GoodReader - how to get OUT of reflow mode?

[jtara]

Sorry, but I gotta echo somebody else's comment here: why is everyone so hot on GoodReader? I don't get it. It's not great software.

So, I finally had a reason to try it out. I have a couple of PDFs that I wanted to try in GoodReader, and see if it will let me use the Table of Contents. (iBooks doesn't support TOC for PDFs.)

Of course, I started hitting buttons, as in "what's this do?" I hit the "reflow" button.

I can't figure out how to get out of reflow mode. It didn't work very well, and it's very difficult even to get the controls to reappear back on the screen. Thing is, I have no idea what to hit to take it out of reflow mode, even if I CAN get the controls to show while it is in reflow.

I wound-up having to delete the PDF file and copy it back.

Now I'm afraid I'll hit the reflow button again. I don't see any way in settings to disable it.

P.S. at least GoodReader does let me use the table of contents. Yay! It's the little "book" icon. Now, if I can remember which one is reflow so I can avoid touching it...

 

[shadowness]

Use the help!!!

The reflow mode in goodreader is indicated by the page icon with a right pointing arrow.

to exit out of the reflow mode single finger tap in the middle of the screen and press the back button named with the filename of the pdf in the top left corner!

there is the help button on the top right corner to lookup help on any viewing mode and the question mark button on the bottom right.

one more thing is the bookmark funtion works right in the pdf's content page if the sections are linked.

 

[eron]

Press the middle of the screen to get the controls back.

There's a help/controls button at the beginning that shows you all the controls.

Yes, I got stuck like you in the beginning, but once you learn more of its functions, it's a great app for its price.

It can even unzip!! I was amazed at that.

 

[jtara]

Thanks, I didn't know about the "tap the center to show the controls". Yes, I know that works for many apps, and indeed I've used that while NOT in reflow mode. (It seems flakey, though, in non-reflow mode when the page is zoomed.)

But I missed that it works in reflow mode. I noticed that when in reflow mode, if you scroll up or down, it momentarily shows the status bar (if scrolling down) or controls (if scrolling up) when it hits the end. But then it bounces and you can't grab the controls. You can occasionally catch them, but it's dicey. So, this got me focused on the "impossible to hit" controls when in reflow mode. It seemed an insidious plot, LOL!

The UI flaw here is showing controls that you can't possibly hit. Or hit only if you are an expert gamer. That might be great if the app were a game...

Oh, there are also brown up and down arrows that you cannot hit, but I don't think they are meant to be hit. I think they simply indicate that to turn the page you should swipe up or down. (That should be obvious by brown arrows appearing?) Then, when you HAVE swiped, just before the page changes, it momentarily and inexplicably shows a "turn page" button in place of the brown arrow. But, of course, you can't hit that either. (Did M.C. Hammer have something to do with this app? Would love to see a video review of this where "can't touch that" accompanies each of these goofs...)

While I am on swiping up or down to change pages. Why? In non-reflow you swipe left or right to change pages. Why different in reflow mode? Especially when you have to swipe up and down to scroll. So, you swipe up or down slowly, and you scroll. Go a little too far, though, and ... oops! You're on the next page, dagnabbit!

OK, so tap in the center, the controls re-appear. For a too-brief period, that is. If I WANTED the controls to disappear again, I'D TAP AGAIN, thank you!

So, once the controls are showing, it really is not obvious that you'd have to tap the name of the document in the navigation control at the top to go back to the PDF view. I'd expect, oh, I dunno, a "deflow" button. (Or better still depressed "reflow" button that I tap to make it pop back up and return to the standard mode.) Oh, there's an icon down there that looks somewhat like the "reflow" button. But it's "copy to clipboard". Doh!

But, in any case, now I know the (illogical, twisted) way that it works, and it does work just fine. Thank you!

A horrible UI that I now know how to work. It does the job - I can read the PDFs and access the TOC quickly and easily. But there has to be an app that handles PDFs well and that also has a sensible UI.