[N2E] Tips and Tricks

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

Please feel free to add your own as you find them. 

About Registering:
Unlike the N1E, you MUST register your N2E over a WiFi connection before you will be able to use it.

Using N2E with a MAC Address:
You can gain access to the MAC address prior to registering by following these steps:

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOK-General-Discussion/N2E-How-to-Find-MAC-Address-on-initia...

Turn WiFi On and Off:
You do not need to go into your Settings Menu to turn WiFi on and off.  Simply tap on the clock whe the black status bar is visible.  This will bring up a Quick Settings menu.  Currently, the only option is to turn WiFi on or off.

Sync Library:
Tap the small icon with the circle made out of two arrows on the upper right part of the library (next to the Search icon).

Shelves:
To create a shelf, press the menu button ("n") and thentap Library.  Tap the drop down menu and then tap Shelves and then Add Shelf.  Shelves can be sorted by title or most recent.  B&N ebooks and sideloaded ebooks can be added to shelves.  However, books can only be added to shelves by going through the list that pops up when you create a new shelf or edit an existing shelf.  There is currently no way to tap on a book to add it to a shelf.

Archiving Books:
To archive a book directly from your library, double tap on it.  The details page will open giving you the option to archive.  To archive a book that you have open, tap on the center of the screen to open the reading menu and then tap More.  The details page will open.

Going back a Step Without Starting Over from the Menu:
If you are doing sometihng and the black status bar on top of the screen is visible, simply swipe from right to left in the center of the status bar to go back a screen. This does not work when reading.  Doing this when in an ebook will only cause you to go back one page.


Sideloaded covers not showing:
(thanks to Lu10ntDan)

The Nook Color and the Nook 2nd Edition use whatever embedded and tagged cover there is *within* the ePub (read: not any acompanying .jpg or .png file) to produce the book cover thumbnail for the Library view.

If you have image files for your books that do not show, they are probably not embedded into the ebook meta data.  To fix this, use Calibre to perform a Convert Books->Bulk Convert from ePub to ePub within Calibre on the ebooks that are not working.  This will create new versions of your ebooks rgar are built with embedded and tagged covers.

In order for your ebooks to look the same way after converting as they did before: 1) Set the Minimum Line Height to 110% (from the default of 120%) under the Look and Feel section and 2) check the Preserve Cover Aspect Ratio checkbox under ePub Output.  Using 100% for the Minimum Line Height creates ePubs with smaller fonts.

Google Contacts Syncing Issue:
If you add or delete a Google contact after linking them to your N2E and the change doesn't register on your N2E, follow the following steps:

Unlink your contacts, re-link, Manually Sync (Library) to get a new contact to appear in Google.

Soft Reset:
If your N2E stops responding, the FIRST thing you should try is a soft reset:

Press and hold the power button for 20 seconds, and then release the power button.  Press the power button again for 2 seconds to restart  your N2E.

[deemure]

Nallia, fantastic post and tips. One minor addition. For covers for sideloaded books, one added step may be needed. Within Calibre, even if the cover image is showing on the metadata page, it is often necessary to reload the image before conversion. I needed to do this with most of my sideloaded books and so could not use bulk convert. And they were epubs to begin with.

[jdbakermn]

Reset Shop ads/promos

To reset the shop ads/promos on the bottom, go to the shop main screen (tap on the shop title if you're somewhere else in shop), then tap/hold on the shop title until a spinner comes up. 

This gets rid of any saved ads/promos and gets new ones from the web. 

(This works in NC too!)

[naylorchic]

---

Nallia wrote:

Sideloaded covers not showing:
(thanks to Lu10ntDan)

The Nook Color and the Nook 2nd Edition use whatever embedded and tagged cover there is *within* the ePub (read: not any acompanying .jpg or .png file) to produce the book cover thumbnail for the Library view.

If you have image files for your books that do not show, they are probably not embedded into the ebook meta data.  To fix this, use Calibre to perform a Convert Books->Bulk Convert from ePub to ePub within Calibre on the ebooks that are not working.  This will create new versions of your ebooks rgar are built with embedded and tagged covers.

In order for your ebooks to look the same way after converting as they did before: 1) Set the Minimum Line Height to 110% (from the default of 120%) under the Look and Feel section and 2) check the Preserve Cover Aspect Ratio checkbox under ePub Output.  Using 100% for the Minimum Line Height creates ePubs with smaller fonts.

---

Most of my sideloaded stuff is from Kobo. I'm assuming this won't work b/c of the DRM. I haven't had a chance to add my sideloaded stuff to my N2E. Does anyone know if just editing the metadata will add the covers on ebooks from Kobo? It worked on my N1E, but only when I was actually reading the book.

[mettleh3d]

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

[Big_Dave_H]

Good info from all.

This should be a sticky note.

[trisha48]

this worked.

-------------------------------------------

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

[trisha48]

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

[keriflur]

It worked for me, I went to goodreads, but when I tried to log in it crashed.  repeatedly.

I think there's something about the configuration that doesn't play nice with the browser.

[Big_Dave_H]

---

trisha48 wrote:

this worked.

-------------------------------------------

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

---

Cool.  Now to find out if it will open secure https pages .

[Big_Dave_H]

this worked.

-------------------------------------------

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

---

Cool.  Now to find out if it will open secure https pages .

[Big_Dave_H]

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

---

[Big_Dave_H]

Cool.  Now to find out if it will open secure https pages .

[Arestelle]

---

keriflur wrote:

It worked for me, I went to goodreads, but when I tried to log in it crashed.  repeatedly.

I think there's something about the configuration that doesn't play nice with the browser.

---

Yeah - I've found that I can log in to sites (at least the couple I've tried), but if I try to enter text anywhere else (like start an email, comment on a blog, post a tweet), I get kicked out of the browser either when I click on the text field or when I tap a key on the keyboard.

Seems like looking's okay, but no touching.

Oh - and I'm pretty sure I've seen https pages open, at least while logging in.

[Viktornka]

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mettleh3d wrote:

To access the semi-usable browser:

 Tap 'n' then Search

 In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

---

It worked!

Although I'd sure like to stretch the page (like I can with the NookColor), so I can more easily get at the small links.

Thanks and a laurel to you!

[dave50]

Hi, keriflur!

Goodreads home page is pretty big; the source code takes up 880K!

I'd suggest using your desktop browser to log in to Goodreads home page, then follow the "my books" link at the top (you should end up somewhere like http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5551234). That page is a lot smaller (starting at only 73K) and you *might* be able to key that into your Search field successfully.

I'm curious what would happen if you tried bringing up http://kinstant.com?

HTH,

Dave Huber

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

Adding your own Screensavers (Windows)

1. Create or download your images, sizing/resizing them to 800x600 ppi.
2. If your images are in color, you can convert them to greyscale using an image editor but you don't have to.
3. Connect your N2E to your computer using the USB cable.
4. Open My Computer or Computer (depending on your version of Windows).
5. Open your NOOK drive.
6. Open your Screensavers folder in your NOOK drive.
7. Create a new subfolder within your Screensavers folder.  Name it anything you want that will make sense to you.
8. Open the subfolder you created.
9. Copy the images you want to use from your computer to your new subfolder in the Screensavers folder.
10. Go back to Computer or My Computer.
11. Right click on your NOOK drive and select Eject.  If you have an SD card in your N2E, right click on that drive and eject it as well.
12. Disconnect your N2E from your computer.
13. Open Settings/Screen/Screensaver and look for the name of the sunfolder you created.
14. Select it.
15. Put your N2E to sleep to test the screensaver.

Please note that if you use multple images, they will only change as your N2E wakes up and goes back to sleep.  They will not rotate during a single sleep cycle.

[DeltaT]

Thanks to everyone for all the tips in this thread, but especially for the latest one on how to do custom screen-savers.

Even tech-savvy people love it when someone else takes the time and effort to write out the instructions, step-by-step.

My little tip might be useful for those with arthritic or otherwise disabled hands.  On the top right of the top margin, the half inch wide space that shows the time in menu mode (between the battery icon and the bookmark icon), can be tapped for paging forward when in reading mode; and it won't turn on the menu or place a bookmark.

I marked that half inch with a parallel sliver of tape on the bezel.  It's very nice to be able to curl my hand over the top right and use my right thumb to page when my hands get tired in one position; the tape shows me where the 'sweet' spot is.  It stretches your extensor tendons, and my orthopedist tells me that helps to prevent repetitive injuries.

I hope this isn't a brilliant statement of the obvious, and that it will help someone to read longer without pain.

[keriflur]

---

dave50 wrote:

Hi, keriflur!

Goodreads home page is pretty big; the source code takes up 880K!

I'd suggest using your desktop browser to log in to Goodreads home page, then follow the "my books" link at the top (you should end up somewhere like http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5551234). That page is a lot smaller (starting at only 73K) and you *might* be able to key that into your Search field successfully.

I'm curious what would happen if you tried bringing up http://kinstant.com?

HTH,

Dave Huber

---

I tried Goodreads again tonight and had no problem signing in.  Once I was in I switched to mobile view and even saved it as a bookmark (not that there's an easy way to get to bookmarks or anything, LOL).  After a while the links stopped working and I had to go out and back in again, but at least now I'm signed in and it opens to my account so I can post updates on my books. 

[MarkinStLouis]

I figured out a "trick" a few days ago.  For those that are irritated by not being able to look up hyphenated words, it appears that if you use the "Publisher Defaults" font setting, you can.  Granted, you have to be able to live with those settings for it to be of any use, but it's an option.

I'm really hoping this gets fixed in a future update, making this trick meaningless.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

Thank you so much, Alex, for moving this to the right forum and for sticking it.

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mettleh3d wrote:

To access the semi-usable browser:

Tap 'n' then Search

In the search field enter the URL.  I haven't personally tried this yet.

---

For any new N2E owners who may not be aware of this, this was changed in the last update and no longer works.

[Sun_Cat]

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Nallia wrote:

For any new N2E owners who may not be aware of this, this was changed in the last update and no longer works.

---

Yes, but as posted by BruceMiller last week, there's another trick for accessing the browser.

[Temetka]

This topic is very helpful. As promised in the nook tablet or color (i forget which), I got a nook st. I am looking forward to many a long night curled up on my couch with some hot tea and a couple hundred good reads.

[CNMBookworm]

For some reason, I tried to reset the ads in shop but the same books are still displaying on the home page in the what to read next section. How do I update this?