhere. I just change margins as those are device specifics, line spacing, tap zones, volume control to navigate, etc. Everything else is identical. Actual fresh Codexa installation uses my default settings. I tested so much, cleared cache so often that instead of always setting them up again, I just defined mine as default. And at home we all use the same ones difference is just per device.

I would suggest that you play with colors, themes, settings and when your are happy with it, save it as preset. Have in mind that last settings are also saved in browser and can be different as preset your have last saved. So play away until you find you perfect combination.

But I am sure once you will find it, you will use it everywhere as you get so used to it that even a small change will put you off balance. Like I can not read a book that doesn't have Bookerly as its default font. And I have tried so many fonts...

[thehijacker]

No changes to presets planned for now.