Max2 still misses the most obvious feature: switching between notes and documents

[Retrography]

I bought a Max 2 almost upon the release, and I have seen the firmware evolve quite a bit — and I am happy about that.

Yet, I am surprised how the dev team gets the most important, basic and obvious killer feature of this tablet completely wrong!

Like most other owners, I use Max to read and write. So, the most basic function that I need is to be able to switch back and forth, seamlessly, between an open note and an open PDF or ePub — without ever closing them.

The fact that I can’t do this right now, means I can either read on the tablet or write on it, but never both! So much for a 800-euro toy.

Do t get me wrong, I really like this device. But this feature is so obvious and so easy to get right, but I don’t know why it is constantly overlooked.

With the navigation ball, now we can switch to notes with two touches, but the notebooks don’t remain open. We can’t switch to NeoReader even using task manager!

It seems the dev team is going out of its way to make this impossible, because multitasking between any two other applications is now a breeze. The only trouble kids are notes and neoreader!

That’s what I really want to see in the next update. Then I can carry only my tablet for the meetings. I would like to have notes and reader shortcuts in the Nav ball, and the possibility to keep the documents and notes open, and switch between them with one or two taps. Preferably, even having long-press or multiple click shortcuts for them.

I am keeping hope!

[samuileldi]

Agree, the same about Note.
It would be great feature.
And add in the navigation ball “wifi transfer” to the apps.

[claire]

Hello, thank you for your feedback. We have forwarded this to our relative colleagues to follow up and hope this will be available in the next firmware update.

[JORGE]

I’m totally agree. It is the most useful item to take advantage of the Max 2

[Ale]

I’m perfectly agree. Along with the ability to show two applications side by side, this will be the most useful improvement for Max2.

[Eberli]

Couldn’t agree more,I have the same issue.
I just created a similar Topic for the Boox series, I would like to do the same between andoird apps /note apps/PDF/Epub.
Imo this is critical for usability.
Two applications side by side would also be great.

[JORGE]

I am a bit disappointed that these features are not available yet.

“Max to read and write. So, the most basic function that I need is to be able to switch back and forth, seamlessly, between an open note and an open PDF or ePub — without ever closing them.”

“With the navigation ball, now we can switch to notes with two touches, but the notebooks don’t remain open. We can’t switch to NeoReader even using task manager!”

“multitasking between any two other applications is now a breeze. The only trouble kids are notes and neoreader!”

“to show two applications side by side, this will be the most useful improvement for Max2.”

[Gaduffl]

I also totally agree. Especially with the background that sidenotes are now linked to book pages again in V2.1.2 which makes them kind of unusable…

[JORGE]

I’m not very sure if I undestand you. In my device with 2.1.2 the side notes are linked to the whole book. I prefered a previous version (I think 2.1.0) where every book page had its own sidenote (even more than one sidenote page), so you could easily work with the notes of each page of the book. Now you must put a reference to the page of the book in the sidenote to wich page of the book belongs your notes.

Is there an option to config this issue?

[Retrography]

No there is not, and that is very confusing. The older version was 2.0.1.

[JORGE]

I have read in another threads that you can choose the way sidenotes are linked, to everypage or to the whole document.

Sidenote problem

In the last update the sidenote is associated with documents instead of pages. Please let user decide whether the notes correlate to specific pages or to the whole document.

The path is in Neoreader settings (when Neoreader is open you can look for it in the wheel options.

“You could go to Settings-Global Settings-Sidenote date sync to make the sidenote is associated with the whole document or the pages. (The expression “Sidenote date sync” is not that accurate and we will correct that problem in the next firmware update. Apologize for any inconvenience that may cause.)”

[lastdayofsummer]

I have the same problem. Meanwhile, are there any news or workarounds?

Currently, I use just a blank PDF with 100 empty pages as “note” which is opened in a tab in the reader. However, that’s not as comfortable as the note app.

[alf]

Same problem on NovaPro series. It would be useful to have neoreader available in recent apps.

Rather than using side notes on single books within neoreader, I often create notes through notes app. Because I am reading from several documents and want to write down on a note a synthesis of what I read from different sources (documents opened in neoreader). So, having the possibility to switch seamlessly between neoreader and notes (or in general between any recently open app) would be really useful

This may be directly implemented in a navigation ball shortcut. For example, (instead of going home, like default behavior) double tapping on the naviball icon goes to last opened app, in this case notes or neoreader. This way, the user might then jump between these two apps in a seamless manner. The user should be able to jump to the last opened note he was working on, and not to the notes library.
And in neoreader, the user should be able to jump to last opened document, not the library

By the way, there is an app in play store called Last app switcher that does just this switching, but unfortunately is of little help, since neoreader can’t be found in recent app list .

[alf]

Same issue on this thread too

[Jonixase]

Totally agree! This is a must!

[ismael]

Totally agree too, but another hugely small important feature missing that is sooooo easy to solve is when handwriting in onyx tool keyboard alternative to automatically include a space after each word and/or include two buttons, one for space and another one for new line!

[ookimi]

Exactly. At the moment the Onyx engineers are clearly looking at their devices only as either a reader (with pdf highlights/squiggles/sidenotes) or a note-taking device. Never together.

Dear Onyx, please imagine a student who needs to work through a thick textbook and take notes that would get extended during lectures, exercises etc. That’s not a sidenote, that’s a separate notebook. At the moment your customers have to carry the $800 reader and physical notebook, and feel like idiots for performing the digital-to-analog copying. Also imagine how that would look for their classmates, who are your potential customers.

Now imagine those students could read their textbooks while switching to note app to take notes, in one click. Heck, maybe they could even share a highlight or a cropped screenshot to the clipboard, to be pasted where they want it in their notes. Wouldn’t all their classmates want such a device?

[sweney]

The lack of this feature is maddening! There’s no reason why Note and NeoReader cannot be shown in the multi-tasking window, in order to switch back and forth. This feels like a perverse sabotaging of the machine’s functions: it’s as if you had a car which you had to turn off the ignition before changing gears.
It makes you wonder if the software engineers even use their own product.